While we are on a rant...

[Countryford]

Just recently I had an expierence about dealing with "friends". It was an older lady and her daughter. I worked with the one for a while and found out that we lived in the same trailer park at the time.That was about 8 years ago. In that time, they moved several times and as a good friend I helped them load and unload the truck. The gal gave me a desk and did give me some money for helping. One place they were renting had some electrical issues, and I ended up getting a call to help them out late one evening when the power went out. The wiring for the whole place needed a lot of work, but I fixed it so they would have power that night, and went back in the daytime and did some extra work. Never asked for any money. We would have them over for dinner and they would have us over for dinner at times as well.
Well a couple months ago we went over to their house for supper. While we were there the daughter had this stereo from the 90's, the type that has the radio, phonograph, and cassette player all in one. Anyways the cassette player wasn't working, and she wanted to know if I would fix it. I looked at it while I was there and it appeared it just needed new belts. She gave me the manual to use as a refrence to order the parts. Couple days later I found a place online that had the belts for about $10. Just got done ordering them when she called up asking about it. I told her it would be $30 for the parts and labor(mind you I was also going to drive to her house to repair it which is about 25 miles from me). She then started saying, how I owed them for that desk she "gave" me(I had gotten rid of it about a year prior) and owed her for some other thing(I can't remember what). I hung up on her. She called back later and wanted me to return the manual to her. I told her if she wanted it she could drive to me and pick it up. She ended up mailing me a prepaid envelope to mail it back to her.

[Bill R]

I repaired a set for a customer once that required a new flyback. I always replaced the HO, damper, regulator, and HV rect. tube when I replaced the flyback on those sets just to ensure that the flyback would not be damaged. I also provided a warrantee on the repair work. I had given the customer an estimate, which was ok'd. When I loaded the set up in the truck to deliver it, I called the customer and gave them the final total. They didn't want to pay that much. They raised a big stink about it. I told them I would pull the new tubes out, but I would not guarantee the repair at all. They didn't like that, they wanted me to take less money. I told them it is like this, your tv is loaded in my truck ready to deliver to you. You have 3 options here: either pay the full bill, or I take the tubes and you get no gurantee and you pay the lower price, or I will sell the set for the repairs to someone else. I said it made me no difference. The customer said you cant do that. I said just hide and watch me. Long story short, they paid the full bill and I delivered the set. They really were pleased with the picture, and I didn't have any warrantee call backs. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground. It may have cost me a customer (not), but sometimes it is just not worth dealing with some people.

[radiotvnut]

Lesson learned here is that many people don't just give you things out of the goodness of their heart and because they want to help you. They do it waiting for the perfect opportunity to hold that over the person's head that received the "gift". If I give you something or help you out with something, it's because I want to do it and not because I'm expecting anything in return for it.

[zeno]

OK I will P&M a little. I would like to see when known:
make
model
chassis
year & size
CLEAR chassis photo
The picture is great to relate to sets you dont remember by the
chassis ## etc.
Also nice to know is experience level. Ive given simple fixes
like a common PC con & heard back "dont know how to do
anything, junking the set" !
Also felt like I had talked down to someone with as many
years at the bench I have ( almost 40 yrs) til I got to know
everyone.

73 Zeno

[Jon A.]

My camera is still out of service. Need good batteries.

[zeno]

Customers I have a few stories.
When I started we had an old goat working 9-noon. Just most B&W's,
took him a week to do a FBT on a G-13 Admiral.
He kept a stash of vodka in the head & had a shine on by noon.
Lady comes in running an errand for hubby.
Lady "I would like a 12 by 7"
Ralph " in feet or inches ?"
Lady " I will ask him tonight & be back tomorrow"
She left.......

BMW pulls up & a dude comes in looking real a-hole.
Rips his shades off & barks
dude "give me a 6JA5"
I get it & write it up.
me " thats $7.35"
dude "radio shack has it for $4 !" ( ANGRY!!!)
me "no they dont have it for $4, thats why youre here"
He left real pissed without the tube.

More later

73 Zeno

[Zenith26kc20]

It's hard to think of some of the wilder ones but one really stands out. A "cowboy" brought a 15 inch magnavox in and said, "all I want you to do is change the flyback. That's it". I didn't own the shop at he time so he and the shop owner agreed on a price and he left the TV. I checked the set and it was a broken horizontal osc coil. The owner said "do what he wants and only that!"
Well, when he came to get the set he wanted to see it play. The owner said "it has a new flyback, that's all we did per your instructions". I thought he was going to take a swing at the shop owner. He then said, is it going to cost much more to fix it?
He had it fully repaired this time. When he came to get it, the owner of the shop handed him his old flyback and said, "here is your spare flyback". It's still good.
He was not a happy camper.....
Gotta love it!

[radiotvnut]

Back in the mid '90's, a woman came over here with the four tubes out of a Zenith four tube hybrid color console and said, "I need all 4 of these." I told her that it was unusual for all 4 tubes to be bad and I asked why she needed all 4 of them. She said, "because there's a fire in all 4 of them and I know if I replace them, my TV will work again." I explained to her that what she was seeing was the normal glow of the tubes and that they were likely not bad. I tried to get her to bring me the TV for examination; but, she wasn't interested. She insisted on buying new tubes, until I told her what the new tubes would cost (by that time, sweep tubes were rather expensive). Once I gave her a price, she left with her old tubes and I don't know what happened after that.

[Findm-Keepm]

Thread Hijack! What started out as a way to speed up the response folks get here on the forum has migrated into customer complaints. Plenty of those threads already.

Again, if you need something, please provide any available particulars to help us help you.

</RANT>

Cheers,

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by zeno

Also felt like I had talked down to someone with as many
years at the bench I have ( almost 40 yrs) til I got to know
everyone.

73 Zeno

I find it helpful to use the search function to see if the person has posted an introduction. I then read their interests and experience level. Some are over on AK for years, only to "appear" new here.
Using the search is the easiest way to avoid stepping on toes or bruising egos. I like the folks that post their level of experience in their signature lines (KX250rider, etc).

Of course, we do have our folks that need no introduction (e.g. phil nelson - If anyone has ever researched a project, radio restoration, or tv restoration, chances are they've stumbled upon his site)

Cheers,