Termyn8or
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Joined: 11/12/2005
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Interesting, slightly. You do have to trust anyone even using your computer, as you must trust any other professional. But can you ? How do you know ?
What's more, I distrust the one mentioned that fixed it for free in the article, he got a phone call in advance I bet. No shop works for free. To simply disassemble a laptop warrants about a fifty dollar charge. Some more. Reseating the RAM should've been free, but on top of it al there should be a checkout charge, perhaps twenty bucks. Two hundred and thirty pounds is frikken outrageous and if that is what they charge, I would not trust them.
In my neck of the woods they ran a similar sting on VCR repair shops, back when such entities existed. They took in a Panasonic built model and all they did was to slip off the drive belt from the capstan motor to the reel drive assy. They only attacked shops that would give an immediate estimate, with results that varied widely.
One shop fixed it for free, not even taking the bottom cover completely off. That was the that got the phone call, but that is how the media works here. He was obviously affiliated with those media people somehow, and I can tell you from personal experience because I used to work on the things.
Now let me tell you, this guy did it with the VCR standing on it's side, no real tech would ever do that. It is easier to lay it down, remove the whole cover and see everything. What's more, belts do not just fall off of their pullies for no reason.
One shop quoted $120, but that was for what they consider a full refurb, which replaces all the rubber parts as they are the same age, a complete inspection and analysis of how it handles the tape. At the very least takeup tension and supply reel holdback are checked with a stick, or even a finger. This is to see if the machine is overstretching the tape.
One shop quoted a more reasonable sum, to replace the takeup clutch. The model they showed IS actually known for this problem. The glue oozes out from the clutch pad and as a result it puts too much torque on the takeup reel. This could cause the belt to come off of the pulley. In that case if I couldn't reproduce the problem I would recommend that as well as the end sensors. Those detect the end of the tape and stop the motor promptly to avoid stretching it.
What I would have done would blow their mind. As the screws go into plastic I would check to see if any of the holes had more than one lead, which would indicate that the unit had been apart. I would ask "Have you had to have this done before ?". The fact still remains that belts do not simply fall off of their pulleies for no reason. If I have no idea to suspect sabotage, what else should I do ?
I can't recreate the problem on the bench. The takeup clutch can be bound up by glue and sometimes will break loose and appear to work properly. The end sensors have been known to be intermittent. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, so you replace them.
The sting in the article was much more involved and in some cases involved the cooperation of the company, and caught employees. Now who do you trust ? Someone who cooperated or someone who didn't ?
All in all I agree with you, this is a problem. You just don't know who to trust. Years ago you could trust big companies, but no more. And there is the other side of the coin. There are alot of ripoffs in many fields and in the bigscreen TV field it is hard to juggle and balance all this. In the last few months I have been getting "recalls", but they are not OUR recalls. A very unsavory shop in the area simply changed their name and refuses to even talk about any warranty work. My shop tells me ______ was replaced a week ago, and I ask why it is here then ? That is when I found out.
I guess they took a lesson from big business, In the TV sales end of it, here they sell privately underwritten extended warranties. When the claims start (inevitably) coming in they simply go out of business and open up under another name. Of course no matter what, now we have a selling point. Where I work has been in business at the same location under the same name for 31 years. We just don't play that game.
And cars - I'll try to be short here. A buddy of mine had to take his car in, he overheard a couple of the mechanics laughing becuse they had taken the freon of the AC in a customer's car. They found it amusing that they were fairly certain that come spring they would sell the customer pretty much their own freon back. Patting each other on the back so to speak.
This is the world in which we live.
T
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I knew...why not to give my laptop into repair... - 
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RE: I knew...why not to give my laptop into repair... - 
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