Just wondering if there are any small repair shops anymore. I am running a small shop, mostly getting small low dollar repairs. I post a $20 minimum charge but give away a lot of free estimates.
What is a good place to order picture tubes online? I know this is not cost effective, but the customer wants an estimate . . . so . .. Thanks. Scott
You cannot afford to give away estimates except to maybe your best customers on occasion. Too many people buy garage sale junk and expect you to give away your time. NO WAY. I don't look at anything for a carry in consumer electronics piece without a deposit.
The estimate for a Pix tube is normally NWF.
Bob
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Couldn't agree more. Free estimates are the scourge of out business, and lead to owners undervaluing our time and their equipment - the stuff that's worth repairing that is.
How many autoshops could you take your car to, and have them do a free estimate ? Zip, zero, zilch, nada. That's how many. Tell your customers that you don't do free estimates, otherwise your children will starve, and your landlord will kick you out of your shop, then they'll have nowhere to come and see your happy little face. Tell them instead that you'll do them a proper quote for $15 or whatever covers a half hour of your time, and if they go ahead and accept it, you'll credit the amount off the final bill. The ones who walk away are not worth dealing with in the first place.
Do not kill our trade by irresponsible business practices ...
Arfa
Al l of them.
I'm in Toronto, and for the last 15 years, the number of established electronic repair shops has been dwindling rapidly. Toronto is a very multicultural city and in the last 10 years, a lot of small, one/two person shops have been opened by middle eastern and Asian people and they seem to be prospering!
I have one about a half Km from me that has been around for about ten years and is owned by a Chinese fellow from Hong Kong. He has a great shop and must have about 2,000 sq ft of space, most of which is a wharehouse area in behind full of old electronics. His sucess is because he charges for estimates, but deducts from the bill if repairs are done, and he cannibalizes from the stuff in his warehouse. His signage clearly states that parts replaced may be used and his customers have no problem with that. He gets his 'old stock' from pieces brought in for estimates and left by customers as not worth either repairing or at times, even doing an estimate.
Also, he will repair just about anything as long as it is electronic! I refer people to this shop regularly and people are very happy with his work and prices!
I'm a retired computer sciences teacher from a local college and this guy is one of the few that will replace caps on a motherboard.
Regards Lee in Toronto
Bob Urz wrote:
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Thats the way I operate, exploration fee upfront, taken into final account, unless its a straight , non diagnosis, repair job, eg replacing a mains switch, front panel bulb etc. Anything that requires diagnosis is a different matter, its rarely the repair that's the difficult bit , its the diagnosis, and however experienced you are unless you only deal with one make and model then its the diagnosis that takes the time. Then there is the final problem , non availability of a replacement part.
-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
Well thanks guys -all good advice. Here in our town there are no repair shops, only one within 50 miles. Well, two now. I post a sign for a deposit so the customer feels they are getting a bargain by not having to pay it up front. When/if I get busy I may enforce that more. But in a city where 85% of the kids in the school are on free or reduced lunch program, there's not a lot of extra money.
A lot of times people will give you the item if its NWF, but then I have to pay a disposal fee, which is a double-loss - free estimate and have to pay to get rid of it. Another reason to charge a deposit. Thanks guys. Scott
OK. I guess that's a bad example then, for US residents. It's certainly not the case in Europe. If I took my car into a repair shop with an engine rattle, and when I called back later in the day, they told me that they'd spent two hours stripping the cam cover to find a worn out tensioner, and I then told them " thanks very much, but that's too expensive. Please put it back together, and I'll just take it away and live with it ", they'd laugh at me, and refuse to even pick up a spanner again on it, until I agreed to pay for the time spent. There are no laws governing such things here.
Arfa
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