Is there any hope for the repair industry?

I seem to hear and see a lot of comments along these lines these days. I have been in this business man and boy for over 30 years, and have seen this sort of doom gloom and despondency on many occasions. For the last 15 years, I have run my own little repair business, and have, on the whole done very well out of it, and continue to do so. I currently have as much work as I either want, or can cope with.

The key is to have a positive attitude, and diversify when times are hard. If you are a properly qualified electronics engineer, you should be able to turn your hand to virtually any piece of electronics that comes across your bench for repair. There are endless opportunities for engineers who know what they're doing. Stop thinking TV / VCR / HiFi. Start thinking outside the box. Car audio, boiler control boards, washing machine control boards, engine management systems, vending machine controllers, group equipment, disco equipment, disco lighting equipment - the list is endless. Get some cards printed, get off your arse, and go find the work !!

It will be picking up again soon, anyway, as the western world slides into the next recession. People will start to have their tellies and videos repaired again, rather than buying new.

Go to bed tonight, have a good sleep, and get up again in the morning ready to go. If you still feel that there is no future to the world, and even if there is, that there's no place in it for you, then by all means, sell your remotes on e-Bay, slope off up the corner, and pack it all in for good. I'm sure you'll be happier working for someone else ...

Arfa

Have a sharp microwave that just bit the dust - magnetron apparently - cost of a sharp replacement on line was $112 - price of a new microwave was 150. Found a no name replacement for $55. Still dont' think I will go that route.

Now think about this - with the price of the parts so darn high and the new unit prices so low - how are you going to squeeze a living out of that?

Many people including myself don't trust repair places - been ripped off too many times. When I lived in Mpls, a local tv station did an expose of appliance rip off's - they set up a woman's kitchen with hidden cameras - had an tech make a microwave not work - easy fix - fuse I think - guy comes to look at the microwave - house frau disappears - he takes his screwdriver and breaks the interlock and then urinates in the sink. Could not believe it - the local station ran it

- ## out his johnson - just was he was zipping up - in walks one of the local news anchors with a camera crew - "Why did you urinate in Mrs X's sink"? His response - guess you caught me.

The name of the place was Big John's - happened to be riding bikes past the place a few weeks later and asked if they charged extra for P****** in sinks.

Find something else to do - got any big hospitals around - their Bio Med guys always have a bizillion things to repair outside their shop doors - don't know if it is even possible but that is a growth market.

You may be right, but it just seems pointless to keep tons of inventory sitting around for years, with the hope that someday it will be useful again. If things haven't turned around by spring, I'll be forced to scrap most of my stuff (CRT's, fixable sets, etc) whether I want to or not. Hardened rubber parts, dried-up electrolytics, and moisture-induced corrosion are just some of the results of long-term storage. Someone else pointed out the high price of replacement parts. It almost seems as if parts distributors are jacking up the prices, as a way to compensate for falling sales. Where's the logic in that? Does anyone actually pay $100+ for the parts to fix a $75 TV?

Sounds like you need to be in another business.

Those who are successful learn to adapt, work on things that pay, find a niche that is profitable, and/or learn how to manage a business. The repair business is tough these days and changing, like the rest of the world. If you cannot figure it out it makes more room for those who can. You can bet they are not counting on making a living repairing small ticket items that are more economical to replace. You can also bet that they run lean on inventory and don't end up with a lot of parts that they have to dump.

There is an alternative. The government could subsidize us like they do farmers who have excess production capacity for the market. That is pretty much what you are suggesting, isn't it?

Leonard

I

anything

new

hate

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work

love

I've just repaired someone's 40 yearold heirloom. A music centre owned by his deceased father. Personally I will look at and repair the majority of most things except TVs and PCs, TVs because I respect my back too much and I prefer component level repair which is almost unheard of with PCs. I find one area of increase is musucians' electronic kit repair. The older the better for me as less custom ICs, firmware etc.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Repairing guitar amps is fun but the customers are sometimes like audiophiles (PITA).

Well...there is a difference in distortion characteristics between solid state and tubes, and distortion is desirable for many guitar players, and tube distortion in general is more agreeable to the ear.

Tom

Only in some areas . I found out some makers are not stockng parts for over 2 years . A couple examples are plasma tv sets with badly burned main power boards , bad enough to not be able to fix it . I am sure more products will go this way too . Take new small camcorders . These are very hard to work on unless you are set up for it .. then digital cameras ..forget it . These type things take up to much time to simpy get apart .

A fairly large to medium town with only 1 repair shop can do ok . I see only newer electronics where i work and almost everythng is getting hard to fix these days .

He's dead Jim!

No mircle is bringing it back to life.

With no guarentee a product will even work in 2 to 5 years why would anyone fix it.

It used to be a tech would last 10 to 20 years. Now your lucky if you get 1 to 3 years out of a consumer electronic technology.

Records, Beta, VHS, 8-track, even compact cassettes. All lasted for long enough without playability changes to make it worthwhile to repair.

I now own 4 DVD players. Not because I need or want 4. All of them work fine. The only reason I have that many is because DVD's I record will not play on two of them. The only reason I keep the other two is because they at least still play pre-recorded DVD's. But, all of them will become junk once HDTV takes over. So why fix any of them. Since all my DVD's will soon take their place in storage with the records,

8-tracks, beta tapes, and VHS tapes in the basement. I should add compact cassettes to that list as well but one of older cars still has a cassette player. The other two have CD players and Sirius.

My boat on the other hand does two things that no amount of new tech will change. It's a

1973 model and it still floats and pulls waterskiers. So repair is worth it since it will still provide the basic function I orginally bought it for.

The same cannot be said for my turntable. No matter what I do it will never play CD's.

mwm

I think the key is to find "high value" meaning "high replacement cost" items.

That used to be radios. Then it was TV's. PC's for a short time. Hospitals always spend way more for their new equipment than it is worth.

Look around you. What costs the most?

I agree totally - found this in another NG:

--
---- Ville Aakko - tel. +358503376817

That must be it then ...

I thought that my little repair business was doing all right, but from what everyone here has said, it can't have been. So today, I phoned all of the companies that supply me with repairs, and told them that I won't need their stinking work any more, because it doesn't pay me enough money, and even if they do send me something that's in manufacturer's warranty, I don't want to fix it, on principle, because it will be obsolete junk for the poor owner in

12 months anyway, and I can't have it on my conscience. I'm getting the hang now of what a waste of time my repair life is. Took me 2 hours to phone all those people.

Tomorrow, I shall tell my wife and kids, and then probably commit suicide. Thank you, THANK YOU everyone in the group, for showing me, and probably all the others I know who thought they were doing ok in the electronics repair business, how stupidly wrong we were ...

Arfa

"Tom MacIntyre" bravely wrote to "All" (22 Sep 05 21:19:14) --- on the heady topic of "Re: Is there any hope for the repair industry?"

TM> From: Tom MacIntyre TM> Xref: core-easynews sci.electronics.repair:342850

TM> >Repairing guitar amps is fun but the customers are sometimes like >audiophiles (PITA).

TM> Well...there is a difference in distortion characteristics between TM> solid state and tubes, and distortion is desirable for many guitar TM> players, and tube distortion in general is more agreeable to the ear.

Tom,

It's not only agreeable but "desirable!" However, it must be the right type of distortion and tubes have always had that. Until transistors came along there was no such thing as shredder metal because tubes can't be made to sound like a Little Big Muff.

A*s*i*m*o*v

... Just a little force field zap.

That seems a bit extreme. I was thinking more along the lines of retraining. In something like repairing industrial electronics.

Environmental testing labs are a good one. Companies paying 130,000 + for a piece of test equipment making them a gross of 20,000 or more a month don't bat a eye at spending a few grand to repair it. Especially, if you can do it in 24 hours or less. It is a very pleasant change from a customer who hesitates at spending 100 on the 6 year old tv.

mwm