It's got me beat ...

Interesting. I didn't realise it was a Pure product. All of the searching I did on "Genus" only seemed to turn up dead sites. When I also saw that Amazon "did not know when they would have more" I assumed that this pointed to a defunct company. There is no mention of Pure on the radio anywhere. Just out of interest, where did you turn up this info. Thanks Lee.

Arfa

pointed

This is how to get into a flavour of Pure Evoke Remove rear screws, internal front pair and remove the silly plastic reflex tube. Desolder the aerial wires, ground wire, speaker wires, mark the connectors before removing. Some screws hiding under flopped over electros and one under the daughter board that has to be released to get to that one.

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

I took a look on the Pure website, where all of their products are listed and shown. Many DAB radios with which I am familiar, but not even a mention of anything of theirs masquerading as "Genus". The word does not appear to be mentioned anywhere on the site, nor if you follow the links back to the semiconductor technology company which is responsible for creating the "Pure" brand as a vehicle for showcasing their semiconductor technology. I have used the search facility on each individual site in the suite, but the word never appears anywhere. Likewise "Type R".

The plot thickens ... I'm not at this point convinced of its "Pure" pedigree ...

To be honest, I'm in business to make money, and I don't need time-wasting nonsense like this. Unless I have a definitive answer from someone who actually *knows* how to get it apart by perhaps Wednesday, then it will be returned to its owner unrepaired, along with a bill for the workshop time spent on it. Apparently, he said to the lad that was booking it in, something along the lines of "Good luck with getting it apart, because I could not see how you get into it ", so with that in mind, I feel justified in not rinsing more valuable bench time, knowing that he's half expecting it to not get repaired anyway. Shame as it's a straightforward problem that it has, but times is 'ard, as they say, and my time is better spent on stuff that's easily fixable.

Arfa

Tell him to keep an eye on ebay, and when another broken unit comes up, buy it and bring them both to you. Then you'll have a sacrificial unit.

Nothing beats billing the customer when the repair person doesn't have the skills to complete the repair...

Are you confident that you could detect countersunk screw heads with small (#0) Phillips slots underneath that plastic covering if the heads were fair flush with the face? If you're comfortable being able to re-glue that back panel, it might be worth exploring what's underneath.

Have you tried counter rotating the side panels?

Fairly, yes, but not totally confident. However, if you have got to start arsing around removing a plastic cloth covering that is glued on, then as far as I am concerned, it is not intended to be servicable in any practical - that is profitable - way, and the owner can take it up with the manufacturers, if he can track them down, that is ...

Arfa

Yes. Not the slightest feel of 'give' in any direction, that I could detect by feel or sight.

Arfa

Hi Smitty. Good to hear from you again. Happy new year.

Yes, good thought. If it goes back unrepaired, I will tell him to do this.

Arfa

Thank you friend. Most helpful. Clearly you have no concept of the practicalities of running a repair business. If you have nothing constructive to add, please refrain from bothering to comment.

Arfa

practicalities of running a repair business. If you have

Hi Arfa. Been a while!

I do agree that the grandparent's comment was not phrased very nicely, and I've always enjoyed our interactions on Usenet, but I have to say, if someone tried that on me, and tried to bill me for providing (from my point of view) no service, I'd leave the afflicted unit with them, and walk off forever.

I understand that you expended time and effort attempting to fix it, but from the customer's point of view, there's been zero benefit. Why would they pay?

I'm NOT having a go at you; I hope you don't think I am. Is this a situation that has occurred before with you? If so, what percentage of the people paid up? I think maybe if you waived the charge, at least they might come back in future, or at least speak kindly of you to their acquaintances. Now it sounds like I'm trying to tell you how to run your business! Sorry; of course I'm not.

Hope you're ok, anyway!

Martin

Dunno. Some of the stuff I fix arrives partially disassembled after the customer has tried to repair it.

Pictures:

That is kinda nice looking and worth repairing.

What we do in the colonies when faced with a disassembly puzzle is find the FCC ID number, and look at the inside photos on the FCC ID web pile. Lots of clues as to where the screws, snaps, hooks, clips, and glue are buried.

Lacking that, I have access to a fiber optic borescope (or something like that), which allows me to look inside a box, if I can find a 3 mm dia hole.

In this case, my guess(tm) is that the handle comes off, followed by the wood side panels. Lacking external fasteners, I would think the wood side panels were held in with blind harpoon fasteners fitted into the aluminum extrusion top and front frame. As a general rule, the cosmetic parts are attached last, which means the wood sides and back are the likely entry method. It's also possible that the wood cosmetic parts are attached with double sided tape or glue.

I don't think the manufactory will be much help as their domain appears to be gone:

If all else fails, methinks finding a similar broken unit, and performing some destructive disassembly may be the only way to see how it's internally fastened.

Hi Fleetie. No offence taken - from you at least ... ! Grandparent ? Genuinely ?

What I did object to was that someone who knows nothing of me, my training, my qualifications, my skill levels or my business, saw fit to make a scathing comment on here about the way this job might ultimately get handled.

It is very common in the domestic repair business, here in the UK at least, for an advance deposit to be taken from the customer. If the repair goes ahead, this amount is credited to the final bill. All of the shops that I take work from, have this policy, and it is carefully explained to each and every customer that books an item in, as well as being posted in written form, behind the counter. I have been in these shops on many occasions when items have been booked in, and I can't remember ever having heard anyone object.

The thing is, there are many reasons these days, why repairs don't go ahead. These include costs of spares which make a repair impractical - DVD lasers for instance - lack of availability of parts, and the low cost of replacement of the whole unit by something from the local supermarket or Argos barn. Sometimes, even a lack of service information is enough to prevent a practical repair.

So, on a bad week, maybe 20% of jobs might not be completed for one reason or another. Should I just forfeit a day's earnings because of things out of my control ? Customers even think that they are doing you a favour by letting you keep their junk "for spares". I don't want endless pieces of worthless rubbish stacking up in my workshop. If the repair doesn't go ahead for whatever reason, either they take it back, or if they leave it with me, it's going to be disposed of, which nowadays, costs money. You can't just drop it off at the local tip for free any more, and the money is not going to come out of my pocket, on top of getting nothing for the time that has been spent evaluating the repair in the first place.

Of course, it is not a totally black and white situation. If a repair is not completed because I believe that in some way, my ability to fix it is lacking - and no matter who might tell you otherwise, it does sometimes happen, and no matter how good you are at practical component level fault-finding and repair, the odd one will never-the-less defeat you - then I *will* waive my charge on it, and the shop that took it in will often refund theirs as well. I and they, have not managed to continue in business for 35 years, without understanding the principles of customer goodwill, but by the same token, we also haven't managed to stay in business that long, by being impractical in our billing regime.

So, where I have made every practical effort, including bench time, telephone calls and internet time, to facilitate a fix on a piece of equipment, but been defeated not by a lack of ability, but by the manufacturer, due to their pricing or service assistance policies, or even by them hiding away behind a name that doesn't seem to exist anywhere other than on the front of their kit, as in this case, I will continue with my current charging policy. My cable internet provider does not give me service for free, neither does my phone company give me theirs. I don't give mine for free either.

Just as a slight aside. A year or two back, I had a problem with my car. It went into the garage four times, and each time it came back with a bill for parts and labour, and each time, the problem persisted. I queried why I should be expected to pay for parts that had been fitted, which had not cured the problem. I was told that most faults on engines these days were diagnosed by reference to the fault codes held in the EMU, and that once a part that was pointed to in this way had been ordered and fitted, it could not be taken back off again and returned, as the seal on the box had been broken. I put it to them that if the diagnostics or the mechanic's interpretation of them was wrong, then that wasn't my problem, and the part should go on their shelf at their cost, for next time. I was told that it was "just company policy mate", and was "in common with the way that most garages work."

Now if I ordered a laser in for an item, and it didn't cure the fault, I would see that as my fault as I had misdiagnosed the problem, and I would put the owner's original back in. So there you have it. Am I doing anything worse than them ? If anybody thinks so, then I actually don't really care.

And to Pete D. I'm sorry if my response to your comment offended but, normally placid guy that I am, I do tend to get a bit spiky when someone who knows nothing about me, calls my skills, integrity and business acumen, into question. d;~}

Arfa

That is about where I have arrived at now Jeff. This week, I will spend a little more time on it just for my own interest, but if it is not giving up its secrets in fairly short order, then the job will get knocked on the head once and for all.

Arfa

The issue is a question of what constitutes ethical treatment of the customer.

Problems occur when the shop charges an hourly rate and runs into a problem that doesn't quickly yield. I can fully understand -- and completely sympathize with -- an experienced service tech who can't figure out how to open a radio with no detectable closures, and a hard-to-find service manual, even after an hour's work. * But I'm not going to pay an hour's labor for the time it took to get it open, whether or not he successfully repaired the radio.

I don't expect a service technician to be ominiscient. Neither do I expect to pay for his training. When an item goes back repeatedly for the same problem, the service shop should make some sort of accomodation. In the case of the incompetent repair of your car, the shop should not have been charged for labor after the second attempt. "Just company policy" or "that's the way most garages work" are not valid excuses.

One of the most-popular Public Radio shows in the US is "Car Talk" with Tom and Ray Magliazzi, MIT grads who run a service shop. They usually know what they're talking about, but don't claim to know absolutely everything ** (though sometimes you think they do). Anyhow, last weekend a woman told about how her brakes would gradually seize -- of their own accord! -- until the car was undriveable. The shop made two or three attempts -- for which she was charged parts and labor -- but could not fix the car. Tom & Ray suggested that the problem was with the power-braking assist pump, which will probably turn out to be correct. In this particular case, the shop appears to have been grossly incompetent.

In the US, service shops -- of which there is a declining number -- usually charge a flat fee (which varies among device types, depending on their complexity and ease of servicing) to spread out the costs among the easy- and hard-to-repair units. The customer knows ahead of time what the charge will be, and can make a rational decision about the repair. As long as the item is correctly repaired, the customer shouldn't have anything much to complain about.

Perhaps you should consider switching to a flat-rate system, which would largely eliminate the problem of deciding what to charge for a difficult repair. You would probably make more money and have fewer unhappy customers. And I'll bet you'll work more efficiently and with less mental frustration.

• I've had "simple" problems that I just couldn't figure out. One was a Sony Walkman with a built-in mono speaker that would not switch to stereo when headphones were plugged in. Despite having the official sercvice manual, two hours of aggravating analysis, spread over several days, refused to unearth the problem, and I tossed it.

** There's a show segment called "Stump the Chumps" (the reference is to "Stump the Band"), in which someone they'd given advice to returns to reveal whether it was correct. It usually was -- but not always.

I kinda like the hot melt glue theory. Place the unit in an oven and see if the sides fall off. There are a few products assembled this way (i.e. Palm V). In the same oven, place a pair of aluminum plates that are hot melt glued together. When the plates come apart, try pulling on various parts of the radio. It usually doesn't take much heat, so don't worry about melting the plastic. The contact paper on the back plate might try to peel, but that can be reattached before it cools. Good luck.

google brings up some other info on them:-

Peterden House, 1A Leighton Road London W13 9EL, UNITED KINGDOM

Copyright Genius Consultancy & Marketing Ltd 2005

Only about 30 years of service experience. Pet pieve: shops that charge the customer for their lack of skills...

If the customer said they'd pay for an honest try, then bill them. If not, charging them is inappropriate no matter what you think. It is not the customer's fault or problem that you can't get the radio apart.