While we are on a rant...
 

I've noticed here in the forum, we've had a lot of threads that start with a problem and few particulars - missing information.

The lack of information when dealing with a problem makes me take pause - does the person asking for help lack the information, or are they assuming we'll all become instantly apprised of their particulars through some magical "A-Ha" moment?

Please, if you need something, ask, but do so in a manner that gives the rest of us some meat - a model/chassis number, a part number, or even the Sams to start with. I gladly chime in when I can help, but all too often my initial response is What is the model number? What is the part number? - information perhaps close at hand, but omitted in the post. If you don't have any additional info, please state that also. I have resources, but help me help you!

</RANT>

Cheers,

My TV don't work, why? :D

Does this have something to do with my leaving out my Trinitron's model number?

Not that I know of but he is making a valid point, it's important to give some information to get results.

I get quite a few inquires through my site where people just say they have a 1950 Philco, or a 1949 RCA TV, what is it worth, well how should I know with no more than that to go on.

Not really - I've had this rant for some time. Doug Harmon pointed it out back in 2007/8, and I expounded on it for the new folks. Perhaps we might need to reintroduce ourselves occasionally, to point out the valuable resources we each bring to the table.

I ran through some of my older posts, and noticed a trend - digging information out of folks. Your post was akin to the problem, just not the trigger. My uncle owned an auto repair place, and he had just as many problems - my 67 Ford stalls out all the time when I give it gas, what is the problem? After playing 20 questions, he'd find out it was a '67 Ford Diesel Tractor, something he didn't work on, but wasted 10 minutes to find out. Details.......
Cheers,

Anyway, I figured I had already specified the year of the set, and assumed there couldn't have been any huge chassis changes in one year, plus I got sidetracked with zeno's post when writing my first response. Normally I do specify model/chassis numbers if the tags haven't been ripped off.

Phone rings, "I have a 25" RCA TV that won't turn on, how much is it going to cost to have it fixed." Me: "I don't have a clue without troubleshooting the set. A dead set can be caused by anything from a blown fuse to major parts failure."

And of course they've been in there tinkering with a screwdriver and a Tinfoil Fuse beforehand making it worse. :thumbsdn:

I've been in the auto parts business for 25 years. Welcome to every third phone call I take.

My fantasy call goes something like this:

Customer: Hi, I saw your website online, and I need a part to fix my son's car. I'm not sure what the part is called....and I'm not sure what kind of car he has.....

Me: No problem, let me connect you with the dial tone.

:D

Remind me of this guy who replaced a BPC TV fuse with a bolt, but he did it for an experiment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djxNgS6mw2I

A: "Must be the picture tube."

The only part most people know the name of, so that must be the problem.

Customer: there's no picture on my tv. Whats wrong?
Me: It's broken.
Customer: What should I do?
Me: Take it to a repair shop.
Customer: Can you fix it?
Me: Yes.
Customer: How much will it cost?
Me: At least $100
Customer: I thought you might fix it for the experience.
Me: Experience I have Money I need. No Money, call someone else.

Honest to God this is a real conversation. Customer was a family member. Surprise, Surprise. He didn't have a good reputation for paying so there was no way I was going to fix his tv.

So, does this mean you can't fix my car OR tv? :D

I've had a few people jump fuses and then act surprised when I confronted them with it. The problem is that they don't want to admit that they blew up their TV.

When I was a young teenager, an older man who seemed nice called me up to give me some stuff. What he gave me consisted of an old RCA tube manual and a sack of loose tubes, most of which turned out to be duds. I thanked him and offered him some money; but, he wouldn't take it.

About a year or so later, he called to ask if I'd fix his 19" Magnavox TV and he wanted to know if I could drop by his house after school to pick it up; which, I agreed to do.

The TV was a basic mid '80's 19" knob tuned Magnavox color TV that used the 19C3 chassis. Actually, the cabinet style looked just like an older GTE-Sylvania from the '70's-early '80's; but, we all know that NAP bought Sylvania. So, no real surprise that the cabinet design was carried over with a different chassis installed.

Anyway, the problem with this set was that big yellow HV cap in the horizontal output circuit that was so common to arc and burn. I replaced the cap, tested the TV, figured up the bill, and called him to tell him the TV was ready. I was looking forward to making him happy because the $35 I was going to charge him was likely $80-$100 less than what a real shop would have charged for the repair and delivery. When I told him what he owed me, he blew a gasket. "What! $35, I didn't know you had gone commercial. You know, I gave you all that stuff and now you are going to charge me $35 to fix my TV! I figured you'd do it for the cost of the part and the experience." By this time, I was PO'ed. Here I was thinking I was doing the guy a favor and then he bitched to hell and back about the price. He told me that he wasn't going to pay the $35 and tried to get me down to a lower price. When I wouldn't do it, he demanded that I unfix the set and he'd come pick it up. I agreed and told him that he would owe me a $10 check-out fee. Of course, he raised hell about that. I finally told him that if he didn't want to pay the $10 check-out fee; then, he could give me the set and we'd be even. He said, "I'm not giving you my TV because all you'll do is fix it and make a bunch of money off of it." After about a month, he finally came and picked up the TV, paid me the $10, and left after I told him to never call me about anything again and if he thought my price was too high; then, he should take his set to a repair shop and see what they charge.

That incident really taught me a lesson about how some people operate and I feel like the set got thrown in the dumpster. Back then, I could have gotten at least $75 for that set had he left it with me; but, I would have been happy with the $35 repair charge. However, I only got $10 out of the deal and the whole thing actually cost me more labor time because I had to take the set back apart and remove the new part that I had installed. Had I really wanted to be a jerk, I would have introduced some other fault into the TV that no one else would have likely caught and had he wanted it fixed, he would have had to bring it back to me. Then again, after all that, I didn't want to see him or his damn TV again.

If that old phart is still alive today, I wonder how he feels about having to replace his high-tech giant picture frame every five years or so. Seriously, I should get one of those broken ones that sometimes pop up free around here, gut it, make an ant farm and post it on Kijiji for a grand. The few bucks spent doing that would be worth it. Oh, and I would be sure to specify "pick-up only" and "first come, first served".

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.

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.

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.

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:smoke:

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

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:smoke:

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!

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.

New rant....
 

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,

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,