Not paying attention

[Enzo]

Oh poop. Guy drove in from out of town, can I fix his little amp that night? Here is proof of purchase we discussed on phone. Warranty period in effect. Sure, I'll look at it. Fender Rumble 75 with some dumb problem. Go have a burger and come back in an hour...

Took care of whatever it needed, simple enough. Guy comes back, tickled pink he didn;t have to make two trips. Bye, have a nice day, drive careful...


COmpletely forgot that the Rumble amps are on the do not fix list.

Oh well, Fender gets a free one, and I get a happy customer. I guess that's better than a poke in the nose.

[Jazz P Bass]

Oops.
Did he bring you a burger & fries?

[52 Bill]

As soon as I read "Rumble" I thought that you were going to say that you had to tell him that it had to be returned to Fender and that he wasted the trip and then he punched you in the nose.

I did the same thing a while back on an FM212. The output inductor had broken loose from the board, simple fix. I just assumed that any amp that big was still repairable. Owner of the shop talked to Fender, he wasn't so much looking for reimbursement just wanted to know policy. Fender made us return and replace the amp anyway. Customer was a bit peeved to have to wait. Fender must get one heck of a great deal on shipping.

[big_teee]

Why would Fender have a do not fix list?
If they have warranty repair facilities, then why would they not let you fix them?
T

[jrfrond]

Simply because the cost to repair would meet or exceed the cost of a replacement unit. Fender has a BIG DNR list, and they just updated it. We usually keep the amps, fix them, scrape off the serial numbers and give them to friends or take 'em home. In our case, we stockpiled enough Champion 600's so that I could perfect a mod kit that we sell like crazy.

Yeah Doug, it sucks when one slips by the goalie. You should at least try e-mailing Don at Fender when that happens to see if he'll do a one-time warranty coverage for a 1/2hr.

[madkatb]

Super Champ XD. The local music store can only exchange tubes to see if that's the problem. So the "dead" one they had was a freebie for me while the amp owner got a new one free under warranty. I took it home, found out that one of the 6V6's had shorted out internally, burning out one of the power resistors. (So it was actually a tube problem.) Putting new tubes in it wouldn't help as the resistor burnt open, no power to tubes, no output. The amp cost me less than a buck for the resistor, a 6V6 tube and about 20 minutes of my time. WIN! It now resides with the son of some family friends as his practice amp (with strict instructions not to sell it or take it to a Fender dealer).

[Enzo]

Like John said, it is cheaper to exchange the unit than to pay me to fix it. Fender is certainly not alone in this. Lots of little Marshall amps with the same policy and other brands as well.

Mass produced imported amps cost a lot less than most people think when it comes to making them. If they had to pay me $50 to fix the amp, it doesn;t stop there. Every amp has a parts list and often many unique parts. If repairs were to be suported, then Fender would have to keep inventory of all those parts. And ordering all those parts would require more people taking and filling orders. The cost of warranty repairs to Fender is a lot more than that $50. WHy would they want to spend all that for an amp they can replace for $20?


I was well aware the Rumble line is on the list, as well as the Frontman and FM series and the others. I just neglected to think about it. I was focused on helping the customer.

[ken]

Sometimes being customer orientated can be hard...

I was a Fender independent authorized repair center when the 'Do Not Repair' list first came out.

I used to get a lot of grief because some kid would buy a Frontman at a music store, the amp would break, and the kid would come into my shop with the amp.

I would tell the kid that I didn't sell amps, and under the warranty he had to take the amp back to the store he bought it from for a replacement.

Nine times out of ten I would get a nasty phone call from the music store involved because they just didn't want to deal with the problem themselves.

Eventually, I took a copy of the DNC list, blew it up six times normal size at Kinko's, and hung it on the wall in a nice poster frame with the following statement...

If you own one of the amps on this list, I'm sorry, but I or anyone else are not authorized to service your amplifier under warranty.
If you have an issue with your amp, you must return the amp to the place you bought it from for a replacement.

I can't count how many people were angry because of Fender's warranty. I know it isn't cost effective to fix lots of these little amps, but I think there might have been some PR damage because of it.

ken

[Enzo]

As a service center though, I had to handle th exchange for people who mail ordered amps. I verify it had a problem other than user error, call Fender for the swap. They send me a new amp for the customer, and I return the old one in the same box, Fender providing a call tag or shipping label. I get paid a half hour for that. If nothing else, I get to meet a new customer, and we can have a nice discussion while handling things. If I can;t make them aware I have nothing to do with the policy, I'm slipping. And if a owner somewher outstate ships the amp to me, and believe me, I get amps showing up unannounced via UPS all the time, Fender doesn;t make me ship it back to them telling them to send it elsewhere.

[Steve A.]

When I was an HVAC service manager some of the companies we serviced under warranty would have us "scrap" the old part rather than ship it back to them. "Scrapping" meant holding on to the item for 60 days in case the regional rep wanted to come by and actually see it.

So what is Fender's official policy on the defective amps on the DNR list? Is it okay with them that you keep the amp and repair it? I could see having fun with the chassis and cabinet if the amp itself could not be repaired...

Steve Ahola

P.S. And I always thought that "DNR" meant "Do Not Resuscitate"...

[Enzo]

Department of Natural Resources around here.

Without digging out the document, we are supposed to destroy the old unit. They suggest we save anything we might want like knobs or speakers. In reality, I don;t think they care, they just don;t want us selling them. I know they wouldn;t care if you wanted to build something in the chassis, just take the Fender logo off it.

[ken]

As a service center though, I had to handle the exchange for people who mail ordered amps. I verify it had a problem other than user error, call Fender for the swap. They send me a new amp for the customer, and I return the old one in the same box, Fender providing a call tag or shipping label. I get paid a half hour for that. If nothing else, I get to meet a new customer, and we can have a nice discussion while handling things. If I can;t make them aware I have nothing to do with the policy, I'm slipping. And if a owner somewher outstate ships the amp to me, and believe me, I get amps showing up unannounced via UPS all the time, Fender doesn't make me ship it back to them telling them to send it elsewhere.

I used to do this for customers who bought on the web all the time... it did make for fun conversations. Mostly local people wanted the repair ***'NOW'*** and didn't want to wait for a new amp.

Without digging out the document, we are supposed to destroy the old unit. They suggest we save anything we might want like knobs or speakers. In reality, I don;t think they care, they just don;t want us selling them. I know they wouldn;t care if you wanted to build something in the chassis, just take the Fender logo off it.

One of the things I miss about my old store, practice amps for my kid. This reminds me... anyone know what street price would be for a dead Blues Jr? Just need a chassis and cabinet. I've got a really hot little amp design here.

[Ronsonic]

The first time I saw an FM212R I just fixed it and Fender was good enough to pay for it. Since then we've followed the rules. Mostly, I have no trouble from customers on this. I get to talk amps and introduce the shop and Fender pays enough to cover the time.

[Enzo]

Which brings up a point. it is the little practice amps they want us to throw away. LArger amps like the FM212R, they send a call tag and we return the dud to Fender.

[km6xz]

Enzo, congratulations, you just went over 15,000 posts...;>)