Customer calls

[Enzo]

So I recently repaired a guy's old Tiesco head. Nothing special about the fixes, new caps and resistors and fix some miswired stuff, whatever. I was impressed that the amp sounded pretty cool. Guy picked it up a couple days ago.

Tonight I get the call, "Hi, this is Stretch, and you know that amp you just fixed?..." And instantly I am thinking oh crap, it doesn't work... "Well I just wanted to call you and tell you it is working great and sounds terrific."

Well, knock me down with a feather. I like that call, even if it got my adrenaline going at first.

[big_teee]

So I recently repaired a guy's old Tiesco head. Nothing special about the fixes, new caps and resistors and fix some miswired stuff, whatever. I was impressed that the amp sounded pretty cool. Guy picked it up a couple days ago.

Tonight I get the call, "Hi, this is Stretch, and you know that amp you just fixed?..." And instantly I am thinking oh crap, it doesn't work... "Well I just wanted to call you and tell you it is working great and sounds terrific."

Well, knock me down with a feather. I like that call, even if it got my adrenaline going at first.

Cool Enzo!
I do that in reverse.
I have a few gigging musicians that play my Pickups in all their guitars.
I always call the next week after the weekend gig to see if everything worked ok, and if the new pickup was what the Doctor ordered?
So far they keep coming back.

[Enzo]

And then there are other calls.

EVer get someone just going down the phone book?

I just got a call from a nice old lady who told me someone had referred her, she had a turntable that was part of a living room end table and... I did my best to help her and suggested she drop by with it for a better look. OK she says. We end the call, and within a minute, the phone rings, and the same voice starts explaining that she was referred to me by a local music store and she had a turntable that was part of a living room end table and... So I told her I thought I could saave her some time. Oh? Yes, I am the guy you just talked too a minute ago. Oh, you are
Enzo?

[big_teee]

And then there are other calls.

EVer get someone just going down the phone book?

I just got a call from a nice old lady who told me someone had referred her, she had a turntable that was part of a living room end table and... I did my best to help her and suggested she drop by with it for a better look. OK she says. We end the call, and within a minute, the phone rings, and the same voice starts explaining that she was referred to me by a local music store and she had a turntable that was part of a living room end table and... So I told her I thought I could saave her some time. Oh? Yes, I am the guy you just talked too a minute ago. Oh, you are
Enzo?

She was lonesome, and you seemed like a nice man to talk to, Maybe.
I get those calls when You answer the phone they hang up.
I would like to be able to reach through the phone, for those calls.
T

[Enzo]

And the daily string of robo-calls. "Press 1 to update your free listing..." At that point I have already hung up the phone.

[The Dude]

TRUE STORY: Got a call one day from a woman who asked, "Do you fix mixers?". Of course I told her that I did (since it's a pro audio shop) and I'd be happy to take a look. About an hour later this sweet older lady arrives with a 2 speed West Bend mixer................................................... ........I replaced the defective power cord on it and sent her on her way happy as a clam.

[plec.22]

we get odd calls like..my friends says it's just a fuse that's blown so I've taken it apart so can you tell me what to do? yes, bring it in so a skilled tech can put it right for you..followed by the phone going dead!

[Mick Bailey]

"Been given your number - do you fix guitar amps"
Yes, that's right. What is it?
"A Renault truck data acquisition module"
Why did you ring me?
"'Cause I play guitar"

I get strange stuff like that all the time (did manage to fix that one).

The nicest comment though;

"When I was a kid I used to have a sound in my head - how I wanted my guitar to sound. I've spent nearly 40 years trying to get that sound. I plugged in last night and was welling up with tears. You got the sound that's been in my head all those years"

It's not all bad.

[Rhodesplyr]

I get people calling about Grandma's Kimball/Baldwin/Thomas Organ that they'd like to get fixed. As soon as I hear that, I know that the conversation is never going to get past the "What do you think it would cost to get it working?" question.

More than it's worth...

[Enzo]

But the wood looks like new!!!

OR

But that's more than I paid for it... in 1962.

OR

And could you have it done by day after tomorrow? We're having a family reunion and...

[km6xz]

There is a tendency for small shops to take in anything for cash flow but I find it better to weed out customers who are likely not to be a good fit for the services we offered and referred them to people who might be a better fit......or to competitors who we wanted to bog down handling no-win situations with difficult customers:>)

I am sort of in that process now of winnowing out the chronic problem customers who are just not reasonable or who break gear by being too hamfisted to not break whatever they touch. I prefer dealing with the quiet customers who respect their gear and me, don't make wild demands or time schedules or complain about any price higher than "free".

Phone calls are the great interrupter so my productivity goes up when I do not get them. There are very few phone calls that really need my input anyway because I can waste an hour easily that way since explaining something often takes explaining the background and fundamentals. As my staff would complain, when asking me for the time, I would respond with how and why the watch was made that way as a paraphrase of the old saying.

I have repaired many for free in the past, not because it was not worth any charge, but because any long term ownership of the repair would not be worth the risk from losses in covering abused equipment. A reasonable client is one who understands that he is just as important to the long term reliability, as any tech, of his gear, and that repairs to a line cord does not warranty a blown output section from running a shorted speaker a week later.

Reasonable clients are worth their weight in gold because they do not unduly tax resources of a shop. Repairs and transactions are clean and appreciated. Being a softee, I often fix things for free or take on things that others gave up on. That is fine for hobby but not for a business trying to keep the highest level of techs and services for the specialties focused on.

When I had my large shop the girls at the front counter knew when to suggest another route, when they sensed a bad risk customer, so I did not have to do that. When talked to directly I had a hard time turning anyone down with the strangest requests. Having a good staff insulated me well enough to let me get real productive work done which was evenly spent between bench work and offering diagnostic help to 15 techs, while the girls used their best interpersonal skills to make everyone happy, and extract as much useful information as possible, like asking the owner to demonstrate the process of getting the problem to occur, instead of writing up a WO "doesn't work".

Having someone who has the time to handhold the customers, serve them a cup of coffee or shop-made chocolate cookie we baked every few days, or just listen to the stupid jokes guys tell to pretty girls when they are trying to flirt, all increased bench effectiveness more than their salaries cost and were probably the best return on investment of anything in the shop. Bench time is all a shop really sells for a profit, since parts are usually a loss when considering overall costs of stocking, shipping, researching, testing etc. So anything that increased bench effectiveness translated directly to the bottom line. Having a person write specifically how she saw the problem occur and how to reproduce it, was worth every dollar paid in salary.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Q: "Can you fix my jukebox?"

A: "You don't want to pay me to learn how on yours."

- - - - - - - - -

Q: "How come my $#@! amp isn't fixed yet. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius."

A: "I'm getting no closer to getting it fixed by holding this piece of plastic to my ear."

- - - - - - - - -

Messages: "You saved my life!" "Amp sounds better than it ever did." "All my bandmates noticed right away my sound was improved 1000%" "I know you haven't heard from me in 5-10 years. All my amps have been working perfectly since I saw you. But I found something interesting at a garage sale - it's tweed." That's what I live for.

- - - - - - - - -

Q: "I want to get my vacuum cleaner fixed."

A: "Why are you calling ME?"

Q: "I found your name on Google. It says you fix vacuum tube electronics. Mine's an Electrolux. Shaped like a tube, you know."

A: "You really should call the appliance repair shop on Violet Avenue. I think they can do it faster & better than me, honest."

[Enzo]

One of my faves:

4:59PM Friday - Here is my amp, it needs to be fixed, no rush.

9:01AM Monday - is my amp done yet? No, it is not. WHAT??? WHY NOT, YOU'VE HAD IT THREE DAYS.

[Mick Bailey]

Here's one that you'll swear I made up;

A stunning one owner from new Peavey Heritage VTX. Looked brand new, not a mark on it, not even dust. One of the LEDs didn't work and he wanted it fixed and it was one of these super quick jobs, just an O/C 220k resistor (I think) on the PSU board. 10 minutes and done.

I called him back, said your amp's fixed.
"how much do I owe you"
£15
"how much!?"
I thought damn, knew it was too cheap as soon as I said it - so I said again rather sheepishly that £15 would be ok.
"I'd rather smash it up than pay £15 - you're kidding"
What do you mean
"I'm not paying £15"
What did you expect?
"It's not worth it, not to me anyhow. How about you give me £15 and you can keep it. How would you like that?"

So that's what I did. He drove over and I gave him £15 and kept the amp.

[Steve Conner]

Industrial electronics is my bread and butter, but I occasionally fix a piece of audio gear as a favour. The strangest one I ever did was an Electrocompaniet hi-fi power amp that had blown half of its output devices and burnt up its PCB through chronic overheating. (Notwithstanding, the owner wanted to know if I could bias it any hotter, because he'd heard that it wasn't pure Class-A.)

It was still limping along on a few remaining output devices and sounding terrible. The original TO220 output devices weren't available any more, so I chopped out the burnt PCB section and replaced it with some hefty TO3 transistors on a heat spreader block. I then cranked the bias until it was capable of frying an egg.

I only charged a very small fee for this because I was uneasy about dealing with an audiophile who would review it subjectively. I told him that I tested it and it met the power output and THD spec in the manual, but I couldn't guarantee that the sound would please him. Sure enough, soon he contacted me saying that it "lacked authority". Great, which part do I change out for more authority?

He ended up buying another amp but that one lacked authority too.