> Well, if the manual costs, say, \pounds 40, and you do, say,
> 3 repairs
> using cheap components, then it's saved you money...
The stuff I have does not seem to break very often. Off-hand
there's been this MP3 player that was dropped, a solar
powered garden light, a washing machine, a cassette player
and two TVs. The MP3 needed no manual (just glue!), the
light was trivial to trace (probably not worth the effort
since the fault was always going to be the LDR, but fun
nevertheless), no manual needed for the washing machine
(although I did buy that Haynes guide a while ago) and
the TVs I could find schematics for in the RTSE Guide
(is that still going these days?). I'd be upset if
something broke three times :-)
> I never
> object to
> buyunbg real service data.
I'm not sure how you can tell, before buying, that the
manual is of any use (short of having previously seen
one). I expect sedning it back with "insufficient data,
please refund" won't work. I've seen Mauritron do a
bunch of CDs with manuals - not too expensive for a
CD I guess but I have no idea what the manuals
themselves would be like. I may take a punt on a
CD if I ever need one ...
> > Dunno. I'd want a CD player anyway :-) Maybe if I take
>
> I'd want reel-to-reel :-)
Why am I not surprised :-)
> Well, if stuff was more expensive, you'd not mind buying the service
> manuals, you'd not mind paying a sensible rate to have it
> repaired if you
> couldn't do it yourself.
Most of the stuff I buy, I buy to have it perform a
specific function. I don't want the washing machine
to do anything other than wash perfectlt, time after
time, without ever failing (or, if that's too hard,
without ever failing during my lifetime). I also
want to minimise the amount I spend on it. I
don't see why I should pay more purely to justify
any future repairs on an economic basis. Same goes
for TVs and the rest. As it happens I'll fix both
of those if it seems worthwhile, but there are
other things I'd rather spend my time and money
on.
> IO asusme you did keep the useful bits (solenoid valves, motor, pump,
> etc), though.
Oh yes :-) In fact, I still have the original broken
pump. And much of the wiring and the circuit boards.
When I get half a mo, I'll sit down and figure out
roughly how it works - I assume that most of the
machines will be similar at least in principle.
> second one. As they store my collection and test gear, they
> expect me to
> fix things,
I only have a Rainbow and a CUB monitor at myn parent's
house - luckily they settle for a bit of reprogramming
of the TV and Sat Receiver.
> And if tVs were more expensive to replace (sau a new one cost \pounds
> 500) then they would be prepared to pay for repairs.
When TVs were more expensive (like in the 1970s) people
did indeed pay for repairs. I just don't think that's
a good reason for them to be more expensive. There are
expensive TVs around today: if you want to you can pay
maybe ?1500+ for a large widescreen one with all
the trimmings. I'm not convinced that Horizon would
look or sound much better but that's stingy old me :-)
> Do you seriously think you should pay less than \pounds 25 per hour?
No. But it makes no economic sense to pay say ?50 to
fix a ?6 calculator. I happen to have a faulty Casio
fx-83 and one with a shattered display (quite how
my kids manage to achieve this I do not know). The
innards are basically an LCD, a keypad and an IC
covered in you-can't-see-me gunk. I'll use one
as an LCD-donor for the other but that seems to
be the limit of what I can do here. It's not
even worth my time to try, but there's a decent
magnifying lens right by the soldering station
at work ... The fact that it is not worth
fixing it is not a good justification for taking
the price back up to the ?40-?50 I remember
having to pay for a less well specified calculator
when I were a lad ... (although if someone comes
out with an indestructible one, my TCO calculations
may well need tweaking ...)
> That's what I charge for fixing HP calculators, and I have
> been told that
> I am massively underselling myself. Problem is, if I charged
> any more,
> even fewer people would pay for the repairs...
I assume that you are not offering this service as
a business ... otherwise you would be rapidly out of
business. During my days as a freelancer I did odd
bits on the side as the opportunity presented itself.
I think I was charging about ?300/day ten years ago.
Plumbers round here seem to advertise rates as low
as ?40/hour.
Antonio
--
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Antonio Carlini arcarlini_at_iee.org
Received on Wed Jun 09 2004 - 13:58:30 BST