AUTHORIZED SERVICE SWINDLES
Scenario A: At your local audio store you buy a stereo amplifier. When you get it home and plug it in, it doesn’t work. You take it back to the store, where the salesman tells you it isn’t his problem, that you must return your new broken amp to the manufacturer who will, no doubt, fix it free of charge in a month or two.
AUTHORIZED SERVICE SWINDLES
REWIRE YOURSELF
by Richard Robinson
Scenario A: At your local audio store you buy a stereo amplifier. When you get it home and plug it in, it doesn’t work. You take it back to the store, where the salesman tells you it isn’t his problem, that you must return your new broken amp to the manufacturer who will, no doubt, fix it free of charge in a month or two.
Scenario B: After a year of use, your new amplifier breaks down. Looking in the Yellow Pages, you find the “authorized factory service center” that handles that brand of amp. You take the amp to them. For $25 they’ll take it and tell you what’s wrong with it. For another $150 they’ll fix it. They smile at you when you tell them the amp only cost $200 in the first place.
Both these scenarios have happened to me, and in the process I’ve learned a great deal about the service swindles that are commonplace in the electronics industry. I’ve also learned a few ways around, the swindles.