Bruce Marlin:\r
Except for general maintenance, when customers bring their equipment into our shop it’s because there’s a problem. They’re understandably unhappy, but usually reasonable to deal with. Others, we just have to let vent and we understand this about our business and take it in stride. I’ve reviewed this job and where we may have let this young man down was not taking enough time to explain what it takes to keep a tape machine of this vintage going. His Tascam MSR-16 has been out of production for many years and in fact Tascam doesn’t have all the parts it would take to successfully service potential problems that could arise from normal use. To make it even more of a challenge, this is a two head tape machine making it much more time consuming and complicated to work on than a typical three head machine. Only a small handful of service centers throughout the U.S. would even consider working on this kind of a machine.\r
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Technical Services has a reputation of being one of the few who can successfully work on vintage tape recorders of all brands. We have an extensive library of schematics and manuals and we’ve developed a network of suppliers of quality parts that have been out of production for many years. So when this customer brought his Tascam MRS-16 to us we didn’t hesitate to take it in for service.\r
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Having the schematics and manuals on how to service this machine and knowing who the third party parts suppliers, who sell quality parts for this specific machine were, we felt confident we could do the repairs. It’s important to note, there are suppliers who sell parts that look as good as the original component, but just don’t meet the original manufacturers’ specs or seem to last nearly as long. Considering that new component manufacturers and suppliers are popping up all the time, we’ve done a reasonable job of identifying those manufacturers and suppliers whose products are of equal or better quality to the original. So, often times, when servicing these vintage machines, we spend an inordinate amount of time researching and qualifying sources for replacement parts. \r
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The following text, is a blow by blow explanation of the events surrounding this job. What the customer fails to tell you is, we fixed every problem as we worked through his machine. In the end, we finally confirmed that the motherboard also had problems and needed to be rehabbed or replaced. It’s important to know that all the other repairs needed to be done before we could isolate and confirm that the motherboard, in fact, also needed service. The customer wasn’t interested in going any further with repairs and had no patience for us or his machine. So we not only refunded all his money, but didn’t charge him for the new parts we had purchased and left installed in his machine. So, with the knowledge that his machine needed a new motherboard, the customer left with his machine and all his money. As hard as we try, you know, we just can’t win them all.
Pros: Excellent Service
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