Penny wise, Pound foolish
Before flying to the US, dad had given our 15-year old music system for repair. He had told me that repair will be complete in 3-4 days and I had to make the payment and bring the system home.
Today, I got a call from the local repair guy that the system is ready. I went in the evening to his shop and this is what transpired:
Test run 1:
ShopGuy (SG): Our audio tape is old and faulty. You might not get nice sound here. Once you take the system home and play it with your tapes, it should work fine.
Me: OK. Play the tape, let me see. Vidyabhushana's songs were sounding like a female singer! Surely, the tape player is not repaired.
SG: No sir. I had already told you that our tapes are in bad shape. You go home and try or get me your tape and I will prove it.
Test run 2:
I had to come home to get my own audio tape. Instead, I headed to a nearly audio store and requested for a test audio tape. The shopkeeper there was familiar to me and he obliged.
Me: Take this tape. Got this from the near by store for testing. Lets see if this works.
SG: Sir. Our speaker here are small and not compatible with your system. Hence, you won't get good sound. There is a possibility that sound will be poor in this test run too.
Me: I think sound and electrical motor are not related in this case. The problem here is with the player motor. It is not playing properly. Even if speaker is bad, I should hear more noise or distortion. There shouldn't be a case of male voice sounding like a female one.
This test run failed.
SG: Sir, I told you already. Our speakers are bad. Do one thing. Get me your original speakers. That will resolve our whole issue.
Test run 3:
I came home. Took the speaker along with 3-4 audio tapes.
By the time I landed in the store, SG was not present. His assistant was hanging around reluctant to co-operate with me. I requested him to make the speaker connections so that I could test the music system. I tested and test failed (ought to fail as per my understanding).
SG: Is it working now?
Me: Nope. It is not. The repair you claim to have done is bogus. You haven't done anything to make this work properly.
SG: What else do you want? It is playing now.
Me: Playing is not playing. Male voice sounding like a female is not the right funtionality of this system. May be it will be a new feature, not for this.
SG: That is there sir. I told your dad that motor is not working properly. It needs a replacement. Your dad told us not to replace anything and work on repairing the existing one to maximum possible extent.
Me: This is not the condition agreed upon. My dad had given this system for a review first so that he wanted you to confirm that this could be repaired in first place. Once he got information that this could be repaired, he gave his approval to proceed with the repair.
SG: (silence)
With few other unwanted conversation, I ended my conversation:
"I am not going to pay for this repair. If I had to do that, NOW is the time. I will not visit your shop again for this issue. This will be probably settled after 5 months when my dad returns." My whole evening was wasted in this stupid incident.
For SG, he claims that he replaced some motherboard (motherboard in a 15-year old music systems??? I should have told, "My mom is not involved in this repair. Don't bring her in to picture by telling 'motherboard'". ha ha ha). I asked, "OK, show me the box/case of that. Also, show me the bill for the purchase you did." He showed me one dusty box which looked like untouched for year or so ;).
Coming to that music system (Sony): It costed us Rs.20,000 way back in '94-'95. 2-3 repairs have already been done on that, each costing Rs.2,000. This repaired was estimated to cost Rs.1,500. Since, I declined making the payment, if the shop guy opens everything and sells the spares, he won't get Rs.1,000. I didn't want to give him cash for that coma-state-system. A new one costs Rs.8,000 which will have latest and advanced features.
Moral of the story: Never give electronics for repair (not in India atleast). Upgrade to latest electronics when the old one goes for a toss.
Today, I got a call from the local repair guy that the system is ready. I went in the evening to his shop and this is what transpired:
Test run 1:
ShopGuy (SG): Our audio tape is old and faulty. You might not get nice sound here. Once you take the system home and play it with your tapes, it should work fine.
Me: OK. Play the tape, let me see. Vidyabhushana's songs were sounding like a female singer! Surely, the tape player is not repaired.
SG: No sir. I had already told you that our tapes are in bad shape. You go home and try or get me your tape and I will prove it.
Test run 2:
I had to come home to get my own audio tape. Instead, I headed to a nearly audio store and requested for a test audio tape. The shopkeeper there was familiar to me and he obliged.
Me: Take this tape. Got this from the near by store for testing. Lets see if this works.
SG: Sir. Our speaker here are small and not compatible with your system. Hence, you won't get good sound. There is a possibility that sound will be poor in this test run too.
Me: I think sound and electrical motor are not related in this case. The problem here is with the player motor. It is not playing properly. Even if speaker is bad, I should hear more noise or distortion. There shouldn't be a case of male voice sounding like a female one.
This test run failed.
SG: Sir, I told you already. Our speakers are bad. Do one thing. Get me your original speakers. That will resolve our whole issue.
Test run 3:
I came home. Took the speaker along with 3-4 audio tapes.
By the time I landed in the store, SG was not present. His assistant was hanging around reluctant to co-operate with me. I requested him to make the speaker connections so that I could test the music system. I tested and test failed (ought to fail as per my understanding).
SG: Is it working now?
Me: Nope. It is not. The repair you claim to have done is bogus. You haven't done anything to make this work properly.
SG: What else do you want? It is playing now.
Me: Playing is not playing. Male voice sounding like a female is not the right funtionality of this system. May be it will be a new feature, not for this.
SG: That is there sir. I told your dad that motor is not working properly. It needs a replacement. Your dad told us not to replace anything and work on repairing the existing one to maximum possible extent.
Me: This is not the condition agreed upon. My dad had given this system for a review first so that he wanted you to confirm that this could be repaired in first place. Once he got information that this could be repaired, he gave his approval to proceed with the repair.
SG: (silence)
With few other unwanted conversation, I ended my conversation:
"I am not going to pay for this repair. If I had to do that, NOW is the time. I will not visit your shop again for this issue. This will be probably settled after 5 months when my dad returns." My whole evening was wasted in this stupid incident.
For SG, he claims that he replaced some motherboard (motherboard in a 15-year old music systems??? I should have told, "My mom is not involved in this repair. Don't bring her in to picture by telling 'motherboard'". ha ha ha). I asked, "OK, show me the box/case of that. Also, show me the bill for the purchase you did." He showed me one dusty box which looked like untouched for year or so ;).
Coming to that music system (Sony): It costed us Rs.20,000 way back in '94-'95. 2-3 repairs have already been done on that, each costing Rs.2,000. This repaired was estimated to cost Rs.1,500. Since, I declined making the payment, if the shop guy opens everything and sells the spares, he won't get Rs.1,000. I didn't want to give him cash for that coma-state-system. A new one costs Rs.8,000 which will have latest and advanced features.
Moral of the story: Never give electronics for repair (not in India atleast). Upgrade to latest electronics when the old one goes for a toss.
Comments