C audio 707 repair re-visited

kanks wrote: I would like to point out I had this fault from the start so ill take the glory

mk2_ginger_biscuit69 wrote: Jesus this is childish, picking fault/bitching everywhere, its like come dine with me - amp repair edition!! Between this and other threads im very quickly losing respect for children...

Ginge u should never loose respect for one of your own

GAZ. wrote: unfortunatly this is always the risk with old equipment. SDS has repaired the fault the unit came in for, and now something else has failed. Thats hardly his fault. At the end of the day, if he spent the time to completly go through the amp and replace all the parts that could be about to fail it would make the amp uneconomical to repair.

nuclearbass wrote: GAZ. wrote: unfortunatly this is always the risk with old equipment. SDS has repaired the fault the unit came in for, and now something else has failed. Thats hardly his fault. At the end of the day, if he spent the time to completly go through the amp and replace all the parts that could be about to fail it would make the amp uneconomical to repair. i would have probably totally agreed with this if it wasnt for the fact that the origonaly quote increased 3 times, and then h ehadnt ignored me for 4 days when i made him aware of a fault

Sometimes it happens when working on electronics.
For example [I'm a television repair man] Someone give me a dead TV to look at. It has a dead invertor PCB. So say I quote to replace that invertor. Now I replace that board and the TV then powers up, but there is another problem on the main board that I can only see now the TV is working after having the invertor put in. Therefore I have to increase the quote to pay for the extra work.

Ok, from several threads a little more of the situation has emerged, and could probably do with a little moderation from both sides (easy to say from an outsider's point of view).

I will back Steve here, as (being a repairer myself) nothing irks a repairer more than the suggestion they refund the money for a job without having the opportunity to see whether the current fault has anything to do with the original job - try getting a mechanic who has replaced the muffler on your car to refund the money because the windscreen wiper fell off.....

It certainly sounds like the new fault is unrelated to the previous repair, and most likely dirty contacts on the soft start relay (not uncommon in an old amp), which is in a completely different section of the amplifier circuitry from the original repair.  If the soft start resistor is replaced now without the relay being replaced, it might work fine again but fail a few days or weeks down the track - just bad timing that it happened following an unrelated repair.

When bringing up a repeat repair enquiry, probably email is not the best way to do so, as writing style differences can convey the wrong impression - pick up the phone.  I am sure Steve would have suggested sending the amp straight back for assessment, and in that case may have even replaced the relay for just parts cost as a function of good will.

Not sure what your typical labour rates are over there, but the quote prices mentioned seem rather low.  I will only quote a price after I have looked at the job, and even then sometimes the quote can blow out as other faults are revealed.  For an old amp, if the owner isn't prepared to spend at least $100 on it, then I suggest it is not worth even looking at.

stress factor should be involved in the price too. So you can be lukcy..