Your experiences providing a computer repair service mimics mine, except I never found a suitable solution. Instead, I gave it up.
Customers must have thought I was getting parts for free, and the time (mine) cost of testing/replacement/retesting their computer was covered in the price of the parts. A prime example would be fitting a £10 modem.
Firstly I would need to clean out the filth found inside a box that had not been clean since its original purchase, maybe years before. ISA (hardware) modems performed better than the early PCI (software) modems, and using them often meant 'shuffling' cards around the motherboard. Once the operating system was persuaded to see all the cards (including modem), it was necessary to both install fax software, and test it actually worked. [Both send and receive.]
And how much would the customer expect to pay for 'supply install and test' a £10 modem? ........ £10. Not that I did the job for £10, as I can't work for free, as much as I wish I could.....
One of the big problems with this NV repair, was the local Customs charges of circa €80. Without this paperwork, the scope just couldn't move into and out of the country. Since it's an expensive bit of kit (even though it's non-working), I only send this stuff around the world using UPS, and sometimes the slightly less careful DHL. Each way carriage was always going to be around £125 per trip minimum because of the units value. [Insurance cover can be expensive when cover is £1000+.] So you are looking at £300, without the cost of a local repair.
On the face of it, it sounds like an uneconomic repair, and to a degree, it is. I could have bought back one of our own supplied units that had very few hours on it, for £1200 recently. It has a better quality tube than Chris Tylers, and since I knew all of its past, I knew it was reliable. the new owner, is very happy.
The tubes in the unit Chris is looking to have repaired, weren't very reliable. He says the tube works, but two repairs on something we know isn't reliable, doesn't bode well. Unlike a local UK repair, if it goes back to the manufacturers, it'll be repaired to the current factory specification. Which I can tell you, if significantly better than it was 5 years ago.
On the table now, if the offer for Chris to 'piggy-back' on another return. I don't know his unit would go back for 50% of the total (ie £150) as the total may grow with the additional insurance costs. But it's cheaper than the alternatives. Junk the system.... Pay someone else to return the unit at full costs. This option wasn't available initially, but as I've pointed out to Chris, it's one he shouldn't walk away from. To take advantage of it, all he has to do is agree to let me do it, AND delete/amend this thread to remove the inference I'm a liar and a rogue?
But it seems this isn't an attractive option?
I certainly did send someone a PSU some years ago, but it was to a UK address?
I still have boxes of (older) computer parts, if ever you needed more....
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