Honestly, during this pandemic, it can be very possible that the parts supply chain has broken down. I’m sure during normal times things would have gone a lot smoother. Of course I can relate to the money & music comments as I was a professional musician long before I got into electronics. It gets harder & harder to make things work as you age. I’m 68 yrs old now & the finances are really bad for me as well.
The shipping back costs are normal. Even when I purchased a guitar online, I had to pay shipping to return it, that’s pretty standard in the business world. I really don’t think he’s intentionally trying to screw you out of money. It’s seems he’s trying to retain your business while covering for Tascam. It’s a tough situation for both of you.
Sometimes it takes me a couple of months to get a product out the door depending on the parts required & the workload in the shop. It gets really interesting when after you order parts, you find yet another problem with the product that wasn’t apparent because you couldn’t even get the unit to power up. We have all kinds of clauses in our service agreements to protect ourselves in cases like these. We also charge flat fees for repairs that must be paid up-front before we will even attempt a repair. Then, sometimes the quotes go up because of additional problems found.
The audio business is a rough business to be in. I can’t tell you how many times I was stiffed by large companies when I was on my own. Every one of them wanted tax information from me before they would pay me. I’ve also worked for some pretty famous people that thought I was on some sort of 90 day billing cycle when I was functioning as a independent contractor. I had to dump all those types of customers & only worked for people that would pay me when the work was completed.
I really wish you luck with the repair. If you’re communicating with the repair shop easily now, I would advise you to wait a bit longer. I know it’s frustrating to wait for a repair, but you may be pleased with the results. Sometimes telling a repair shop what parts you want fixed can be a problem. They want to give you back a working product & if they decide to let’s say, replace a often failing part such as a line amp, they’re doing you a favor & protecting themselves from a returned repair.
The shipping back costs are normal. Even when I purchased a guitar online, I had to pay shipping to return it, that’s pretty standard in the business world. I really don’t think he’s intentionally trying to screw you out of money. It’s seems he’s trying to retain your business while covering for Tascam. It’s a tough situation for both of you.
Sometimes it takes me a couple of months to get a product out the door depending on the parts required & the workload in the shop. It gets really interesting when after you order parts, you find yet another problem with the product that wasn’t apparent because you couldn’t even get the unit to power up. We have all kinds of clauses in our service agreements to protect ourselves in cases like these. We also charge flat fees for repairs that must be paid up-front before we will even attempt a repair. Then, sometimes the quotes go up because of additional problems found.
The audio business is a rough business to be in. I can’t tell you how many times I was stiffed by large companies when I was on my own. Every one of them wanted tax information from me before they would pay me. I’ve also worked for some pretty famous people that thought I was on some sort of 90 day billing cycle when I was functioning as a independent contractor. I had to dump all those types of customers & only worked for people that would pay me when the work was completed.
I really wish you luck with the repair. If you’re communicating with the repair shop easily now, I would advise you to wait a bit longer. I know it’s frustrating to wait for a repair, but you may be pleased with the results. Sometimes telling a repair shop what parts you want fixed can be a problem. They want to give you back a working product & if they decide to let’s say, replace a often failing part such as a line amp, they’re doing you a favor & protecting themselves from a returned repair.
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