Very simple: cheap rarely equates to good, but I’m sure you already knew that…

Cheap builders, cheap hi-fi gear, cheap parts, cheap technical professionals – adages like “the poor man pays twice” exist for a reason.

My Dad used to say:

You get what you pay for, Mike.

Dad was right, and those wise words have stayed with me.

A much better question to ask is: Do you want a job done cheaply or do you want it done well? If your answer is cheaply, you can look up one of the business oferring such services, but please don’t come to me later, as so many have done, looking to have poor work rectified, as I no longer offer this service. You don’t have to pay a fortune or use the most expensive repairer, but using the cheapest ones almost guarantees poor results.

False Economy

Cutting costs means cutting corners, cutting expertise, cutting time and cutting quality. My business was not created to serve customers who want corners cut, and I’d humbly suggest you don’t want corners cut when doing mission-critical work on cherished hi-fi equipment, someone’s brain, legal documents, an aircraft or a Rolex watch.

We see this play out with dodgy builders, mechanics and botched cosmetic surgery; it’s everywhere and always produces the same results. The cheapest way to do something inevitably ends up being the worst and most expensive way to do something.

This premise is well-understood, yet the temptation of blind quotes and the lowest price often sucks people in, without any critical thinking around what they might actually mean. Blame must, unfortunately, be apportioned not only on the perpetrators but also on those driving this ‘lowest price’ mentality.

Real Value

Equipment like the AU-317 above that visits the cheapest repairers usually needs to visit others for rectification. Seemingly cheap repairs deliver predictable results: shortcuts, poor workmanship, ‘Swell-Long’ capacitors (I’m serious), devalued, damaged, or destroyed equipment and sometimes even court cases.

All this is amusing, maybe, until you or someone you know falls fall victim. Worst of all, it’s always more costly than simply having the work done properly in the first place. The bad reviews, crazed responses, changing business names and court records tell the story. It’s all out there. Buyer beware.

Quality, professionalism and results are things most customers remember long after they’ve forgotten the cost of a repair. This constitutes real value. My approach is often copied because even the worst corner-cutters eventually learn the value of a quality-focused approach and most grow to hate the court cases..!