I hope the answer to this one is obvious.

A gentleman contacted me recently, annoyed that he couldn’t get his equipment in for immediate attention. He went on to tell me that he would no longer support local businesses and that he would instead send his equipment away for service. OK.

Nobody likes waiting, but waiting for a booking with a highly regarded, busy local specialist is almost always preferable to sending equipment overseas, to an unknown fate, with all the costs and risks that shipping entails.

Getting angry about local businesses being busy is one of the sillier attitudes I’ve come across in a long time, and I don’t mind saying so. Good repairers are busy for a reason and I would be worried if someone wasn’t busy!