This is a term used throughout industry, meaning that everything we do is done in good faith and involves time and expertise that must be paid for.

Our outcomes are amongst the most consistently positive in the industry, but we live in the real world, and equipment sometimes cannot be saved within a given budget, timeframe, etc, for a variety of reasons. These outcomes don’t disqualify any of the work done or needed to get to that point.

The important concepts here are:

1. Equipment condition, faults and issues are not our responsibility, but we’d love to help.
2. One often cannot know what a problem is or if it is solvable without investing time and energy to find out.
3. Like everyone else, I don’t work for free, and we therefore don’t offer free technical services.

These concepts apply across all technical and professional fields. Here’s an example:

You’re sick, you go to the doctor, they examine you, and prescribe something. The doctor was professional and did their best, but you remain sick. Do you need further assistance? Do you have another problem or resistant strain of bacteria or virus? Who knows, but you have to pay the doctor because you purchased and received their time and expertise.

Real Example: A customer asked me to assess his Linn LP12 turntable. After careful examination and testing, I wrote a detailed report outlining the significant work needed to repair it. Oddly, the customer expected not to pay for my time, and the most useful work he’d had done on the LP12! I corrected this misunderstanding and was paid.

Lesson: This is an ‘entitlement’ problem. Avoiding it is straightforward.