Because without doing so, one can only speculate as to equipment condition and faults, and what YOUR equipment needs to run beautifully again.

I’m immensely proud of our reputation and the trust people have in Liquid Audio, but it’s no accident. Diagnosing what a piece of equipment needs is part of our process. It creates happy customers, and guesswork plays no part in it. Everything we do is determined by careful, hands-on assessment, testing and measurement: the way it should be done.

Guesswork

Say your amplifier won’t turn on. Why not? There is no way to know without inspecting it. The repair costs vary depending on the failure mode, so this isn’t something one should guess about. What if your turntable won’t play records? Does it need a new idler wheel, belt or repair to the drive circuit? Who knows?!

Know this, though – nobody can know without seeing it.

How would you feel if you threw away a perfectly repairable piece of equipment because of an incorrect guess? Well, that’s exactly what happened with this Sansui AU-317 integrated amplifier, below. The same technician deemed a Marantz CD-52 I recently repaired “Unrepairable and should be thrown away”.

Both repairs were straightforward and affordable, saving both pieces when they were otherwise being thrown away. Nobody knows exactly what your equipment needs without inspecting it. Some folks don’t know even when they HAVE inspected it!

Estimates vs Quotes

Some customers ‘expect’ blind quotes before a technician has assessed a piece of electronics. This is silly, but beyond anyone’s control, unfortunately. Delivering a ‘quote’ on work one hasn’t assessed, to customers who will go elsewhere unless you do, is a problematic driver of poor work. We won’t do it, and if we lose customers for this reason alone, they would be better served elsewhere anyway.

Work driven by the lowest quotes will always deliver corner-cutting, poor workmanship, and poor results. Those driving this quest for the lowest price will be unhappy when such work isn’t done properly, of course, a classic catch-22.

Despite this, some businesses provide blind quotes because they bring in work. I don’t need work, and I don’t cut corners. We don’t provide blind quotes, and because of our focus on quality and level of trust within the community, our customers don’t expect them.

Estimates allow for the variables that affect the cost of a job, including discovery factors like condition and service history, fault analysis, customer requests and parts required. We provide estimates, usually after having assessed the unique requirements of a piece of equipment.

Mike … you, of course, are a gem. We are so lucky to have someone as passionate, intelligent, ethical and hardworking in little ol’ Perth.

David H

More…

Find out more with these repair-related FAQs:

• How much will my repair cost?
• The six steps to fault finding and repair
• Why some equipment shouldn’t be repaired
• Why we are often fully booked