Costs, Quotes and Warranties . . . . .

Our fees are based on parts and labour plus any significant materials. We have a minimum charge of a half hours labour. If a unit is not worth repairing, the charge is for the amount of labour necessary to establish this. This is usually half an hour (even if more time may have been spent), though on complex units it may be higher. On certain items a small soak test fee may apply.

We accept Mastercard, VISA and Bankcard. Equipment should be collected within seven days of it being repaired, otherwise a storage fee may apply.

Quotes and Estimates

With modern electronics, often the majority of the work in a repair is in diagnosing which components are faulty. With many components, the only way to prove they are faulty is to replace them.

Equipment sometimes has more than one fault. Secondary faults may not be evident until the first apparent fault is fixed.

A circuit board can have thousands of soldered connections. One or more may be "dry". The repair cost is in finding the little so and so's! Until all are found and corrected, one doesn't know if that is all that is wrong with the item.

There are many other examples. Quite often, the same symptom can be caused by several different causes. After a process of elimination, one establishes which it actually is.

Thus, to give an honest quote, we may need to complete the repair. The alternative is to quote on the basis of a "worse case scenario", without diagnosing the cause. Neither is unacceptable.

Our policy is to repair an item if we consider it is cost effective for you, otherwise we will write it off. Clients may put a "limit" on a repair. It is easier and quicker to establish if the costs look like going over a certain amount (in which case we stop the repair).

You may ask why can't we ring you with an estimate. Again, the same applies with estimates as quotes. To keep our rates down, we need to be very efficient. Most repairs must go on a main workbench once, and either be repaired or written off. To have to stop a repair and then wait until we can get in touch with a client is disruptive and inefficient.

At Dr. Hi Fi, we know better than most whether an item should be repaired or not. When we decide to go ahead with a repair, we take some risk. If the repair turns out to be a lot more than we thought, we reduce our fee to what is reasonable for the item relative to its age and value. Sometimes, we spend a lot of time only to conclude that a repair has to be written off. Again, we absorb most of the costs, charging a nominal fee (often a half hours labour).

Repairing modern electronics for a client requires mutual trust. Dr. Hi Fi's reputation is unsurpassed - we have been servicing hi fi equipment professionally since 1978. We hope you can understand the situation - please don't hesitate to ask if you have any queries.

Warranty

All work done by Dr. Hi Fi is fully guaranteed unless specified. Less than 2% of repairs are returned under warranty, due to our thoroughness.

The symptom itself cannot be guaranteed, rather the cure. For example, a cassette deck may be running slow - corrected by replacing a worn belt. Some weeks later, the motor may also become faulty, giving the same symptom. As the motor was not replaced before, the symptom can't be covered by a warranty. Fortunately, this is rare.

Any additional work done as a result of a service and overhaul is detailed and covered by our warranty. Of course, only work done can be covered by the warranty - we can't give a blanket warranty on the equipment. However, we do try and assess the likelihood of future problems, and may not recommend repair.

Please view the Service Bulletins section for some additional warranty information on specific types of equipment.

Note: Warranty on Compact Disc Players.

Compact Disc players present special difficulties in repair. Often, the same set of symptoms (mistracking, difficulty reading or playing the disc etc.) can be caused by many different components, including the laser. A faulty laser can be quite difficult to diagnose (if a faulty laser's condition could be quickly diagnosed, life would be much simpler!). But for most conditions, a laser can only be fully tested by listening to the player, which may require that all other faults be repaired beforehand.

This is time consuming and costly, and may result in the unit subsequently being considered not worth repair due to the high cost of a new laser. Often we absorb most of our labour costs in these cases.

The other significant problem with C.D. players is testing them. There is no magic piece of test equipment that can thoroughly monitor them over a long period, other than the human ear! Many repairers simply do not do this form of soak test.

We ask clients to appreciate the complexities and difficulties that may arise with C.D. repairs.

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Last updated: 04 September 2004.

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