More with Electronics Service Labs

WoW! Was just considering whether ESL or Willy Hermann Services was going to be the folks to refurb my prized Nakamici ZX-7 which just needs a going through due to age (1982 build) but is otherwise MINT... Hmmm

 

Yes, I’d be happy to. Let me know if you’d like me to proceed.

 

At the rate things are going, I may have to use Willy Hermann in CA to service my Naks. Can UPS or FedEx be trusted to ship them across the country?

 

I’m just making a guess here, but since you and ESL are both in CT, maybe they’re more attentive to people that drop off their decks in person? Knowing you’re local and could show up at their door at anytime may make them more responsible. Or not. Who knows!

 

A buddy of mine has his Yamaha CD1 and Sansui QRX-9001 receiver at a local repair shop for 5 years and 3 years, respectively. The lack of progress has to do with parts being unavailable. I found a German parts supplier that has the laser pickup for CD1 but the repair shop refused to deal with an overseas parts supplier ...

Being local to the repair shop does not mean all that much. ESL is probably close to two hours from my house.

 

Talking Dog Transducer Company - Tucson, AZ

I have used Stephen Sank to completely overhaul my vintage Nakamichi ZXE for $1,000 about ten years ago. He was an authorized Nak tech as well and he did a great job. Then I later heard from a Norwegian friend (who was in the States) who sent him a few Tandberg gears for services but he never heard back from Sank for a long time. Is Willy Hermann the only game in town for good and reliable Nak service?

 

Willy currently has a 9 month wait he tells me. One needs to get on the list. He only does complete refurbishment, no spot fix work, no band-aids. I'll be sending mine in a standard component roadie flight case (costs about what the insurance to replace is, both ways). Don't trust cardboard boxes or the usual suspects that will toss it off a truck.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is a roadie flight case?

From MI to CA, you have a long-distance shipment as well.

 

Something like this (21 3/4" x 20 1/2" x 8" inside dims):

Small Mixer Medium Duty ATA Cases - Choose From 6 Generic Sizes

The beauty of these is they are nearly bulletproof, can be customized inside with multiple blocks of firm foam so that they can accommodate any number of common audio components and are reusable. Not quite a Pelican case but not as expensive either.

 

I suppose even with the original carton and double box, UPS or FedEx can find ways to damage your audio components. The longer the shipping distance, the bigger the risk ...

 

I've had these cases come back looking like they where kicked off a truck, knocked up, but no interior damage, ever.

 

So they have never sustained bad enough damage to make them unusable?

 

Dude

I have just finished preparing my Dragon for shipping to Willy. Read through the thread here I was astounded at the knowledge there. It was like duuhhh. To get to the point I ended up rushing down to HDepot and getting the styrofoam building insulation in 1.5x4x8 for $16.98, cut it as mentioned in the thread and installed everything in my 24x20x12 double walled box. It's now on the floor awaiting Willy's notification to send it.




M~

 

How is that legal, to sell equipment at auction that they did not own?

 

Never. No damage when shipped in a roadie case whatsoever.

I have sent my Atma-Sphere MA1 Mk.3 mono blocks twice for upgrading and my Aesthetix Calypso and Rhea for upgrading. No issues.

Like I say, if you buy a standard component size box it is reusable. No amount of insurance will save your component from being mistreated in shipping. And, have you ever tried to collect from a shipper? good luck!

 

Not a bad packing job, that would handle a lot of abuse, but nothing new here, nor bulletproof. I wish you well.

 

I was shocked too. And I'm not sure how it could be legal either? But, I read on numerous audio forums, where inventory was sold on pallets, which contained equipment clearly marked as being in for repair, and who the owners were. Even accounts of forum members, at the auctions, seeing preowned gear being sold. If it were my gear, I'd be livid, and contacting the authorities.

 

As I do you.

M~

 

At any rate, what is the latest price tag for Willy Hermann to service the Dragon?

 

$750-$800.

M~

 

Not bad! I thought the price tag would be significantly over $1000. My Dragon has a problem with the speed sensor as it would auto-reverse in the middle of playing a cassette tape ...

 

I would like to report that I finally got my deck back a couple of days ago and its performance is to the expected quality for ESL. It sounds wonderful now (and I don't use superlatives often).

For those that are shipping decks, I did have to spend a fair amount: a Pelikan 0500 transport case (~35"x18"x25" and about 40 lbs.), but Jeff commented when it arrived that the packing
was great. He apparently hadn't seen them before, at least not in action. The deck and case made both trips without incident, although apparently the TSA locks got rmoved/lost whatever
going and only one (might have been two, or maybe just one) coming back. There are a number of places that potentially could be locked, but I think when I shipped it (it's been a while) I used two
locks on opposide corners and zip-tied the rest. There are 10 additional latches on the case (3322). Shipping by FedEx Express Saver (3-day but not ground) was ~$900 each way. However, if I am going
to spend what ended up as ~$9k on rebuilding the deck, including mechanical adjustments, being a cheapskate on shipping, is probably not the best strategy.

I got profuse apologies from Jeff, but no logical reason. For those that might be in the same boat, what finally triggered its return was filing a complaint with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection.
They are involved in licensing and I seem to remember (although I cannot find it any more) that their license was up for renewal this month (August 2018). Due to being busy at work, I did not have time to put
together the required documents (e-mail trail) until about mid-Junte of this year. You can submit the documents on-line. They basically perform the role of informal mediator, but they do have the force of being
state government behind them. They request 45 days from submission before you request status. I was right around the 45-day point and was about to do that when, lo and behold, I got a call from Jeff. After that,
things moved fairly quickly. They did re-test the deck before shipping out.

The link for the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection is here: Complaint Forms and Procedures
If you go in the front door to the department they want you to check and be sure your complaint is something they handle; at least of this year due to the licensing, this type of complaint does fall under their purvue.

Thanks again to everyone for the support and suggestions, especially "Mike from NYC" for the original suggest of filing a complaint, "Bigger DAVE" for offering to visit, Warren Jarrett for even considering taking my request when he was thinking about hand-carrying more
work to Jeff. As we said, the owrk is excellent; clearly the work flow management needs improvement. When your one of only a handful, there ain't no competition pushing you.

 

Perhaps I should still consider ESL since I am local, as I can drive over and drop off my Dragon. Willy Hermann is just too far for me even though his repair cost is probably lower. But then, IIRC, you have that 1000ZXL, the absolutely best and most expensive deck that was ever built by Nakamichi in its heyday ...

 

If I were local, I would use ESL again for any Nak tape equipment. I would have to just plan on being persistently polite: I don't think losing my temper would have helped much. At least I would have been able to feel like I was doing something: He's got a few hemployees and the shop is open "normal" hours, so as long as I could go and nag,
I would have been OK (albeit not happy). The nerve-wracking part for me was not knowing and not really being able to do much about it. Although I never really thought the deck was stolen/sold/pawned/etc., I was concerned by what happens if it's stuck in the shop and something happens to Jeff, or happens to me? What if all of a sudden I have some kind of emergency and can't pay for it when it appears by surprise? etc. Although all of the final paperwork unfortunately has to go through Jeff, it's not a one-man-in-the-garage kind of set up. We did talk about and even for the 1000zxl it's someone who's trained that does most of the work, although, of course, if he runs into a problem, he knows who to go to. He was trained by Jeff and it sounded like a while ago. In our chat I gathered he's a few years older than me. I'm 62; some of the reasons I decided to do it (although be the time I did send it I'd fat-fingered something trying to fix it myself, I had begun to think about it anyway) was (1) If I got it done now it would probably be the last time it would need it (hopefully) before I'll probably have more pressing issues to deal with age-wise; (2) Parts aren't getting any easier to find; (2) although I didn't have as fine a knowledge of Jeff's age as I do now, I knew he'd been around a long time and who knows how much longer the he and/or the shop is going to be in business?

Yes, it is the 1000zxl but not just any 1000zxl. I'm not sure I'd have been willing to stomach $9k +s/h for any old 1000zxl (I have a couple of others that are usable but definitely not up to spec). It was the 1000zxl Ltd (the gold one).

Availability of needed parts was one of the primary factors I chose ESL, although the fact that I'd been familiar with them by reputation since long ago (I started with a 700II back ~1978 or so) also was in its favor. I didn't know about the delay issues and I'm pretty sure they were
better back then; those might have given me second thought, but I may have still chosen ESL if I knew about them. I figure there just aren't that many people that both are really qualified and are known to be really qualified, so at some level you have to put up with high prices and that things might take longer/be harder than one would like. That's not excusing the poor customer service, just cautioning reality. Had I known more but still chosen ESL, I would have been better prepared for the ideal, hence, my reason for posting the success even after two plus years.

 

Sir

I have to apologize for my snide remark.

After some "life events" happen, I couldn't send my deck off to be repaired. So I used the time to check into the cases ( yesterday as a matter of fact). To make a long story short, they don't recommend the case that you mentioned for "shipping." It will "work", but they recommended a custom built case. I was like yeah right, but then I looked up the prices for a "working" CR7 and a Dragon on Ebay reality sunk in. To replace either of those decks with a fully functioning one is about $2K+. When brings me to this, I ordered a custom built case for $269.00. All things considered, I will have done my "due diligence" as far as shipping is concerned. If something happens to it, I won't as bad as if I had cheaped out on the shipping container.

M~