https://FleischerElectronicsService.com/pricing.htm 
Pricing, warranty, storage, ETC.

Info@FleischerElectronicsService.com
 

 
Zits Partnership, Distributed by King Features Syndicate; licensed to Robert Fleischer, DBA Fleischer Electronics Service


We reserve the right to make special agreed-upon arrangements with anyone, regarding pricing, hourly rates, and most anything else. We reserve the right to reduce labor charges/rates for any reason, at any time.

No checks, except with well-established prior customers, AND, agreed-upon.  NO credit cards.  NO debit cards.  

Items with deliberately defaced/illegible or missing serial numbers may not be worked on.
Our Warranty is on work WE did, and begins day customer picks up the item. Standard industry warranty is 90 days.
NOT responsible for problems customer did not complain about; nor, customer abuse by such as wrong amplifier speaker output loading or any problems due to customer removing safety grounding connections.
Parts are invoiced at 2nd LOWEST of the 5 levels established by Narda Sperry-Tech. This does not apply to some items, such as vacuum tubes, where the pricing depends on our actual costs, which are constantly varying, but is usually priced at the very lowest of the Narda Sperry-Tech levels.

We have a limited area for storage.  Items not picked up promptly have created so many problems that I have had to create storage fees and procedures, for use IF NEEDED.  Storage fees $5.00 per day begin 20 days after being notified three times that the item is ready for pickup, ....unless agreed upon otherwise IN ADVANCE. Being notified includes leaving messages on customer's telephone or answering machine; or, 10 business days after mailing such a notice of storage fees to customer's as-provided mailing address.    If no response to all these attempts to contact customer again by telephone, e-mail and/or other method, then, 30 days afterwards, item may be offered for sale to the public.  If an unrepaired item, it may be taken/sent to the town dump.   Small Claims action may be instituted, at our choice.   IN ANY SITUATION WHERE STORAGE FEES HAVE TO BE CHARGED, ONLY CASH WILL BE ACCEPTABLE FOR PAYMENT....THAT MEANS NO CHECKS, NO BANK CHECKS, NO CREDIT CARDS, ETC.   Cash only.     Customer will be placed on a list of similar.

Engineering; teaching/training (one-on-one), explaining diagnostics step by step while you watch and/or help.....and other such:  by negotiation, ahead of time.   Usually basic shop labor rate; or less.      Groups:  by negotiation.

Basic shop labor rate:  $72 per actual FIRST hour spent on an item. This is likely NOT the same actual charge as for our rate for Diagnostic Analysis/Estimate/Minimum Fee.  Usually, jobs that go beyond ONE hour, are charged at 1/2 price per hour.

Service calls:   $100 Flat Fee, which includes up to one hour at customer's site. Basic shop rate after the first hour at site. If over 40 miles round trip, will be an extra charge of $0.80/mile each way.      ***We are presently NOT doing service calls***

Diagnostic/Analysis/Estimate/Minimum Fees:  Analysis/estimate fees, often known as a Minimum Fee, or Initial Diagnostic Fee, etc., are normally included instead of being on top-of final repair invoicing.  There are very rare instances in which we do a minimum fee or analysis/estimate, and the customer declines to repair the unit at that time, and, considerable disassembly>>reassembly or other labor was involved. Should the customer later decide to have the repairs done, and brings back the unit for such, in most but not all instances, the job is re-quoted at no charge for the quote.  

Use of specialized test tool, NOT NORMALLY included, and will usually be billed as a parts use in the parts listing area of invoice.

The maximum amount of time assigned to the analysis/estimate/minimum fee is usually one hour, with some exceptions.  

The following categories are for minimum fees and diagnostic testing, by type.  If the item is approved for repairs, a quotation for such, if given, will apply.

Type 1:  Small musician's and other items:  this is highly variable, many small items are checked out for only a small charge...or, even free.  Tips for free work are accepted!

Type 2:  Basic 2 channel receivers up to ~90 watts per channel (see Type 4 for many that are over 90 w/ch); SOME simpler Boom Boxes; separate tuners; most table-top radios; many antique radios; single (and many dual deck) cassette players; 'separate' CD players up to 6 discs; up to 6 channel (no speaker amp) mixers.  Many (not all) bookshelf separates systems.   $65 

Type 3:  Larger home speakers, or speakers requiring speaker unit removal to gain internal access to crossover, etc. (We no longer work on powered speakers); magazine type CD/DVD players or CD/DVD players that are part of an item containing an AM/FM radio and cassette deck and/or phonograph; CD players OVER 6 discs; 3 to SOME 7 channel receivers including home theatre types, med-sized musicians mixers or amps; 'compact' musician's amps with difficult circuit board access.  Pro and semi-pro turntables with complicated electronics.  Boom Boxes with lengthy disassembly.  SOME bookshelf separates systems.  SOME complex dual-cassette decks.  Receivers 90 w/ch to 130 w/ch.   Open Reel (Reel-to-Reel) tape units, 7" reel size.  $68 to $75.

Type 4:  Large, heavy, musicians combo (with speakers-in-cabinet) amplifiers such as Fender Twin Reverb; many quite heavy amplifiers over 90W/ch.; SOME high powered amplifiers with Class D circuitry.  Many high-complexity 8 to 12 channel mixers or powered mixers over 80w/ch; many open-reel (reel-to-reel) machines, juke box type CD players...this means any CD player holding large quantities of discs; large antique radios (generally, pre-1965).  NOTE that very large and heavy stereo receivers or amplifiers, such as the Pioneer SX1050, SX1250, Sansui 22000 and 33000, Marantz 2500, 2600, big old Crown amps, etc. can be Type 4 OR Type 5; and, I may decline to work on them at all.  SOME high complexity 7 to 9 channel AVR receivers.  Small console radios with phonographs, when I have room available to work on them, are likely to be put into this Type 4 category. This category is also for most, not all, Open Reel (Reel-to-Reel) tape units in 10" reel size.   Many items will have QUOTED minimum fees before acceptance for diagnostic work.  Generally, Type 4 category minimum fee is $85.  See Type 5.

Type 5:  This Category is generally for such things as certain Open Reel (Reel-to-Reel) tape units, 7" and/or 10" reel size, that also contain such as a cassette player/recorder or an 8-track player/recorder, as they take a LOT of time to take apart and put back together.  Triple Lead Marshall (JCM 2000 TSL122), which are highly complex and/or very heavy and CAN BE quite difficult to work on; and, may take a fair amount of time just to remove/replace the chassis.  I usually discuss category 4 and 5 items in-depth with the customer before accepting such an item for repair, to be sure the customer and I are in agreement as to what is to be done initially, and the minimum/maximum cost for that work.   I sometimes see items I will place in this Category that have previously been wrongly/poorly worked-on, have multiple problems, sometimes prior work caused even more problems. Sometimes there is extensive circuit work that is needed...and, I may need to do quite extensive Internet work to find Service Literature, etc.  These PIA items includes those that take lots of labor for disassembly (and, re-assembly).  Also included are very large mixing boards of over 12 channels, which I may decline to work on at all; and, most amplifiers over 200 w/ch.  Pricing varies; but, such as in the case of the Marshall noted at the beginning of this paragraph, and some others, the price is $135 for our MINIMUM FEE WITH DIAGNOSTIC TESTING.   We do NOT willy-nilly dump items into Type 5; but want you to be aware of these details, and you should ask ahead of time.  Usually I will explain our fee for diagnostics before you ever leave a category 4 or 5 item.

TYPE 6:   This category is for most anything else not elsewhere's mentioned.  The diagnostic and minimum fee can vary all over the place.  There is no set standard fee.  We will quote a minimum/diagnostic fee once we see the unit, and obtain the full complaint from you.

Note:  IN GENERAL, we declining to work on SMC-built items....that means lead-less components (Surface Mounting Components), as I have sold my special soldering equipment for such.

NOTE:  Inexpensive LOOK-SEE's has been discontinued.  Sometimes I still will accept one, with appointment, without a wait list position, but this is becoming rarer and rarer.

Test item usage fee:  Certain test equipment items have limited lifetimes due to wear with age and/or usage, such as "factory-standard" test tapes for frequency range & performance, wow & flutter, ETC.  Most of these items are no longer available from the original manufacturers; or, are only available at VERY high cost.   If/when these fail due to normal or other wear, we have to spend a considerable amount of time/money obtaining (or, making) new ones...IF WE EVEN CAN, or have specialists make them for us.   Therefore: Usage fees apply to certain such items, including FACTORY test tapes & FACTORY tape torque meters; or similar specialty tools.  10-1/2" Open Reel test tapes (any tape width):  $15.00.    ALL other tape types and sizes, including specialized tape type torque gauge units to measure tape take-up, or FF/RWD torques, or braking torques, for any and all types of tape machines...this includes small open reel types, 8 track cartridge types; and micro, mini, and standard cassette types; all inclusive 1 to 8 tracks:   $2 minimum, $8.00 maximum.  We DO NOT usually charge for use of some of our standardized CD/DVD discs and cassettes, because we can make most of those easily....just not all.

Vacuum tube basic testing, basic gain matching:   $5.00 equipment fee PLUS 70 cents per tube.   For specialized testing, such as for noise, gas, etc., it is $15 equipment fee PLUS $1.00 per tube.    For certain kinds of specific power output or other testing, the cost is higher.

Bounced checks:
In 48 years at Lake Tahoe ...and now 3+ years at Carson City, ...we have had only 5 bad (bounced) checks, and we collected, and kept the customer for repeat business, for all but 1.  I consider this to be exceptionally good!   But, we need to have a written policy.  If your check bounces, it must be paid for in cash (only) within 10 days of our good attempts at notification.  Payment MUST include 100% of what is due AND OUR ACTUAL bank fees costs ....AND $30.00 to cover our time spent to correct ledgers, correct our sales tax filings (if needed), etc. Some time after such mentioned good attempts at notification, without favorable response, we WILL AUTOMATICALLY FILE A FORMAL WRITTEN COMPLAINT with the appropriate Authorities (typically the District Attorney), and any costs involved will be added-to any existing charges.  Our intention is to let the local District Attorney contact you; and, as applicable,  we will file in Small Claims Court.  You may be interested to know that only once in over 50 years have we had to go to Court over a bounced check!   I think our customers are THE BEST!I'd not be surprised to find out that a bounced check, and how we try to be nice about initial contact and getting paid, is part of the success.   By-the-way, this policy MAY, at least partially, been because we get few checks, and I do make it known that we prefer, and often only take, cash!

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ver: 04/04/2023