I consider myself a generally nice person - never felt joy in talking bad about others or do bad to them to get ahead. Guess, I took Thumper's line in the Bambi regarding what his mother told him - loosly as I remember - if you can't say anything good about the person, never say anything at all...
Well, for once, I will go against Thumper's advice.
A person responsded to my inquiry for a Nagra T Audio service after learning from Nagra Audio USA that they no longer offer service for analog tape machines and i would send it to Swiss for repair...
He replied to my post with strong information why he is the only one in US who can do the repair on Nagra T. I contacted him and asked the usual question for an estimate after describing its symptoms. His reply was that I'll have to send it in before he can give me an estimate. So, I put the sick Nagra T Audio in its factory flight case before Christmas 2009. Realizing the original hard foam at the bottom of the metal case was already compressed from the previous use and age, I put an additional new 2" hard foam on the bottom for protection. The machine got to Eastcoast fine and he informed me that he had other machines ahead of mine...but I didn't hear from Bob for months.
Well get to the end of the story - I finally heard from him in July 2010 -well over six months had gone by... with the information that he had worked on my machine but it can't be fixed. I would have to spend $5K for a new board or $3.5K trade for a refurbished one and plus his time for both options. I was shocked...although I had never authorized him to do the repair - with any common sense - if I had known in the estimate that the parts cost alone was to be at min. $3.5K, it would have be an easy decision and the answer would have been NO (since I had two other perfect Nagra T Audios, I can use this one for spare parts). But in respect for his work and being a nice guy, I told him that repair was out of question but I would still pay for his time in troubleshooting the issue. He got somewhat upset that I wasn't going through with the repair...and said I owed him $1,500 for finding the problem. I was about to faint. I should have challenged him with the fact that I had never agreed to let him do the work in the first place without him even mentioning the estimate for the work. But being a nice guy I asked him to send me an invoice. Well, the invoice came with $5,000 for the troubleshooting work and $3,500 special discount plus $41 for parts he replaced(used to troubleshoot???).
Now for the ugly parts- he sends me an email few days later....after keeping my machine for more than 6 months - he would start charging me for storage fees if I didn't send in the money soon.
Since I was a nice guy (again but at this time, more like -being stupid, I sent him a check for $1,541 for his professional assessment that my machine was still not working... The machine did get back to me but to my dismay, I found the 2" hard foam piece on top of the deck and the Nagra T was crushed on one bottom corner not having any protection to speak of. I emailed him with the shipping damage issue and asked him why he didn't bother to put the foam material at the bottom of the case... He denied any responsibilty but told me not to relinqush the deck to FedEx. However, unlike UPS, when one makes a damage claim to FedEx they must have the packge in their facility for inspection. In filing the claim I insisted to FedEx to send the machine back to Seattle after inspection. After a week or so, I got pretty strong and disturbbing message from him that FedEx had delivered the Nagra to his place, he never had authorized me to send the deck to him, and he is not there for long time. He said I have get FedEx to pick it up or someone will steal it.
FedEx denied my damage claim because it was in a "case" instead of a cardboard box with proper weight rating (go figure)... I sent him an email asking if he had seen the deck at his place but received no relpy. In the meantime, FedEx had admitted today that they should have returned the package to Seattle and don't know where the package is still...
So I just called him this morning to inform him of my situation and to ask him if he had any traces of the Nagra in his place. Unbelieveably he got angry that I called him to ask about the recorder, he had already wasted his time on my machine, and I had refused his work. I lost my patience at that point and told him the fact that he never gave me an estimate, did the work without my written concent, and he was rude, mean, nasty and unprofessional... etc. He said he never wanted to hear from me or anything more about my machine ever again and hung up on me.
Now, that's a place where you don't ever want to send your Nagra machine or even your ex-mother-in-law for anything.
As I discussed with one of the fourm members earlier... the person is still living in the 80s when he could have demanded more, his service had bigger value, studios would spend $5000 for parts and he can charge another $5000 for his time. Unfortunately, those days are over and long gone.
BTW, saddly I had insured the Nagra for $2000 only but even that's gone plus now I am out of the recorder.
Sorry Thumper, if you are reading this... I'll do better the next time.
Ki
Well, for once, I will go against Thumper's advice.
A person responsded to my inquiry for a Nagra T Audio service after learning from Nagra Audio USA that they no longer offer service for analog tape machines and i would send it to Swiss for repair...
He replied to my post with strong information why he is the only one in US who can do the repair on Nagra T. I contacted him and asked the usual question for an estimate after describing its symptoms. His reply was that I'll have to send it in before he can give me an estimate. So, I put the sick Nagra T Audio in its factory flight case before Christmas 2009. Realizing the original hard foam at the bottom of the metal case was already compressed from the previous use and age, I put an additional new 2" hard foam on the bottom for protection. The machine got to Eastcoast fine and he informed me that he had other machines ahead of mine...but I didn't hear from Bob for months.
Well get to the end of the story - I finally heard from him in July 2010 -well over six months had gone by... with the information that he had worked on my machine but it can't be fixed. I would have to spend $5K for a new board or $3.5K trade for a refurbished one and plus his time for both options. I was shocked...although I had never authorized him to do the repair - with any common sense - if I had known in the estimate that the parts cost alone was to be at min. $3.5K, it would have be an easy decision and the answer would have been NO (since I had two other perfect Nagra T Audios, I can use this one for spare parts). But in respect for his work and being a nice guy, I told him that repair was out of question but I would still pay for his time in troubleshooting the issue. He got somewhat upset that I wasn't going through with the repair...and said I owed him $1,500 for finding the problem. I was about to faint. I should have challenged him with the fact that I had never agreed to let him do the work in the first place without him even mentioning the estimate for the work. But being a nice guy I asked him to send me an invoice. Well, the invoice came with $5,000 for the troubleshooting work and $3,500 special discount plus $41 for parts he replaced(used to troubleshoot???).
Now for the ugly parts- he sends me an email few days later....after keeping my machine for more than 6 months - he would start charging me for storage fees if I didn't send in the money soon.
Since I was a nice guy (again but at this time, more like -being stupid, I sent him a check for $1,541 for his professional assessment that my machine was still not working... The machine did get back to me but to my dismay, I found the 2" hard foam piece on top of the deck and the Nagra T was crushed on one bottom corner not having any protection to speak of. I emailed him with the shipping damage issue and asked him why he didn't bother to put the foam material at the bottom of the case... He denied any responsibilty but told me not to relinqush the deck to FedEx. However, unlike UPS, when one makes a damage claim to FedEx they must have the packge in their facility for inspection. In filing the claim I insisted to FedEx to send the machine back to Seattle after inspection. After a week or so, I got pretty strong and disturbbing message from him that FedEx had delivered the Nagra to his place, he never had authorized me to send the deck to him, and he is not there for long time. He said I have get FedEx to pick it up or someone will steal it.
FedEx denied my damage claim because it was in a "case" instead of a cardboard box with proper weight rating (go figure)... I sent him an email asking if he had seen the deck at his place but received no relpy. In the meantime, FedEx had admitted today that they should have returned the package to Seattle and don't know where the package is still...
So I just called him this morning to inform him of my situation and to ask him if he had any traces of the Nagra in his place. Unbelieveably he got angry that I called him to ask about the recorder, he had already wasted his time on my machine, and I had refused his work. I lost my patience at that point and told him the fact that he never gave me an estimate, did the work without my written concent, and he was rude, mean, nasty and unprofessional... etc. He said he never wanted to hear from me or anything more about my machine ever again and hung up on me.
Now, that's a place where you don't ever want to send your Nagra machine or even your ex-mother-in-law for anything.
As I discussed with one of the fourm members earlier... the person is still living in the 80s when he could have demanded more, his service had bigger value, studios would spend $5000 for parts and he can charge another $5000 for his time. Unfortunately, those days are over and long gone.
BTW, saddly I had insured the Nagra for $2000 only but even that's gone plus now I am out of the recorder.
Sorry Thumper, if you are reading this... I'll do better the next time.
Ki
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