Why doesn’t someone go knock on this guy’s front door and demand return of the unit (whatever it may be) you sent him for repair? At least then you are back to square one. He probably does have 100s of tape machines backlogged. He’s probably totally disorganized, and there may be no hope for any better outcome than cutting any ties with him. He’s nuts, in other words.
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Wish I found this thread earlier... I had the misfortune of sending my high-end Teac cassette deck to Skywave Repair (Sam Palermo) almost a year ago. Since then, my experience mirrored the ones described above to the letter. The guy claimed that the deck was in far worse shape than it actually was, that he had tons of higher priority projects going, etc. After months and months of waiting, I gave up and asked him (multiple times) to return the deck back to me, unrepaired, at my expense. Now he is just ignoring my emails. What a crook. I filed a complaint with BBB, don’t know what else to do at this point...
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THAT'S THE GUY- SAM PALERMO. He is a big effing problem.
There is a discussion group called "Tape Heads" that he regularly participates on, and I was going to relate my experience with him on their site after talking to the site-manager. He appears to know his stuff but has both an attitude problem and a business-ethic problem. Maybe I'll go ahead anyway- I have saved dozens of his nasty e-mails so it could turn into a book.
"SKYWAVE" is his moniker. In any case do NOT EVER send him a vintage machine. |
and they are Otari and Technics.
....and Revox |
I sent my Sony WW-D6C off to Sam Palermo four + (count 'em: 4.5) years ago. I bugged him once each year, just inquiring as to status. He finally claimed to have opened mine up and found previous 'work' that was wrong. As I have never opened mine up except to replace cassettes or batteries and had never used any wall wart except the factory-supplied one, I suspected he had the wrong device tagged to me. So I dug out my original receipt & sent him the serial number. Last October was the last word I got from him. He threatens to send back complainer's devices. I invited him to do exactly that.
Oh, and I ain't gonna file suit in Small Claims. I'm a lawyer, licensed in an adjoining state, and I know how fruitless that'd be. |
I don't know where you are located, but if you have the stomach for trying again, I suggest Bill Thalmann of Music Tecnologies in Springfield, VA. If Bill cannot fix it, he will tell you straight out after trying. |
I'm done whining about my "little problem"- life is too short anyway. But just so you know, this "technically proficient" guy had TWO outboard preamps to work with since the deck comes with a separate transport unit. It was designed to be a semi-pro deck with umbilicals to connect the two units. It has a 1/4 track and a 1/2 track playback head and records at 7.5 and 15 IPS. I gave him ample opportunity plus extra parts plus a lot of time, and after spending over $1000 I have nothing, not even a partially assembled deck in a box to send to another repair service. Because he's too lazy (or trashed it or sold it (?) to get his thing together and even do that. AFTER I agreed to pay him even more money
if he sends me an invoice for the caps he replaced, etc. There are some people in this world I do not understand nor do I approve of their disregard for others. But as long as his cat gets fed I guess that's all that seems to matter...
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French-fries, I'm interjecting a comment from the perspective of someone who has owned many different brands of reel to reel decks, including a Teac 2000R. I'm also a retired "industrial" electronics technician who repairs his own stuff.
I had no success in repairing the Teac because it was not of the industrial quality that was meant to be repaired. plus I am not a professional R2R repair person; however, I bought my Technics RS1500 "used", over 20 years ago, and I have been able to modify and repair it with the Service Manual. It's built in the "industrial" manner that makes it "repairable".
Recently, one channel went out on my Sony KA3ES cassette deck; my troubleshooting indicated a bad "IC". All I needed to repair it was thing about half as big as your thumbnail. If I could have gotten the part, I would have had to take all of the inside out, just to get to it. Fortunately I had an identical deck, and took that large circuit board out of it, and inserted it into the bad unit. That deck was not constructed to be "repairable".
You have to know when to cut your losses short; apparently this guy has run into a "brick wall" and doesn't know how to tell you.
My comment is not meant to advise or help you in your current situation, but to advise you or anyone else in regard to any future purchase of reel to reels. There are only two decks, that are not super expensive, that consumers have not had a problem in getting repaired and maintaining, "that I know of", and they are Otari and Technics.
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Too bad....such aggrivation
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(Sam Palermo) who apparently has a lot of time commenting on TapeHeads.net (Under SkyWave). He knows his stuff, or at least has a lot to say about repairing and adjusting decks. But his actual business model is "you'll get your machine back after I pet my cat while I play on facebook", etc. He wastes a lot of time doing something- who knows what. Tape Heats has a great forum, but I doubt you can write up a sponsor for mucking up your repair order. But I might try to anyway. He is a real jerk to say the least. |
Why not also name( shame) him here on on other audio forums. |
Okay so here's what you do. Go on-line, learn everything you can about how to sue a guy in his District Court. Download the forms, write it up and you do it just like an attorney would, exaggerating every accusation and every damage, real or imagined, only in your case being sure to stay just under the total you are allowed to sue for in his jurisdiction.
Print it up, and mail it off to - and this is the most important part - a process server.
The whole time this is going on, however long it takes and the longer the better, you do NOT try and contact the guy. You let him sit there chortling over the poor dumb schlub whose deck he keeps getting paid to sit on. Which he is really enjoying. Until the process server. And let me tell you, that will wipe the friggen smile off his face. That will create the public record and reputation you desire. And he will HAVE to appear in court, or risk summary judgment in your favor.
Which by the way you do not necessarily have to appear for. If it goes that far you either hire an attorney to make just the one appearance, if your research even turns up that that is required. You may be able to arrange other representation. Point is, your guy will have to appear or risk summary judgment. Most people will do just about anything to avoid a court appearance.
Or you get yourself some bitcoin, hire some Russian hacker. Or you walk.
I'd go with the process server.
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