Warranty repair wait times - serious industry problem??


I'm looking at buying a used amplifier that needs some work, and lucky it's still under warranty. In researching places to get work done it's horrifying to learn that it could take two or three months after speaking to a few places.

Is this a widespread problem in the audio gear repair world? That's really bad.

emergingsoul

Basically it's unfortunate because I would like to buy an amplifier and now I learned because of the declining workforce to service audio gear it presents another problem.

Why would anybody buy used gear when servicing is needed and in many cases it's probably a good idea.

I think manufacturers have some serious issues finding Labor and having the willingness to pay appropriately to service their products. And this is after charging more money for their products and then they don't wanna pay for obligated warranty service work.

Warranty repair centers probably don't make much money off of warranty work as they prefer straight repair work. low priority work for them. I think manufactures are going to have a serious problems in the future if they don't care of their customers.

Everybody suffers because the guys in the back office want to boost the profit margin in the short term without regard for longer-term consequences. 

I had a Tascam recorder that was at the warranty repair service for over 4 months. I was told some people had been waiting for over a year! Sorta of like a badge of honor?

Anyway, they said if I wanted to pay extra, I could move up the waiting line. I ended up taking it back unrepaired and now use it as a boat anchor.

So, as much as I can, please DO NOT buy anything from Tascam!

ozzy

The backlog for repair on Leica cameras is 7 months right now (per the local dealer).  This doesn't appear to be limited to hifi.

@ozzy

My guess is your service center handles a lot of electronic gear so it may relate to other manufacturers as well.

I’m beginning to understand that warranty Service centers related to audio gear, and other stuff and they do cover lots of manufacturers, are notoriously slow with warranty repairs. I did hear from one audio related service center that manufactures don’t want equipment back and they refer it to service centers.

What recourse does anyone really have. Odds are you won’t be impacted, so because the masses don’t have a problem manufacturers can financially not give much attention to this. Because so many other manufacturers do it, there is safety in numbers.

So I’m thinking twice about buying used audio components right now.
How do manufacturers justify charging so much money for audio gear when they treat customers poorly after they buy it. Is it up to the dealers or the manufacturers? I guess dealers have to handle problems and very difficult for them to control timing of work when they don’t pay/ Control warranty repair cost so what do they care. And the manufacturers just set aside funds to pay for future costs hoping it won’t be very much.

Do warranty service centers make much from manufactures for this work? Or do they make more money on non-warranty work where they can charge customers directly.

 

Three months is not bad, relatively-speaking. If you have fine watches, waits of 9-12 months for manufacturer's service are common.