Lastly, the secret is out that virtually all TVs will work come the all-digital changeover in 2009, either via a cable or satellite box or the new HD converter boxes, which seem to work very well. I was at a customer's house last week and she actually had about 20 local channels. These were picked up by rabbit ears, not through a cable or satellite receiver. I can only pick up seven channels here in Cleveland, Ohio with simple rabbit ears. Apparently there are stations that have greater area reach through the digital transmissions. I'll find out more and update accordingly. I was impressed.
As with any other contractor, do not hesitate to check with the Better Business Bureau before you hire a TV repair contractor. I get calls all the time after a shop has butchered someone's unit and there's not much hope for it at that point.
This is my first post here and I hope to continue to inform and enlighten our readers with various topics on video technologies, including home automation and entertainment.
Article comments
1 - Eric
How many companies offer to repair in home? Is this common? But really how many repairs can be done at my house?
thanks for the article.
2 - Craig Siplin
Yes, there are many companies who still perform bigscreen repair inhome. Now, as I mentioned in the article above, you will need to do due dilegence to find a respected servicer in your area and please take the tips that was mentioned above.
Some units cannot be repaired inhome and feel free to contact me on any issue you may have. The main focus of the article is to say, you may not have to throw out your 5-10 year old,$1500 to 5000.00 bigscreen due to failure or the upcoming HD deadline.
Thanks for reading at Blogcritics.com
3 - John
Hi Craig,
As a TV engineer myself, I feel there are a lot of unscrupulous "engineers" out there, making it very difficult for customers to decide where to go with their repair. Personally, I would like to see an independent body that customers could go to when looking for a good engineer. Engineers and repair centres that register could be regulated and monitored. This would sort out the cowboys.
To add to your list of questions above, I think Q6 should be, "what is your repair rate". The cowboys that are ripping of the public will have a very low rate, profiting on investigation fees. The experienced professionals will have considerably higher repair rates, profiting from repair charges.
We say to our customers that we have no investigation fee, if we don't repair we don't charge, this puts the incentive on us to repair. Engineers that charge investigation fees have no incentive to repair.
More importantly, the engineer that has the incentive to fault find and repair learns and improves his skills.
Regards, John