Lesson learned

[backinthelou]

Hi all, I just received my Fisher 800C back from "restoration". Sadly, I hadn't found the thread here on AK about this business or read his BBB profile until after I sent it to him. Before and throughout the "restoration", I asked him to do a tuner alignment because it barely goes into STEREO and even if it does, it clicks in and out of stereo mode. When going to "FM Stereo Filter", it is noisy. Going to "FM automatic" if and when it goes into stereo mode, it clicks in and out of stereo.
This is just the beginning of the horror story with sending it off, but I am starting with this. Is this something that I can do short of starting from the beginning again?

 

[notdigital]

This is just the beginning of the horror story with sending it off, but I am starting with this. Is this something that I can do short of starting from the beginning again?

A properly aligned tuner is tricky business and best left in the hands of someone who has proven ability. Since it seems like you are saying there are other issues, it is probably best to lay bare those other issues and leave the most technically challenging for last. Other than the attempted alignment, what other work has been done?

 

[walyfd]

Welcome to the club. Hope it works out. It can be very frustrating...

 

[backinthelou]

A properly aligned tuner is tricky business and best left in the hands of someone who has proven ability. Since it seems like you are saying there are other issues, it is probably best to lay bare those other issues and leave the most technically challenging for last. Other than the attempted alignment, what other work has been done?

The short of it is that I spent $650 to somebody in Wisconsin(that was banned from AK) and I am living the nightmare that everyone has written about him on here and on the BBB where he has an F rating.

 

[backinthelou]

The short of it is that I spent $650 to somebody in Wisconsin(that was banned from AK) and I am living the nightmare that everyone has written about him on here and on the BBB where he has an F rating.

I have $1000 into this thing and it's in worse shape than when I sent it. Missing hardware, he swapped my original Fisher 7591 tubes that I had tested before I sent it to him, for cheap JJ's.....that's just the beginning. Sorry, just venting. I need to clean the switches and do other things before I get to a tuner alignment. The switches sound like it's been sitting for years.

 

[RS Steve]

I have $1000 into this thing and it's in worse shape than when I sent it. Missing hardware, he swapped my original Fisher 7591 tubes that I had tested before I sent it to him, for cheap JJ's.....that's just the beginning. Sorry, just venting. I need to clean the switches and do other things before I get to a tuner alignment. The switches sound like it's been sitting for years.

Having dealt with someone that butchered a couple of my units, and kept another for a good year, I can feel your pain. Best thing I can suggest is use it as a learning experience, and also use the anger to push things forward to a positive outcome. I went to every online site this person frequented, left the feedback he deserved, and pretty much put a warning out there for others to beware. There are plenty of very dedicated people here that can assist you, and in the end you'll have the piece of mind that it didn't ruin your enthusiasm for your receiver.

 

[dsndblm]

I'm sorry to hear the bad news. I've sent two tuners to an AK member that frequently posts in this forum. I couldn't be more pleased with his work and labor rate. I'm not sure if we are allowed to give names. If you are interested I will pm you his info.

 

[CoogarXR]

Unfortunately, the era of easy "bad cap" fixes gave birth to a group of people who think they are more proficient at repairs than they actually are. The same thing happened in the tube days. My grandpa called them "tube swappers". Now we have "cap swappers".

I see so many horror stories about electronics repair shops. It's a shame.

 

[notdigital]

Sorry to hear. I remember when Steve went through his horror show similar to yours and it doesn't leave you with a very good feeling. Despite the bad experience, don't give up on the receiver. The 800-c is a really, really nice unit. It is in my stable of Fisher pieces that will probably be with me until I croak.

Much of what can be addressed in restoring it can be done as a DIY project. I started out knowing absolutely ZERO yet managed to restore my 800-c. It was untouched for 30+ years when I found it in the garbage! Of course, nothing was possible without the unselfish help of the folk right here in this forum. A great bunch indeed! The only thing that is out of the league of 99.9% of techs is the thing that apparently bugged you most: alignment. So, as I mentioned before, get everything else corrected and deal with the MPX issue last. There's hope still

 

[AlTinkster92]

Yep, this all reminds me of when I got my 1st 3 pieces of Fisher gear and the crap I went thru as well. Ended up taking it all down to Dave and he got all 3 pieces working perfectly. Have learned a lot in these Forums. We all learn from our mistakes!