[Elecraft] Elecraft Service

[turnbull]

Dear OMs and YLs,    It is not so long ago that the K3S and slightly different K3 were in production.   Certainly not seven years for the K3S.    I am dissapointed with Elecraft on this issue.   It is one of the few bad marks.   Maybe the delays in repair are not necessarily do to parts but lack of good technicians.   Problems are not diagnosed according to one of our number.   I once worked summers for a Connecticut company who let their repair inventories build to an embarassing level till they realised this was not good for business.    They turned the situation around.    I hope our valued mother ship will do the same.This is not to say that shortages are not a problem these days but at least let the customer know what the difficulty is.   I am disappointed.73 Doug EI2CNSent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Tim N9PUZ <tim.n9puz at gmail.com> Date: 21/04/2022  21:14  (GMT+00:00) To:  Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft Service I don't think many of us would be happy with the change in pricing ifElecraft were to guarantee the ability to replace and repair radios for along period of time. Many electronic components go "end of life" veryquickly. Some percentage of those parts will break over the life of aproduct.For a manufacturer to state they will repair a given product for, let'ssay, ten years, they would have to estimate the failures likely to occurand the parts needed to make those repairs up front. Then they have to buy,inventory, and safely store all of those parts for ten years after the lastmodel comes off the production line. That cost is non-trivial and isultimately borne by the customer who may need those parts one day. This iswhy an engine controller for your car may cost thousands of dollars eventhough it only has a hundred bucks worth of components. They also take intoaccount that they may never sell those parts they will store for years. Thecustomer ultimately pays for a lot of that as well.If there was a promise they could be repaired for a specified period oftime, none of us might be able to afford a KX or K series transceiver. Thisis life in the age of electronics.Tim N9PUZ______________________________________________________________Elecraft mailing listHome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraftHelp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.netThis list hosted by: http://www.qsl.netPlease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.htmlMessage delivered to turnbull at net1.ie