[Icom] Icom parts support

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:59:12 -0500

Hi Folks,

Ah, the service and part tracking down, brings back many memories.  When I
was rebuilding the Icom 761 from hell, Icom parts was great. They even
found some no longer avail parts and overnighted them to me for free.

I had to buy an upper case for a transit damaged Kenwood TD 850S and it
took about 10 calls to them and 11 weeks to get it.  When they finally got
it from Japan and notified me that it was there, I called them and gave
them my FedEx acct number and instructed them to send it overnight air by
10:00 delivery.

Yep, you guessed it they sent it UPS ground and it got destroyed. Made it
from Japan ok but not from NY to AR.

I ordered another one and this time I had it shipped via FedEx
international air right from Japan. All in all the upper case cost me about
300.00 to get.

Now as to wait times for parts or service.  I have waited on hold for my
ISP tech support for sometime an hour only to be told that they are having
DSL issues right now.  These are the  people I pay a little over 100.00 a
Mo for service to.

When I was into restoring Collins gear, I did charge 60% of standard labor
rate for obtaining parts. When I started calling all over the country and
sometimes to Europe for a part, I always got time and charges from the
phone co. and passed that along with the actual time involved to the
customer.

Now some would say that is a rip-off to the customer but parts for 50 year
old radios are not easy to find and at that time there was only about a
dozen people in the whole US that would even touch a Collins at any price
and even fewer today.

I usually had a 9 mo min backlog waiting for restoration.  But what the
heck, it sure did get me a ton of brand new Icom gear that works...

Icom parts and service is still the best I have ever worked with. Just try
and leave a phone message for a callback with Yaesu or KW, you will
probably die of old age before they call you. Icom always called back
within 24 hours on their dime.

On last thing, Ten-Tec is probably the most customer friendly company there
is anywhere.  These people are great and helpful and in most cases will
send you parts or boards for a 20 yr old radio for free. They really are No
1 in service in my book.

Bad thing is, they still look like they were made in an alley garage. I
have toured their factory many times and every last person down to the
janitor smiles and says hello to you

73

        William J. Diamond (Bill)
        Rogers, Arkansas USA
        [email protected]

        Ham Radio Operator WR�T

 Please Visit My Icom Radio Page At

 http://pages.sbcglobal.net/wjdiamond/index.html

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of Paul Playford
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 10:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Icom] Icom parts support

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean Norris" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 11:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Icom] Icom parts support

> At  16:00 6/10/2003, you wrote:
>
> You are retired, Paul.  What else have you got to do.  In fact, why don't
> you start a service to sit on the phone to Icom (and other such places)
to
> place orders?
>

I charge my time out at $90 an hour.  I realize that this is chicken feed
for an attorney but would you really send a client an itemized bill with a
charge for $22.50 for 15 minutes of listening to "YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT,
etc." ?

> You might just make a mint, HIHI.
>
> BTW, I would think that would be really far down my list of reasons to
dump
> a radio allegiance.
>

I will not deny that Icom makes the best performing radios for the amateur
radio service.  But I cannot in good conscience recommend Icom radios to
anyone else - especially if they are going to depend on Icom service,
assuming their service response is similar to their parts response.

> Dean
>

de Paul, W8AEF

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