Restraints On TV Repair Firms In Australia

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 12

Restraints On TV Repair Firms In Australia

Support for the Canterbury Televiewers’ Association’s claims that some TV repair ana service firms in Christchurch have been charging exorbitant prices and charging for unwarranted repairs comes from a report published in Australia.

This report, published three years ago when the TV industry in New South Wales was at a stage comparable with the industry in New Zealand at present, outlines how “racketeering or inefficient mechanics are fleecing TV set owners of thousands of pounds annually.” The report has been sent in by a reader of “The Press.” The managers of two TV servicing and repair firms in Christchurch, asked to. comment on the report, agreed that “snide” TV repair operators did flourish in Sydney, and other Australian cities.

“Now any firm wishing to become TV set-repairers in Sydney has to put up a bond of £50,000 under State law. This ensures that when TV repair firms, operating on a chancy or snide basis, have to pay out at least £50,000 when they go bankrupt," one manager said. “It also is a bar to the cheap, snide operator entering the field.” “The trouble in Christchurch is that all retail outlets advertise ‘sales and service’ when many of them have not the capital, or trained staff or arrangements with competent technicians to do repairs properly at a reasonable price,” said the other manager.

Both managers said that the amount of “racketeering” that went on in Sydney in the TV set repair and service field forced the New South Wales Government to introduce regulations aimed at preventing it. “To be fair to the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation, it did propose to the Government that persons and firms entering the TV repair industry should be required to put up a bond. The Government decided against this,” one manager said. “A TV repair and service firm in Sydney went bankrupt after three years owing £284,000 to unsecured firms and almost the same amount to secured creditors.”

“Tricks pulled” by “snide operators” in the TV repair

field in Sydney are listed in the report as:

Repairmen telling owners that the picture tube (replacement cost £34) has failed, when it was in reality another minor fault. In one instance, the fault was shown to be a burned-out condenser, repair cost 2s, plus labour. Insurance companies and service organisations in Sydney agreed that less than 5 per cent of breakdowns were caused by failure of the picture tube.

Another trick was the removal of a good picture tube, replacement by a new one, the repairman gaining the old picture tube, in good order, for stock purposes. Owners were told by some repairmen that the yoke, a device to control the movement of lines on the screen and placed on the neck of the picture tube, was worn out. The repairman then replaced it at a cost of £B-£lO, plus labour, repaired it at his leisure, and sold it to a new customer.

In fact, the yoke consisted of several small parts each of which could develop a fault. The parts could be replaced for as little as Is 3d. and the yoke would then give efficient service. The “snide” repairman replaced many valves when only one was needed. Insurance companies said it was unlikely that more than two valves would fail at the same time in a TV set. Insurance investigators in Sydney had proved on many occasions that some repairmen spent much more time than was necessary on repairs in order to increase the bill by labour costs.

Both the managers of the TV repair firms who were approached in Christchurch said that such “tricks" could be carried out here by “jobbing” repairmen. The advice to TV set owners by Sydney insurance experts was that they should find “reputable companies • TV set owners should choose two or three well-known or long-established companies and check each to find out the prices for maintenance contracts or the charges for casual repair work on an hourly basis. The owners should acquaint themselves with the prices of TV parts, then select the company which they considered would give them the best all-round deal.