Demise of the TV engineer

After 4 decades in the trade I have never known the TV/Video/Audio repair trade to be so bad. I used to repair 7 or 8 items a day and now I'm down to 1 or 2 a week so its time to switch off the soldering iron and pack up. Everyone wants to buy as cheap as possible so prices have eroded every year until an economic repair is no longer viable. That is if you can get the spares. Unless you have an account with the reputable manufacturers ( for which you need a minimum spend and a high tech workshop) the prices from a distributor are too high. I've been charging the same repair price for the last 20 years just to keep going, to keep the repair viable, but not anymore.....I'm off to enjoy life at last!

When a TV cost a months salary, and contained big chunky components which could be easily tested, it was worth repairing.

Now they're all solid state and sometimes cost less than a good days money, they're throwaway items.

I remember when a TV was the same price as the van it was delivered in.....£350, when the average weekly wage was £15!!

pellow said:

After 4 decades in the trade I have never known the TV/Video/Audio repair trade to be so bad. I used to repair 7 or 8 items a day and now I'm down to 1 or 2 a week so its time to switch off the soldering iron and pack up. Everyone wants to buy as cheap as possible so prices have eroded every year until an economic repair is no longer viable. That is if you can get the spares. Unless you have an account with the reputable manufacturers ( for which you need a minimum spend and a high tech workshop) the prices from a distributor are too high. I've been charging the same repair price for the last 20 years just to keep going, to keep the repair viable, but not anymore.....I'm off to enjoy life at last!

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I was in the same position about 8 years ago. The bottom just droped out of the repair business completly. So I packed it it and went to work with computers instead. Best thing I ever did........

It's a shame, it's happening (or happened) with most things... I've had time-served motor mechanics complaining that they're basically just fitters nowadays. Back in the day they would have stripped down a starter motor or carburettor and cleaned/refurbed it. Now they just fit a new motor or fuel injector and chuck the old one.

Things are going the same way with PCs... we're moving in a direction towards the lighter-weight motherboard-with-everything-including-CPU-RAM-and-SSD-integrated, soon it won't even be possible to get your PC fixed by someone who isn't in a clean-room environment.

It's wasteful. But, we consumers keep on buying the latest kit. First HD-ready tellies, then the "Full-HD" sets. All of a sudden we've realised we haven't bought HDMI 1.4-compliant kit so will soon-enough need a new Blu-Ray, amp and screen if we want to watch 3D stuff.

Oh, but then some clever s*d will release "glasses-free 3D", which will be great until ultra-HD comes out at 4 times the resolution...

And so it continues!

I blame the old g*ts for buying-in to colour TV and stereo records back in the 60s, you showed the industry that we're prepared to spend all our money on the latest tech even if the old stuff works.

We still have a CRT TV . . . . . .




A small one in the conservatory.