Oak Park Electronics Inc

"I am the technician that serviced this set. First of all, the set never has failed while I have worked on it. Every trip to his house the set performed flawless. I have repaired probably over 75 of this particular set and am very familiar with this chassis. The first time I went to the customers home, I was told sometimes it would go 2 weeks without failing. I was unable to make the set go bad using a heat gun to try and make it do so. So I replaced several capacitors know to cause problems on this model. He was charged just 175 which included 55 service call. This was for over 2 hours work. On the second trip, I was told it worked ok for about a week and cut off again. This time I replaced several parts in the high voltage and x-ray protection circuit that have been known to cause problems. This was done at NO CHARGE. I left and told him to call if any more problem and that I would contact RCA tech services for help. It cut off again several days later. I returned and did the modifications recommended by RCA technical support and installed a new power conn. This was done at NO CHARGE even though I had another 2 hours there. I told him that if it still had a problem that it would just have to have the defl. and small sig. module replaced to insure it was corrected. The price of these parts could possibly be more than the set was worth. The defl. module I found out was no longer available. I was trying to find one on the internet from other shops but I guess he gave up on the repair. For over 6 hours work, we charged 175 including the trip charge. It is extremly difficult to repair something if it will not go bad while you are at the customers home. I would not want to put a several hundred dollar board in a set unless I was positive it was defective. The Customer said he couldn't understand it either why it would not go bad with me there. I am so sorry but sometimes a set with that age on it just needs to be replaced. The set was an RCA rear projection set that uses three crt's to produce the picture. It had an itc222 chassis in it which is fairly old. This is by no means a newer set. This set sold at WalMart when they were being discontinued for just 600 dollars. It really was not worth putting in a whole module. We have been in business for 35 years and really cherish our good reputation. I do not think the price we charged was in any way excessive for the hours we put in. Yes, if it had worked fine the first time, we would have made some money, not much since it is a ways to drive to Clayton. But with multiple trips back and not charging anything for the parts I put in or the labor, we lost a considerable amount. I still would be willing to repair this set but it would have to come into our shop to play until it fails. However the customer had already had it in another shop some time before and they kept it for a very long time for a different problem he said. I hope this explains to anyone reading this, what the reasons were for the problems."