Transport replacement costs - Proceed


I finally got to a point where I called Harman for a RMA number. My Proceed PDT3 (I think) may need to have its transport replaced. Last year I was unwilling to send it in because (at the time) Harman was charging a flat $1000 "entry fee" for servicing this older line of equipment. They now have a "not to exceed" fee (which covers both parts and labor). In the case of the PDT3 the NTE fee is $995. I am a little unwilling to be socked with an almost $1000 fee for such an old (but still awesome) transport. When I asked the guy what he thought a transport replacement would cost, he was unsure. Does anyone have any recent experience in helping me understand whether this kind of work would be bumping up on to the higher end of that NTE fee?
tonyptony
Tonyptony

I am over in the San Francisco area, ...just my opinion, I don't get too concerned over using Harman, they don't manufacture the parts used within the Proceed transports. Most of the stuff is easily found and most decent techs have them on hand.
"Let me know how it works out with United Radio"

United RADIO. Duh. They're in East Syracuse, if my Yahoo'ing got me there correctly. They don't show either Madrigal or Proceed as brands they do repair on, but I'll give them a call.

Justlisten, SF is too far for me, even if I was just there in August. Great city, wishing I was there now - and not just for an audio repair!
Update: if it's the same United Radio in Syracuse then they just told me they do not do repair work on Proceed gear. Oh well.
I sympathize with you, the manufacturer will mark up the repair cost significantly. I had the transport replaced recently in my DVD player and it cost me about a grand for the repair and shipping. A bit much for a discontinued player whic now will sell for about a grand on the used market. I do have a one year manufacturer's warranty but I will be out on the shipping if the unit has any problems.
If I had to do it all over again at that price I would consider a new player.