Uber expensive repair at United Radio


Anybody’s experience with United Radio (East Syracuse) as a service center? I will never do business again with these guys. They charged me $1,971 to repair my Classé Audio C-M600 monoblock amp...Forteen hours @$120/hour to replace two 16 pins chipsets...They provided me a discount on their regular hourly rate, which is normally set at $140/hour...
128x128dasign
Let's look at this situation without involving emotions.
The business did you a favor by providing you with an option, where there was none (according to you).
You agreed to the deal.
They delivered as promised.
Now you talk bad behind their backs.
That is just bad manners.

Your argument here is further eroded by the simple fact that they are in business and as evidenced by business still in operation, they know what they are doing to stay in business.
You are not in the audio repair business. Any opinions that you have about what things should cost or what they should do, are just that, without any evidence that you know what you are talking about.

It is like saying, "Everyone should do what I wish was true"
snratio
cleeds, ya obviously don’t have much electronics experience or business experience.
Once again: You don’t know what you are talking about. That seems to be the case with many of your posts. But you’re here to argue - not to talk about audio or music - so I realize this is all working out just swell for you. It's odd that you keep doing this only to be banned from the group again and again.
arcticdeth  I agree about these cars, but not just the expense.  My BMW's and Alfa's were beyond spending a fortune to keep them functioning properly.  They were just too much trouble to bother with.  I had the best audio repairman ever.  He designed his product, made it, repaired it, and always answered the phone.  He even told me how to unplug a power transistor laden heat sink to sent it to him and save shipping costs.  We all miss you, Julius.
@vladedelman

United Radio (UR) was the only option provided as a service center from Classé Audio. What other options are you talking about? UR is the sole authorized repair center for Classé Audio in NA...I would never send my gear elsewhere than the authorized manufacturer's service center. They normally would have access to schematics, components and engineering support.

True that I agreed  to the deal and the amp is now working fine. I am only expressing my opinion relative to the actual cost of the repair. FYI, I had my two previous Krell FPB350 MCX monoblock amps recapped at the Krell factory. My total upgrade cost was $1,500 ($750/amp). So this is kind of my repair cost reference point. Call it bad manners if you want, but I do feel the repair cost was out of proportion, compared to my Krell repair experience and don't feel ashamed of calling it out.

Not sure if you read the whole post, when you are indicating that I don't know what I am talking about servicing equipment. I did own a telecommunications equipment repair shop + managed directly/indirectly 2 other electronic repair shops during my career. I am very familiar with all the Capex/Opex costs involved in operating an service repair department.

Considering that Classe went out of business at one point, I think you were fortunate to get it repaired at all.

 I go out of my way to buy US-made gear and prefer point to point design, in part because I want it to last and be repairable. 
Recently bought a used, near-state-of-the-art phono stage for $3k from an Audiogon member.  It had a loud hum; might have been undisclosed damage, or could have been damaged in shipping. Cost $1500 to fix (effectively, an upgade to the power supply transformer.)  50% more was a painful, unanticipated delta!  My point is that it was a point-to-point wiring design that may be repairable for a few hundred years. Classe, not so much.