Uber expensive repair at United Radio

$1,900 strikes me as very excessive. Full stop. 

I had an experience with Soundsmith several years back. They wanted $800 just to do “diagnostics” on my preamp that needed a repair, a fee which was not going to be applied to the repair itself if I went ahead with it, as is customary with many vendors. 

I already knew what the problem was: a soldered wire had come loose during my move from NYC to The Hudson Valley. I gave them that information, with the instructions that I simply wanted the wire resoldered. No matter: I still had to pay the $800 diagnostic fee. 

I went to the hardware store, bought a soldering iron, and did it myself. The unit worked fine afterwards.

I have uncommon gear, but the amps, the table are made in the northeast so when in need of repair, I can drive them to the people who actually built them, and the speakers were built in Oklahoma but there’s an authorized repair service in NJ. 

I've been pretty lucky, and not had to get much gear repaired, so I just wanted to get clear:

Are people taking the position that 14 hours to replace two chips (7 hours each!) and 140 bucks an hour sounds pretty standard for audio repair.

I just had an electrician in for 75 bucks an hour; that's a good rate for around here, but I don't think people are getting 140.

Sound like audio repair must be more like maintenance for nicer watches, which strikes me as extortionate, and a very good reason not to buy such watches.

@jdoris - to equate high end electronic repair rates with electricians is hysterical.  It’s based on specialization - the rarer the service, the more it costs. No disrespect to electricians, but there are tons of them everywhere.

high end audio repairmen? Obviously a rare breed. As I mentioned before the hourly rate is irrelevant anyway, the question is, how much to do the job?

Sokogear: I was just observing 140 seems like a high hourly  compared to many skilled trades.

Perhaps you are right that it is a scarcity issue.

But I'm still not clear why the hourly is irrelevant to thinking about whether pricing is fair: is your position that if the op was charged 2 grand for 15 minutes of labor by a skilled tradesperson, that  would be irrelevant  to his thinking about whether to use that provider again?  What about 5k per 15?  What if the competition charged 30 bucks an hour?


Many providers charge by the hour, not the job: how do you compare in such cases, since you don't think about the hourly rate?