A story of woe

John

I purchased a used flex 3000 in almost mint condition, which was traded in by someone else. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks later, when I decided to try 160m. The power output seems to drop and drop and drop just on this band so I took it back to the shop. This was the beginning of my woes. 5 weeks later the fault had still not been found, despite them being in contact with Klaus and Norbert in Germany. Two weeks into the repair, I happened to go into the shop to check on progress and was told that they were waiting for circuit diagrams from Germany. "Don't you know that you can download them from the Flex website " I asked. I got one of the salesmen to access the internet and he downloaded the files. I should have guessed what was to come. At five week mark, I blew up and got hold of one of the directors and was offered another 3000 they had had in the shop, when I got this one. I stipulated that I would accept it on condition that it went to Germany for a complete check and alignment.

My gripe is the length of time it took to attempt a fix before giving up and offering another rig. Moral of the story is if you don't know what you are doing and don't have the equipment and skills then send it to someone who does. I am now waiting for the flex 3000 to be checked in Germany and posted directly back to me. I wonder what has happened to my original 3000, has it been scrapped or will it too make its way to Germany one day.

Andrew O'Brien

Germany ?

John

yes, flex agents for europe are in Germany. The shop I bought it from are in the UK

M0JUE

Good for you.
de M0JUE

Steve K9ZW

Your UK Shop was the locked up people?  Would be unusual if the German's would leave you waiting unless they were off on Holidays.

Would seem someone at your local shop wasn't thinking of what the actual primary source repository would be - FRS itself.

That doesn't mean they are or are not technically fit, just they were stuck thinking inside the box.

Happens in a lot of repair shops in my trade.  They forget to let Google be their friend, or to pick up the phone and call.

Hope your new used radio works well for you!

73

Steve K9ZW

John

Unfortunately, the workshop has a ex salesman doing the work, shoved into the position which needs someone with 20+ years of experience and suitable qualifications, more money and better conditions, BUT NO EXPERIENCE. I blame the management as they probably wanted to save money, but this incident will leave a very bitter taste in my mouth for a long time to come.

John

On a more positive note by 1500 went to Germany for repairs with a hot audio amp ic and was returned the following day after its arrival, fixed and "re-tuned". Its come back better than when it left. Now that.s what one call service.

Tim - W4TME

John - I'd like to comment on your experienced getting a FLEX-3000 repaired.

While we do our best to manage the user experience a customer receives from our vendors, on rare occasions issues of unsatisfactory service like the one you experienced do unfortunately occur, and for that you have our most sincere apology.  

If you or anyone else is experiencing issues with any of our EU vendors, you should always contact us directly - most preferably Klaus who is our Representative for EU (FlexRadio-EU@t-online.de) so that we can manage the issue on your behalf with our vendor.  FlexRadio is your advocate in matters like these.  Also, while our vendors may perform repairs on our products, as you have discovered, the best option for product repairs is our authorized service center in Germany (http://www.flexradio.com/distributors/).  All non-warranty repairs should be directed to an authorized service center for highest quality service we can provide.

John

Thanks for the email and the comments Tim, much appreciated. Just to clear the air, the flex 3000 was a trade in item and when I purchased it, it had a 1 month shop warranty. The fault was found 2 weeks into the warranty period,...lucky me. They tried to repair it, but the fault was not where it was thought to be. ie in the 160m lpf. I believe all the relays and caps were changed, but the fault still persisted. The shop was then asked to carry out some tests/measurements and to report back to Germany.. I will stop here so as not to cause any further issues. I then emailed Klaus and Norbert, asking if they could intervene on my behalf which they did. This can be confirmed with Klaus and Norbert.