Arcam service charges :(

unrealdave

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Has anyone had problems with their DVD tray and tried to get it fixed?

I just went to an Arcam dealer as my DV139 tray will not open - it has already been repaired once as well, although under warranty.

Anyway it seems that Arcam now want £336 to do ANY repair on a dvd player. It is clear from searching the internet that Arcam cd and dvd players have a known issue with the trays playing up after a while but a DVD player that was £2kish should be built like a battleship? fmj build quality? OK things go wrong but then to cash in on it is not really cricket.

So I thought I would ask if anyone has ever fixed this problem themselves and if so, could they give me some advice please?
 
Well there is a fixed cost for any repair AFAIK.

(Assuming you are in the UK) You could try approaching trading standards ... if you can show there is a known issue from the original manufacture then your dealer would be responsible as you may be able to argue it wasn't of satisfactory quality ... Refund, repair or replacement - what am I entitled to? - Trading Standards Institute may help you.

Disclaimer ... nothing written here constitutes legal advice...
 
Good point - there are a lot of posts on different sites re this problem so I might small claims them and see what happens. To be fair I would have happily paid a reasonable amount to get it fixed (again) but £336? Really?
 
Under EU law, you have some degree of comeback from your retailer for up to 6 years, although (IIRC) this is on a declining scale, so while you might expect a free replacement in the first year, by year 5 or 6 they would only do something like contribute a proportion of any repair cost.

That 6 year period is based on the expected lifetime of a piece of consumer electronics. The DV139 was discontinued well over 6 years ago, so yours was originally purchased before that.

So the bad news is - you have no recourse against anyone after this period of time - electronics doesn't last forever, and the EU have said that anything over 6 years is a bonus...
 
time we came out of the eu then.

Arcams site said this though 'Put simply, it is the player to deliver the very best in home entertainment now, and for many years to come.'

Also small claims comes down to a guy giving judgment as he thinks fair not the eu, so he might think a £2k dvd player should be built to last, and the first repair should have lasted, and that £336 is exploitation. Anyway I would just like Arcam to stand up and say why my dvd tray costs £336 to fix.
 
time we came out of the eu then.
Except that before then you would have had a year, perhaps two after which it was sorry out of luck!
 
Your best option is to talk to Trading Standards or Citizen's Advice over if there is anything you can claim with any expectation of success.

Search out evidence (forums etc) that Arcam may have known if a problem affecting a number of owners to help support your claim.
 
Anyway I would just like Arcam to stand up and say why my dvd tray costs £336 to fix.

I don't work for Arcam and don't claim to speak for them, but you're talking about replacing a part which is no longer manufactured, so is having to come out of Arcam's stock. If they have to replace the entire drawer and transport mechanism, that could be £100 - £150 in parts cost alone. On top of that you have an hour or more of labour from a service engineer, time spent soak-testing afterwards, packing and shipping in both directions etc. Not to mention that as a proportion of the original cost of £2k, £300 isn't that huge, and it is replacing a large chunk of the player.

It's a lot of money, true, but it's not far off what I would expect. Most electronics aren't even repairable any more anyway - if they break, you throw them in the bin and buy another one. It's to Arcam's credit that they are prepared to service it, and that they had the foresight to keep enough stock of parts to be able to do so several years after it was discontinued.

Bear in mind that this is a DVD player that was originally released the best part of 10 years ago; we've had the next generation of disc players (BluRay) released and they are about to be rendered obsolete by 4k players. To be fair, what you have there is a long-obsolete product by any standards - it doesn't really make a difference how much it cost in the first place; it's had a decent lifespan, and you can't expect it to go on forever. Mechanical things break - that's just the way it is.

I would be very surprised if Trading Standards or the Small Claims Court took a different point of view, particularly given the EU ruling. You can try, but I suspect you won't have much luck.
 
Hi spl23, I appreciate you don’t work for Arcam but you have put their case very eloquently.

Unfortunately I don’t agree with you at all. Google Arcam cd / dvd tray problems and see how many people have had problems. I have a CD37 – great player but tray plays up now and then and I now dread when it screws up properly as I will have to fork out a small fortune (£336 is huge to me and mine)

Even the main dealer told me there are known problems with the Arcam tray mech’s. Assuming Arcam are a long term player then they should hold their hands up and say so – they would, I assume, keep plenty of stocks of the tray mechs to deal with future problems and they must also be extremely well practiced in sorting this problem out.

If Arcam used transports that cost £100 - £150 (the cost of parts you are suggesting) then I doubt there would be a problem on such a scale as there is. I’m not sure where you got that figure from? My DV139 tray problem was fixed, by Arcam, and I agree it was a while back but it’s the one thing that’s gone again. They must be using cheapo mech’s? They told me at the time 'there you are, you shouldn't have any more problems'.

Most electronics aren't even repairable any more anyway - if they break, you throw them in the bin and buy another one.

Sorry me old son, I don’t know what to say to that except to refer you to Aldous Huxley –brave new world.

Bear in mind that this is a DVD player that was originally released the best part of 10 years ago; we've had the next generation of disc players (BluRay) released and they are about to be rendered obsolete by 4k players. To be fair, what you have there is a long-obsolete product by any standards - it doesn't really make a difference how much it cost in the first place; it's had a decent lifespan, and you can't expect it to go on forever. Mechanical things break - that's just the way it is.

The player is an excellent DVD / CD and SACD machine – in fact I want it for the SACD multi-channel capabilities as much as anything else. Others may want 4K players or whatever but obsolete it is not – to me. Just because Arcam and others want to sell me another 2K latest bells and whistles do-da does not mean they can price repairs at such a level as to make it economically pointless.

Unless:

  1. Arcam see their customers as a cash crop
  2. Arcam no longer have facilities to provide decent customer service
  3. Arcam do not see their past products as legendry or classic – just obsolete.

Back when I spent lots of money on Arcam HiFi and AV systems the company seemed to me a bit different. Any time I contacted them I felt as I was talking to fellow audio enthusiasts, they made suggestions and were happy to help. Now it is more ‘clinical’ than anything else, everything must go through a dealer, and I understand the manufacturing of the new products is someplace like China?

I clear something up though - in my first post I did not make it clear that Arcam want £336. It was not 'lets see what's wrong then quote'. It was 'give us £336 - that's our minimum charge!'

I suspect you could be right re the small claims court BUT it is there for the small guy and anyway I can make Arcam come down and look me in the eye! I did say I didn't agree with you but your post has made me realize we should not just fold so I think I shall give it a go. I will let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Dave
 
I wish you luck, but I honestly think your expectations are unrealistic; at the end of the day, it's a piece of kit that is nearly a decade old, however much it cost when new. Very few manufacturers of consumer AV electronics would even offer to repair something that old; while it may still meet your needs, it's nonetheless obsolete technology in the eyes of the manufacturer. AV goes out of date a lot faster than old stereo kit did, because the technology advances so fast - just go and ask a dealer what they will offer you as a trade-in on a DV139 or AV350 if you don't believe me; it'll be peanuts.

Bear in mind that you will have to pay to take Arcam to the Small Claims Court - fees are listed at small claims court fees | MoneyClaimsUK, so you are likely to end up out of pocket before you even start; the claim will also most likely be decided by a judge without a hearing - neither you nor Arcam are likely to even be invited to attend.

In your position, I would suggest trying to find a local independent electronics service centre who can look at it and see if it is actually a cheap and simple fix - as larkone suggests above, it may just be a drive belt that needs replacing.

But if you are determined to go down the SCC route, I'd suggest contacting your local Trading Standards or Citizens Advice Bureau for advice first - I suspect they will tell you the same as I have, though...
 
Like many items these days they are regarded as consumables. Buy it, use it and throw it away after 5 years maximum. Electronics tend to be fairly reliable and would last longer but anything mechanical ,especially stuff like a cd playing mechanism is made from lots of little plastic parts which tend to fail because they rub against each other and wear.
You cannot make a cd drive out of brass and stainless steel, or if you could it would be the size of a fridge. How many car parts fail due to poxy little screws or plastic fittings which cost pennies to make but a shed load of cash to get at and replace. My daughters Citroen C3 had to have front bumper removed to be able to change a headlight bulb. Engineers generally do not make items that are easy to repair, nowadays if it works for five years thats enough.
My policy now is to buy the cheapest mechanical product which satisfies my needs as things like washing machines and cars all use the same " Europarts" . Why buy an Audi when a Skoda or VW has the same mechanicals....only to compete with neighbours badge wise.
My suggestion with regards to blu ray/ cd players is to buy something like an OPPO ,which sounds identical to the Arcam but costs a lot less and looks the part as well.
Call me cynical if you wish.
 
The OP needs to understand that Arcam do not make the DVD ROM drive, it is a standard off the shelf drive probably costing less than £20. The cost of the DVD player is a reflection of the R&D that went into developing it. The cost of repairing the player is a reflection of the original cost of he player - which is my MB cost more to repair than a Skoda or I can afford a 10 year old Ferrari but I could not afford the servicing costs.
 
Has anyone had problems with their DVD tray and tried to get it fixed?

I just went to an Arcam dealer as my DV139 tray will not open - it has already been repaired once as well, although under warranty.

Anyway it seems that Arcam now want £336 to do ANY repair on a dvd player. It is clear from searching the internet that Arcam cd and dvd players have a known issue with the trays playing up after a while but a DVD player that was £2kish should be built like a battleship? fmj build quality? OK things go wrong but then to cash in on it is not really cricket.

So I thought I would ask if anyone has ever fixed this problem themselves and if so, could they give me some advice please?
In this case, I think having to fix such an expensive high end unit twice for the same problem in a period of 10 years is rather embarrassing as well as unacceptable and Arcam should do more to offset the costs of repair. True, the unit is 10 years old but these are modern times and there are many units costing much less that are that old or older that still work fine. The fact that the video section is now dated and "obsolete" shouldn't really matter as it's still an outstanding CD/SACD/DVD-A player and still very much useful for those purposes.

The main issue with these, as well as Arcam CD players in general are the transports failing. I'm not sure if the DVD players have the same exact issues and require the same fix, but replacing the transport on the CD players is not that hard. I may need to replace one in my CD192 as it is starting to act up now. I checked ebay and there is a Sony transport/CD laser lens assembly for the CD192 as well as other Arcam models for as low as $25. I also found a website that shows you how to install it.

I checked ebay on one for your unit and there is one available from a German seller for $89, pretty pricey compared to the CD transports but it's the only game in town. You may be able to find a local repair shop that can install this part for you, assuming that's what the problem is, and then only be charged for the labor, or you can look up online to see if you can do it yourself. Here is a link to the DV139 transport mechanism/laser assembly. Laufwerk für Arcam DVD DV137 / DV139 inkl. Motoren und Lasereinheit NEU
 
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In this case, I think having to fix such an expensive high end unit twice for the same problem in a period of 10 years is rather embarrassing as well as unacceptable and Arcam should do more to offset the costs of repair.

Thanks for your input - that's exactly what I think!
 

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