Only about 10 TV repair shops left

[slick]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100902/BIZ/9020362/1001/Royal-Oak-TV-repair-survives-downturn--sees-bright-future

Wow, seems like they used to have one per neighborhood.
I formerly worked for RCA television service, they had East side, west side and a Pontiac shop.
Ode TV, great guy and supporter of bowling leauges.

Lippan TV on Chene and Forest

who can forget Pennway, ociem ociem zero zero!

and then every drugstore had a tube testing machine.

Stop your killing me! the glory days of Television.

[motrcityind]

My grandfather had his own TV repair shops on West Vernor. He had two different locations. The first burned in fire in the late 60's- early 70's. The second one was open right until his death in 1994. A little pale yellow wood front store, with simple 'TV Repair' signs on the front and a couple of false windows. "Ajax TV" was what he went by. Anybody remember the store? I used to go with him to work as a child in the summers, he'd have me testing tubes and breaking apart 'yolks' to get the copper wire out, which he would save up and eventually take to the scrapyard for money. He had so many old TV's piled up that there was only a small aisleway from the front of the store to the back door. It was more of an old TV graveyard than anything else. The basement was even spookier, with one working bulb and the carcasses of many TV's put to rest.

If he ever came across TV's in someone's trash at the curb, he'd grab them, fix and sell them. I remember he could load 25" console TV's by himself into the back of his LTD station wagon.

He had his working 'sets' up front for "sale", though he often took items in trade for his TV's. I remember more than once he came home with quite a few boxes of government cheese or stuffed animals for us kids.

Grandma had a helluva time cleaning up after he passed; by 1994 he was in the process of retiring, and cleaning out - as it had for years been more of a hobby than a source of income.

[mikefmich]

Kaycee Drugs next to Food Fair, just across Kingsville into HW had a tube tester I went to many times. Dire circumstances took us to the TV repair place at Canyon & Warren. I just googled that corner...there is a bike shop there now....and Austin HS is gone too.
Im not even gonna ask how long that's been gone.

[Hypestyles]

recommended places for repair? my mom's got a circa 1995 sony trinitron, 24"...blinking in & out.. she's convinced "somebody" can repair it..

[lpg]

I remember the tube testing machine in the Kinsel's Drug store at the Lincoln Park Plaza [[Now a Blockbuster video). Lincoln Park had 2 tv repair shops I remember, Dayton TV and English Radio and TV. Ah, the good old days when you repaired something instead of tossing it out.

[MCP-001]

Starlit TV in St. Clair Shores or Warren.

[Maof]

Starlit TV in St. Clair Shores or Warren.

corner of harper and 9 mile...across from kmart

[Maof]

Kaycee Drugs next to Food Fair, just across Kingsville into HW had a tube tester I went to many times. Dire circumstances took us to the TV repair place at Canyon & Warren. I just googled that corner...there is a bike shop there now....and Austin HS is gone too.
Im not even gonna ask how long that's been gone.

I think that bike shop has been there for at least 25 years and Austin, I'm thinking that closed '75 or '76, somewhere around that time.

[goggomobil]

Around 1995, I set out to buy a TV for my wife. I decided that I wasn't going to a big box store [[the first of what I now call my 'Big-boxer Rebellion'). I decided to try to find a good ol' TV repair store that sold new sets. I finally found one in Fenton. It's gone now. I'm glad I bought it there even though I paid more because he [['Sarge') ended up fixing it for free when it was out of warranty.

There's a creepy-cool TV repair shop in downtown South Lyon. Very odd hours but it's a 1950s-60s time capsule in a fieldstone storefront.

I used to do business with the RCA service center in Livonia when I sold TVs in the 70s. RCA offered a free setup on new Colotrak or XL100 sets that we sold. We also did a lot of business with Sterling Electronics in Lincoln Park [[still there).

We had a tube tester in our store that was serviced by Standard Tube Sales in Ferndale. I seem to recall that the 6GH8A was the most popular.

[kathy2trips]

Kaycee Drugs next to Food Fair, just across Kingsville into HW had a tube tester I went to many times. Dire circumstances took us to the TV repair place at Canyon & Warren. I just googled that corner...there is a bike shop there now....and Austin HS is gone too.
Im not even gonna ask how long that's been gone.

Heh, heh. I remember Kaycee's....Mr Cutler?

[lalynch]

My husband claims there is more than 10 in metro Detroit. He's a former VCR/TV repair tech and used to manage shops in the Downriver and Dearborn areas. His grandfather owned a TV repair shop in the 1950's in Lincoln Park called Tom's TV. It was on Southfield Road near Electric. They lived above it. I think Lincoln Park is just down to one TV repair shop now.

[CLAUDE G]

I work in the Satellite Dish industry, and I do agree there are no more TV repair places left.

The main issue behind is this is due to the new Flat Panel HDTV's that have been coming down in price during the past few years.

First of all people are not getting their older standard definition televions fixed when they break, this is usually an excuse for people go to out and get a newer television.

Second of all, you can get a decent sized television for less than $1000 and some models even as low as $500. The televisons are either breaking within the manufactures warranty, or people are not even bothering getting them repaired and are simply going out and buying new ones. On some of the cheapie brands like Vizio, you can't even get repair parts, and if you did manage to find someone to repair it, the cost of repairs would almost justify just going out and buying a new television.

There are 3 areas for repair shops to make money these days...

A) Warranty Repair - There are several companies such as Gibson TV which has contracts to do warranty repair work. I had a 63 inch Samsung Plasma repaired from them and it cost me nothing to fix since it was under warranty.

B) Out of warranty repair on the larger sets that cost a few thousand dollars to purchase.

C) Older SDTV sets - There are alot of old people out there such as my grandparents where it makes sense to replace their 20 year old counsol TV, yet they are almost afraid to let it go and would rather spend a few hundred dollars on a repair then invest $1000 into a new television.

Finally, the last issue here is all the big box stores like Best Buy and Costco who offer their own service plans and repair service. Im not sure if Costco still offeres this, but they had some program where if you buy something from them and it breaks they will repair or replace it for the lifetime of the product. My neighbor bought a Tube television from Costco 10 years ago, and actually returned it last year because it could not get the Digital TV signals. They took the TV back, refunded all his money and let him put it towards a flat screen.

As time goes on, its only going to get worse for these places. The only ones that will be left are the ones doing warranty repairs and the big box stores.

[IrishSpartan]

I think that bike shop has been there for at least 25 years and Austin, I'm thinking that closed '75 or '76, somewhere around that time.

The final graduation class for Austin was in 1978. Several students transferred to
De La Salle, which was still on Conner until 1982. Some of the influx from Austin probably kept DLS in Detroit a couple of years longer before the move to Warren.

[jerrytimes]

Starlit TV in St. Clair Shores or Warren.

And Gibson TV in Roseville

[Meddle]

On some of the cheapie brands like Vizio, you can't even get repair parts, and if you did manage to find someone to repair it, the cost of repairs would almost justify just going out and buying a new television.

That's a side effect of our throw away society. It's less expensive to replace than repair. The parts to repair a set are more expensive than a new updated set with more features. Models change so fast now that by time it's out of warranty, it's obsolete and parts aren't available. Or the company goes belly up like Syntax Olevia did.

The trickle down is that the Mom& Pop shops can't survive and neighborhood business close faster than ever before. It's the same way in many sectors like appliances.

Then there's the effect on landfills.

[Downriviera]

I used to go into Pittmans TV on Allen Rd in Allen Park when I was a kid. Fascinating place for a youngster. The owner always called everybody "Colonel".

[English]

That's a side effect of our throw away society. It's less expensive to replace than repair. The parts to repair a set are more expensive than a new updated set with more features. Models change so fast now that by time it's out of warranty, it's obsolete and parts aren't available. Or the company goes belly up like Syntax Olevia did.

The trickle down is that the Mom& Pop shops can't survive and neighborhood business close faster than ever before. It's the same way in many sectors like appliances.

Then there's the effect on landfills.

Totally agree with you about our throwaway culture. There's a great book about this entitled Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture: http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-High-Cos.../dp/159420215X

My granddad and his brother had a radio repair shop, which became a TV repair shop, in or near Black Bottom [[need to ask Grandma where it was). Growing up, my great-uncle still had quite a few things from the shop in his house and garage, and we were still finding old account books when Granddad died.

Actually, that is how my grandparents met... Granddad came over to repair Grandma's TV. She decided that day she was going to marry him, and she did.

[Dustin89]

I recently wrote an article about Condon TV repair in Pontiac:

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/...5259735642.txt

[mikefmich]

Heh, heh. I remember Kaycee's....Mr Cutler?

The druggist with brush cut in the 60's?

All I remember is I bought my first cigarettes there circa 1962-ish, and my first condoms about 5 yrs later. The later was a tramatic experience for this young lad.

[EMG]

corner of harper and 9 mile...across from kmart

Yep - Starlit was [[hopefully still is) a great place for all your electronic repair needs. I don't think I ever took a television there but I took numerous stereo and other electronic devices there. I was always very pleased with their service.

[EMG]

And Gibson TV in Roseville

I remember [[I think) a Gibson's that was on Harper between Cadieux and Morang. Right across the street from Bruno's appliance. Wonder if it's the same place and they moved?

I did go to Gibson's a few times too...but wasn't as happy with them. They'd keep things a long time and not always fix everything right. [[Mind you, this was back in the early 80's and not necessarily a reflection on current practice). But that was about when I did some searching and eventually found Starlit.

But while we're on the subject of TV repair - the ultimate in service was in my much younger days [[mid to late 60's) when my grandparents had a big Magnavox console television - and when it needed repairs we would have the repairman from Hudson's make a housecall!!!!

[EMG]

I think that bike shop has been there for at least 25 years and Austin, I'm thinking that closed '75 or '76, somewhere around that time.

As someone else already stated, Austin's last class was the class of '78. I remember one new student who joined my University Liggett class of '79 who had formerly attended Austin before it closed. I myself took a "summer school" course in accounting at Austin because I was interested in the field and ULS didn't offer any accounting courses.

But although it closed in '78, the Austin building itself remained standing - abandoned - for several years afterwards. I remember it for sure still being there in at least the mid to late 80's. Complete with broken windows and all.

[CLAUDE G]

Yep - Starlit was [[hopefully still is) a great place for all your electronic repair needs. I don't think I ever took a television there but I took numerous stereo and other electronic devices there. I was always very pleased with their service.

Yea, Starlit TV does a great job. The only thing is that I don't think I ever walked out of there with less than a $120 repair bill

[CLAUDE G]

I remember [[I think) a Gibson's that was on Harper between Cadieux and Morang. Right across the street from Bruno's appliance. Wonder if it's the same place and they moved?

I did go to Gibson's a few times too...but wasn't as happy with them. They'd keep things a long time and not always fix everything right. [[Mind you, this was back in the early 80's and not necessarily a reflection on current practice). But that was about when I did some searching and eventually found Starlit.

But while we're on the subject of TV repair - the ultimate in service was in my much younger days [[mid to late 60's) when my grandparents had a big Magnavox console television - and when it needed repairs we would have the repairman from Hudson's make a housecall!!!!

Yea, I had the same experence with Gibsons back in the 1980's with getting an old VCR repaired. I remember it was in the repair shop for 2 months getting a repair done under warranty.

I also had a 63 inch Plasma repaired from them, and they had to repair it in my home. The crazy part was that Samsung sent them several components to replace, by the time they finished replacing everything I think it would have been cheaper to just give me a new TV.

[R8RBOB]

I remember there were two TV shops on 7Mile between Evergreen and Southfield. In fact, on probably two occasions we had to get TVs fixed.

Recently, my projection TV died. I tried to turn in on and nothing....... Now I could have gotten it fixed but the TV is dated so why spend hundreds of dollars for a television that is outdated? I went and brought a new HD TV and the picture is beautiful. I got the PC plugged to the TV using a S-video cable and now I can watch streaming video on the big screen.