Admin notice:
DO NOT USE THIS PERSON!
He is extremely rude and condescending.
We all need more (and better) repair options for S-VHS VCRs. This individual is not it.


________

I wish to recommend, with vigor, John's TV, for the excellent service to my beloved JVC-7800U.
Located in Taunton, MA, it was just a 25 minute drive there from my nest in North Attleboro.
This man is smart, nice, and TALENTED, and I feel, very reasonable.
The machine is purring like a happy kitty.
I have attached his invoice, with the price deleted, though it was well under $200.
One-by-one I will give him my selected players, and trust his skills.

-- merged --

Recently I scored a nice condition S4800U for $10 and a 25 minute drive.
The machine, when tested, intermittently would chow on a tape.
So, I brought it to my new go-to guy, John. The invoice is attached.
Basically the idler clutch was full of old hard grease, and unable to get a new one, John cleaned and lubed the clutch, checked caps, cleaned everything else, retimed, adjust pots, you need to read the invoice. $130.
He stated the machine is in excellent condition with no wear on the video heads heads and I done good.
I now have a JVC-4800, refurbed, for an investment of $140.
You'll see in my previous post he also refurbed my 7800U, that was $160.
This is a good smart guy.

Cost of shipping to?
From?

JVCs S-VHS only?
Or Panasonics too, ie full recap jobs?

Any general rules on what cannot be fixed?

List of standard service and inspection?

For some reason, I keep thinking you're in OR. But you're on the other coast, MA?

South of Boston.
I am unsure of the scope of his service but he’s on the internet
and he’s got a nice big shop. Call or email him. https://www.johnstvllc.com/
My next task for him is either my Toshiba W808 or my BVP4+.
After those items I’ll be in great shape.

Bumping this post- I have a European JVC HR-S9600EU I'm looking to get serviced. Any chance he's able to fix a unit with all European tech specs inside?

John is good at answering emails and phone calls so he’s the one to ask. Good question, though.

-- merged --

I am still pissed off about this negative post. No wonder the guy won't respond to me anymore.

Barry, the guy is/was a grade-A asshole. That's most assuredly why he's not responding.

Realize that I don't use that word too often online. I'll refer to ne'er-do-wells as goons, goobers, morons, etc, all fairly tame descriptors. But no, John was a total asshole, the kind of person that probably needs to be punched in the face. The kind of person that needs a back-office job, and should never interact with customers for any reason ever.

Even if what you say is true, that would mean his feelings are hurt, and he's ignoring would-be customers because of it. That makes him a moron business owner.

Either way, he's not coming off well.

I found him to be a completely toxic POS. We already have enough problems in the AG-1980P repair arena, between TGrant doing expensive work that consistently re-fails, and eBay hacks BS'ing us about "working", "tested", and now even "refurbished".

If anybody wants AG-1980P repaired, contact deter, or even consider giving aramkolt a try. Both are respected, do good work, and are reasonably pleasant. Deter is less verbose (phrases), aramkolt is more verbose (essays), both are fine.

John wasn't an expert in AG-1980P anyway, very cursory knowledge. Whereas Deter, now aramkolt, and even TGrant has deep knowledge of these units.

Every interaction I had with him was excellent, on the phone, email, in person.
People were asking, I gave a name, he didn't come looking for us, we went to him, now it seems I'm an exile. Just great.

-- merged --

Well, being very busy John did get back to me just now. He was polite and as usual not very wordy.
But he is eventually going to see this ugly personal attack and I’m toast.
Name calling, really? Sometimes good people just rub each other the wrong way or whatever and don’t mix well, putting it in harsh language and tossing insults to last forever on the web, tone it down.

Not at all. :)

Nah, that doesn't really matter. I think the real issue is that you gave advice, and are unhappy that your referral went so badly. I would feel exactly the same, which is why I give referrals so infrequently. I don't want to give bad advice that comes back on me. It's why I vet people/things so carefully, and never make hasty advice/referrals. I'd rather say "I don't know". Or if pressed for more details that I'm comfortable giving, then "I tried __, and it worked for me, but I don't know enough to recommend it/them to others".

I doubt it. He knew you were the referral up front, and I let him know he was a jerk more than 2 years ago already.

This wasn't a good guy at all. I already sent the transcripts to you, via email, 2 years ago, so you could see for yourself.

For others who are curious, here we go...

• Back in 2019, my AG-1980P units began failing.
• By 2022, I was down to my last functioning unit, and so I needed to get those repaired.
• For the first time in years, I attempted to DIY repair two units myself, but was not having any luck.
• So I sent them all to Deter. He was only able to restore half, rejecting the rest.
• A friend looked at the rejected units, repaired one, and was able to craft a to-do list for somebody else to continue repairs. Understand that he's not even familiar with VCRs, but is brilliant with electronics (and works in the defense industry). That left me with 3 units in need of repair.
• Then comes along Barry with this review of John. Perfect timing! I briefly contact John, ask if he's able to repair AG-1980P. He claims that he does. Excellent! So I write out a really long detailed email (known history/lineage, problems, attempts made thus far, etc). Long email, took me hours to compile.

This was John's response:
... and so I told him to go :censor: himself. He's a jerk.

I was nothing but friendly, and his smug butt thought it was acceptable to chastise and belittle as a response. It is not. I reply to people in-kind. You're friendly, I'm friendly. You're an ass, I'll gladly "stoop to your level" and dish it right back at ya! (And if "pearl clutching" begins, then we can play that game too.)

BTW, that "blank question" was this:
In other words, the feeler to see if he could repair AG-1980P. And then my next email gave the details on what would be needed. Only goobers blast out long detailed emails without knowing if the person/company can provide the service needed.

The situation speaks for itself.

I don't know the details of the exchange, but John may have had bad experience in the past with units that people tried to repair. Don't take it personally.

I can tell you from being in the service industry (not VCRs specifically), we dreaded units coming in from "smart" customers that tried to fix things. The first thing that comes to mind is how much worse did the person make the problem and did they create new problems? They also tended to complain the most when it came time to pay the bill.

I completely agree. But at least have a conversation to ascertain that. :unsure:

My normal reply, in situations where I don't want to get near the project, or the person, is simply "This is not a project I'm able to accept at this time.", and leave it at that. Delete, move on. I'd never do what he did.