Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Service... the way it should be!

This is topic Service... the way it should be! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 11-15-2003, 09:58 PM:

It's easy enough to find reason to bitch in this line of work... and I've never been reluctant to complain with little provocation. Occasionally however, a situation turns out better than I would have expected, and I think that deserves recognition, too.

One of my indoor houses runs on a DA-20 with a CAT-701 reader, running through a CP-65. We've had absolutely flawless performance with this system... not one problem... which I've been impressed with, considering all that I've heard about abrasion in the sprocket area, causing wear, and resultant high error rates on the dolby soundtrack. I figure the Film Guard system is a large part of why the digital has worked so well, but those nagging abrasion issues were partly the reason why I was happy to also have a couple of DTS systems in the house.

Over the past week or so, we'd been having intermittent problems with our DA-20. My daughter, who manages our indoor told me one day that the system was cycling between digital and analog... a problem that was easy to dismiss as being caused by excessive error rates.

Today however, we experienced much the same problem... and it happened while I was running the booth. the automation started the show in digital (format 10), and my CP-65 stayed there... something it won't do if the DA-20 doesn't like what it sees. We had silence until I manually switched into "SR". Eventually, the whole digital system crashed & I had to manually back-up to SR.

OK... check the obvious... the reader's threaded ok... though that wouldn't explain why the DA-20 allowed the system to stay in digital. Off goes the cover, and fault lights are everywhere. Good idiot lights on the power supply (remember this)... I re-seat the cards & socketed ICs... still no luck.

So, having checked everything I can think of, I call the 24/7 Dolby "hotline"... on Saturday night. I get an answering service (crap!), which takes my number & tells me they'll "let someone know". I'm now resigned to running the house in SR through the rest of the weekend. Now, our SR kicks much butt, and I'm not particularly worried about anyone coming out of the auditorium to accuse me of foisting antiquated analog sound on them... but it isn't the best I can normally do, and that does bother me. No doubt, I'll get a call from some "call center nerd", telling me I'll have to pack the box up & send it in for "factory authorized repairs" Freaking Wonderful! [Mad]

5 minutes later, I get a phone call. It's Ken Jaquart from Dolby. Cool... I'm impressed.

What I didn't expect however, was that it got even better.

I run down the list of what I've observed, and how I tried to fix it. After I tell my "story", Ken blows me away by pointing out the one obvious thing I didn't check... he suggests I take a DVM & check the power supply voltage at the test points. Duh... were it not for those stupid idiot lights, I might have done that. Now, I feel real dumb. However, having checked the voltage & finding it too low, Ken flat nails the problem. A bad Molex connector in the power supply.

Do I get the expected "pack it up and send it in so we "more qualifed than you" guys can fix what you're probably to dumb to do yourself"?... No. I get an intelligent explanation of what he thinks the problem is and what I can do to fix it... IF I'm comfortable going that far...

So... I got the DA-20 out of the rack, pulled the supply, got the Molex connector out, hard-wired the connections & replaced the system before the film ended. Results? We're back to normal... down time, a little over an hour on a Saturday night.

This is the way customer service should be. It's sad that the electronics industry has moved away from component-level troubleshooting, and migrated instead to a "card-exchange" model... which more often than not, merely extends the time required to resolve a problem.

This is the level of service I experienced, without exception, from the late Vern Klingman, a gentleman who I'll always consider one of a declining number of truly excellent technicians who had the ability to visualize a problem on a practical level.

Ken Jacquart rose to a level of service I frankly didn't expect, considering the qualifications of the people who probably call for help more often than not.

Thanks, Ken! I appreciate your service more than you know! [thumbsup]

Jack

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 11-16-2003, 04:53 AM:

I also talked to Ken a few times, and I also found him to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly. Model customer support!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-16-2003, 07:27 AM:

Dolby has always provided superb customer service for me. This doesn't surprise me in the least bit. [thumbsup]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 11-16-2003, 01:48 PM:

Those guys at "Double-D" kick ass and take names! [thumbsup]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-16-2003, 01:51 PM:

Dolby's customer service is indeed top notch. A few years ago, I called with questions about a CP-50. They were more than happy to talk. Any company that not only admits to making a long-discontinued product but also is willing to (correctly) answer questions about it gets a "thumbs up" from me. They even sent us some posters, "Temple" trailers, and a nice wall plaque. Not bad for a product purchased 17 years before.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 11-16-2003, 02:31 PM:

Maybe good service is coming back into fashion; I have just had a very good experience with the British Film Institute. I have not had any dealings with them for about fifteen years, and past experience was that they could be difficult to deal with. Things were very different this time.

I wanted to book a print for a private screening in January, if possible on 16mm. On Tuesday, in another thread, I asked Leo if he knew whether the BFI would allow me, as an individual, to book a print; he wasn't sure.

I e-mailed the bookings department and asked them. Within a few minutes I had received a reply from Andrew Youdell. Yes, they had a print, it was in reasonable condition, I could book it, but as I didn't have an account with them I would have to send a cheque in advance. There were no bookings for the print next year, so at was available any date that I wanted it. If I could collect the print from the BFI offices in central London, it would only cost me 50 pounds plus 17.5% tax, 58.75 in total. A couple more e-mails arranged the date etc., and I said I would post the cheque later in the week.

Cheque went in the post late on Wednesday, much too late to catch the last collection, so It would have gone on Thursday, and the BFI should have received it on Friday. Yesterday, Saturday, morning, I received by post confirmation of the booking, and receipt of my cheque.

Well done BFI and Andrew Youdell, excellent service.

Any more tales of good service? Maybe this thread will get as long as the poor film handling one. Well, we can hope.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-16-2003, 03:36 PM:

Its good they called back. That sort of service is rare even from Dolby. The Molex connector issue is another story by itself and one that Dolby still has not learned...even the hard way. I usually remove the molex at the power supply completely and solder the wires directly to the PCB. At the DA-20 end its best to keep the Molex for servicibility. Although I've seen both ends fail its the one in the power supply 95% of the time. There is no need for a Molex at the power supply end. While you're doing this simple repair you'll probably laugh out loud at the unused pins and solder pads in there. Had they doubled up as they could have with a simple extra piece of wire there would never be a failure in the first place. This also happens in CAT 700's and in CAT 701's. Same basic approach. Get rid of the Molex at the power supply end. You'll never a problem again if you go this route.

If you do decide to get a new cable assy look VERY carefully at the molex male pins as they have most likely gotten extremely hot. They should also be replaced. I've seen em very cooked and the solder melted away from the pins on numerous occasions!!

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Trevor Bailey (Member # 75) on 11-16-2003, 07:35 PM:

Ken was telling me that the new design for these power supplies changes the connector so that it makes contact with the pins on all sides instead of just one side. Although this used to be a very common failure, I haven't seen it happen in a couple of years.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 11-16-2003, 09:40 PM:

Well, like Mark said, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have connectors at both ends of the supply... unless you were expecting to have to change it. Could you imagine the failure rate if computer switchers all had internal connectors like that?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-16-2003, 09:42 PM:

Trevor,
The 701's I repaired had those new style pins in the connectors. They still burnt up...in a bloody 701 yet!
Less connetions = more reliability.
Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Kris Brunton (Member # 432) on 11-16-2003, 09:48 PM:

I have always had great customer service from everyone down at Dolby. I have had a few oppertunities to work with Ken, it was always a pleasure and he is a very knowledgable guy. [thumbsup]