That Tuesday three shutter repairs came in at once, two needed parts I didn't have

Last month in Portland, I had three Contax T2 shutters hit my bench on the same day. One was a simple magnet reset, but the other two needed replacement blades and I only had one set in stock. The owner of the second camera drove 40 miles to pick it up early and I had to call and stall him. I'm ordering two more blade sets now, but has anyone else had a run like that where parts availability cost you a rush job?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayes.jake21d ago

I read a post on a repair forum last week about a guy in Chicago who had three Olympus XAs come in the same week, all with the same cracked plastic winding gear. He had to 3D print one just to get by. Said the supplier had a six week lead time. That kind of thing makes me keep a spreadsheet of what I've got and what's slow to ship. For the T2, I've started buying blade sets whenever I see them, even if I don't need them yet. Hoarding parts is the only way to survive rush jobs like that.

clairem4720d ago

My buddy runs a shop down in Eugene and he got slammed with three Canon AE-1 programs in one week, all with dead shutter magnets. He had one spare in his drawer and had to cannibalize a parts body just to keep the third guy from walking out. @hayes.jake is right about hoarding, that spreadsheet thing has saved his butt more than once. He told me he now buys every magnet assembly he finds under 20 bucks, even if it takes three months to use it. The worst part was the guy who drove two hours and he had to tell him the repair would take an extra week, that phone call was brutal.