Which amps cannot be repaired locally?


Hi all. I purchased a Niles S-1260 a few years ago and it started shutting down recently after a few minutes of play. I called Niles and they asked I ship it to Louisville for a $650 flat fee plus shipping -- they charge that for any repair. I decided to take it somewhere locally and they could not find spare parts (a controller board or controller board IC). I called Niles, the regional rep and the local rep and none could provide me a controller board or any spare parts. Had I known that, I would never have purchased Niles. Are there other companies with similar policies about not providing spare parts for local repair? Thanks
ozfly
Schubert is correct. I found Spectral to be downright rude when I tried to service one of their preamps. It had a shorted transistor in it. I was basically told if I worked on it, they would be able to tell, and would never work on the unit again.
Marakanetz, the tech guy I hired seems pretty capable and he did replace some parts and spent a lot of time working on it and looking for parts. Unfortunately, the key integrated circuits on the controller board have no part numbers. He indicated they were rubbed off. He told me the board was made in China so obfuscation must be part of the contract with Niles.

So now I know not to buy Niles, Spectral, Levinson or Sonus Faber. Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

P.S. "Ripoff Schema Champions" -- great idea.
No one in my area (denver included) wants to work on Classe amps. Gotta send it back to classe if I ever have an issue, and shipping on heavy amps to somewhere outside the country ain't cheap. I think musical fidelity is a pain to get fixed too. I'm definately taking how easy it is to get something warrantied or fixed into consideration on ALL of my future audio purchases.
If you can purchase a new unit(with return policy) and look under the box to ID the chip inside, you can find it for your unit. Being a techie myself, I'd swap the boards and return unit back as not working. Here you find dealer that have a return shipping policy for all your needs and deeds.
http://www.cudakitchen.com/shipping.php

For them manufacturers it would only take a few bucks to swap while for you is $650+shipping.

You can also follow the link bellow:
[url]https://sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/small-claims-lawsuits[/url] to go legal way.