More and more manufacturers are adopting this policy. If you refuse to
purchase from companies who refuse to provide tech info to you, you'll soon
find yourself without any of the luxury items you currently enjoy. I
suppose you could become Amish and live a contented life w/o the infernal
modern machines that need repairing.
Well... There ARE ways to get one's hands on some service manuals.
Depends on the particular brand. I have some manuals still in storage
for Xerox and one or two Models of Canon. I was able to purchase them
from a company that reverse engineered them. though the Xerox dupes
look just like the OEM manuals.
And there are individuals out there that "hack" just about anything
electronic that's worth it in the first place.(I've gotten invaluable
info from just such persons who've devised work-a-rounds for many of
the built in breakdowns built into many of today's office machines.
Xerox's counter fuses come to mind, that blow after X number of copies
and stop the copier dead. Even though the drum unit still has
thousands of good copies to go.)
Yes it IS getting tougher though. Guess that makes me a bit of a relic
as I refuse to back up myself. The newest automobile I own is 21 years
old, the oldest 55. And I do ALL the service/repair work myself, to
hell with all the new crap they're trying to push on us.
Most all of my still camera gear is considered antique, though much of
it has rare Zeiss optics and does better work than any of todays
cameras.(Heck my mopic gear's all vintage Arri most over 40 years of
age.)
Much of my hifi system is older than most posting in the NG yet has
better specs than 95% of todays offerings.
All of my possesions, whether luxury or neccessity, are repaired by
none but me.
I understand and agree with your gripe, though. Things are no better for
those who were authorized and are no longer, or for those who are fully
versed in electronics repair, in some cases been in the biz for many years,
yet are not authorized service centers for certain lines. Some manu's even
refuse to sell certain items (e.g., tools) to their own authorized service
centers! That's supposed to be a huge hint that even the most qualified
tech shouldn't screw around with the factory settings.
I remember a time when manu's actually included the schematics in the retail
box with the products! Radio Shack included schematics with their stuff
long after the TV manu's ceased this practice. I haven't bought any Rat
Shack products in eons, so they may no longer include the diagrams -- anyone
care to enlighten me? The last major kitchen appliances I bought included
wiring/parts diagrams, but that was 5+ years ago, so this may no longer be
the industry standard.
Rat shack no longer does that. Sadly even when they did most of their
offerings were so shoddily designed/made that repairing wasn't worth
the trouble.(I remember when they go so low that they didn't even have
their stuff manufactured in Japan, more like Hong Kong or Thailand.)
My experience suggests the most cooperative brands for the non-authorized
end user to deal with are Fisher, NEC, Pioneer and Sony.
Not so with Sony, actually one of the worst.
Paper manuals are always going to cost you more than microfiche because it
costs THEM more to produce than fiche. A paper VCR manual is likely to cost
you upwards of $50.00, whereas the fiche for the same model may run as low
as $6.00!
You can usually inveigle most manu's to part with service literature. You
have to jump through hoops (e.g., a multitude of voicemail options and
runarounds), flatter the rep and sometimes virtually beg, but they usually
cave. If they won't sell directly, they'll often have lists of shops or
websites which may be helpful. For those who absolutely insist on selling
only to authorized service centers, try visiting an authorized service
center -- you'd be surprised how many are willing to xerox pages from their
manuals (for a fee), especially if you speak the lingo and know what you're
doing. Consumer electronics techs are a dying breed and it's amusing to see
the old boys' eyes light up when they meet a "new guy" who knows the biz.
=)
I've found that Panasonic is one of the easiest to deal with, at least
their industrial division.(Matsushita) followed by JVC.(My wife's JVC
television started giving her problems in the first couple of months
of the warranty period. She got on site service as part of the deal.
When the repair tech came out and replaced the bad component he let me
copy his service manual no problem.)
Fisher's been a joy to deal with over the years, they've sold me any
manual or part I've ever needed for anyof their products.