(Topic ID: 55108)

Bad experience - Docent Electronics board repair

By cpsystem3

10 years ago


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  • 13 posts
  • 10 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by thedoctor
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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    #1 10 years ago

    It really pains me to write this thread, as I generally dislike bashing, but I feel like I should inform the community instead of keeping my bad experience to myself.

    About 3 months ago, I decided it was time to have my through-plate damaged WCS94 Power Driver board professionally repaired. I selected Docent Electronics as they do "through hole eyelet repair", and offer full-board workups / checkouts.

    I sent my power driver board into Docent 3 months ago. Didn't hear a word for over a month. I emailed the service department to be informed that they were back logged and my repair would be coming up soon. Another month and change goes by, and I get a threatening email demanding payment within 14 days or my board is being kept by the shop to recover costs. This was the first and only communication they sent me that my repair was done (rude).

    In fear of my board being stolen by Docent electronics, I immediately paid the invoice. Two weeks went by and I received squat. No confirmation of payment. No driver board. No emails. I sent two emails to them, both went unanswered. Approximately week three after payment and no PCB, I called them directly on the phone. I was told they "forgot to ship my board back and would do so asap today". Another two weeks goes by before the board finally arrives back to me.

    The repairs look good, the board was well packaged. I proceed to remove my spare power driver (that was keeping WCS94 running while the original board was out for repair), and swap in my freshly repaired power driver.

    Much to my surprise, the STINKIN BOARD STILL HAS THE SAME FAULTS I SENT TO GET REPAIRED! My GI is completely flat-dead and the DMD controller board is not receiving enough power to boot up the DMD (resulting in garbage on the screen). Being that my spare power driver board runs WCS94 flawlessly, I'm am 100% certain the fault is STILL on the power driver. What game (if any) did Docent actually test this board on?!

    I am appalled that they took 3 months to repair, charged me $150 AND "forgot" to ship it back for three weeks, only to have the board NOT be fixed. A word to the wise- find a different repair shop.

    I am saddened to report that I opened a paypal chargeback. I understand their technicians are paid hourly, and the parts they installed weren't free, but the state they returned my board in is completely unacceptable. I would be able to look past the awful customer service if the final product was working, which it is far from it.

    Sigh...

    #2 10 years ago

    Wow, what a way to run a railroad. Total douchery!! Only experience I have had with them was ordering something and that went well. Good call on warning everyone away from these idiots.

    #3 10 years ago

    Ouch! That blows. There are a bunch of good board repair guys out there. For 14 years I only use Clive Jones. Good pricing before you send the board in, email followup and you can call and always talk to him. Even if you get his voice mail, Clive always calls back. Coinop cauldren is the way to go. Live n learn, and thanks for Sharing~SpOoKy

    #4 10 years ago

    Very familiar with this guy. Did a couple in home repairs for me. Excellent job. Months later, sent him some boards. Hounded him for six months and finally had to threaten suing him to get my boards back. Amazingly, they arrived two days later, unrepaired of course. He's a one man operation. Don't send boards to him. He can't keep up.

    #5 10 years ago

    Yeah, Docent is NOT,NOT,NOT reliable. I have seen quite a few boards "repaired" by him and was not impressed with his work.

    #6 10 years ago
    Quoted from smokey_789:

    Very familiar with this guy. Did a couple in home repairs for me. Excellent job. Months later, sent him some boards. Hounded him for six months and finally had to threaten suing him to get my boards back. Amazingly, they arrived two days later, unrepaired of course. He's a one man operation. Don't send boards to him. He can't keep up.

    Well now thats just interesting. Through out the entire exchange, I was (seemingly) dealing with multiple people from multiple "departments". Three if I counted correctly.

    #7 10 years ago
    Quoted from cpsystem3:

    Through out the entire exchange, I was (seemingly) dealing with multiple people from multiple "departments".

    https://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&q=1616+Darst+Ave.+Dayton,+Ohio+45403&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x8840837bdaf2f7b5:0x717eb555d43938b2,1616+Darst+Ave,+Dayton,+OH+45403&gl=us&ei=DafMUdXHMo-r4AOr4oHgDg&ved=0CC0Q8gEwAA

    How many departments do you think are in there? (hit street view on left side of page)

    #8 10 years ago

    I received email replies from Steve, Mark and Scott. Steve's email signature indicates he is the service manager of the operation. When I called, the shipping error was blamed on the "shipping department"...

    Shoulda known not to trust a business with a website from 1997

    #10 10 years ago

    Looks like the world headquarters need to do some facilities maintenance .

    #11 10 years ago

    Exposed! Thanks for posting so that other forum members here won't be fleeced.

    1 year later
    #12 9 years ago

    I've been working on one order for several weeks every time he sends me a invoice to pay and half the stuff we talked about is missing then takes another week to make a new invoice. Seems like a nice guy but maybe getting old forgetting stuff? I'm going to cancel my order all together after seeing this knowing the truth because he made his company out to be some large warehouse not my grandmas house. I'm a small operator owner myself work from my home too but I never lie about that fact to my customers. Working now with big daddy his prices of repair kits might seem high on some parts but obviously it takes weeks for his competition to get a repair kit together and they still get it wrong hopefully this will be a smooth transaction I will follow up.

    3 years later
    #13 6 years ago

    Thanks, I was just about to buy some things from Docent, but this thread convinced me to think twice.

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