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Old 28th Sep 2016, 12:01 pm   #1
Welsh Anorak
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Default CHS to close

Hi there
Another nail in the repairer's coffin. I hear (officially now) that Charles Hyde are to close after almost fifty years supplying the trade. A sad day not just for us small reapirers but obvioulsy for Dave, David and all the rest of the helpful crew in York.
It appears they will cease trading at the end of November.
Glyn
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 2:28 pm   #2
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Default Re: CHS to close

I've just had the circular from CHS, that's a shame. They were one of the more reliable suppliers in the trade.
I think they've been a franchised distributor for german spares company ASWO for a few years now and that's who will be taking-on the orders in the future.

http://www.aswo.de/index.php?id=94&L=1
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 6:12 pm   #3
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Default Re: CHS to close

One of the first places I always look(ed) for drive belts, square, round or flat and whatever size.

Get them while you can, I guess.

In my first job which was in the service department of a radio and TV shop, c. 1979 or thereabouts, I can remember us ordering quite a lot - TV tubes and that sort of thing - from CHS. Sad to hear that they are going.
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 6:13 pm   #4
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Default Re: CHS to close

Hello.
The TV repair business is long gone only to be confirmed by CHS's closure. There are no independent repairers in Ayrshire and only a couple left in Glasgow now, sad but true.
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 10:36 pm   #5
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Default Re: CHS to close

It certainly is a shame, CHS were the best of the lot.

Willow Vale went first, then SEME got bought out by another company and stopped selling spare parts + had a HUGE minimum order.

The end of an era.

It would be interesting to know what ASWO's delivery times are, + who will administer EURAS?
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 11:00 pm   #6
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Default Re: CHS to close

Sadly the end of an era, the radio and tv repair trade I've known and loved since the sixties is at an end, very sad news indeed.
Greg.
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Old 28th Sep 2016, 11:25 pm   #7
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Default Re: CHS to close

I think EURAS is also part of ASWO these days. The CHS circular says that people without ASWO accounts or logins will be progressively migrated to ASWO in due course or invited to sign up. I've got an ASWO account but have always just ordered stuff via CHS as it was easier. I'm guessing most of the stuff on the CHS site that said '7-10 days delivery' meant it was coming from aswo.

I wonder if we'll still get a little bag of fruit bonbons with the orders!
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Old 29th Sep 2016, 12:38 am   #8
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Default Re: CHS to close

Thanks for the "heads-up", I'd better place an order for stock of Left Threading Gears (Blue) for the Sony Smart Engine VHS Video recorders. Unless anyone knows another source of these vulnerable parts.
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Old 29th Sep 2016, 10:00 am   #9
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Default Re: CHS to close

This is very sad news. I remember buying spares from Charles Hyde when he ran his business from a garage (yes, I was a teenager and am that old). I also bought lots from him during the later 1970s and the early 1980s. Regunned colour CRTs by the score - I had stockpiles of them, used for rental sets. Triplers, LOPTs, valves - they had much of the bits and pieces the 'one-man band' radio and TV repair man needed.
I also used SEME. Their rep visited often and I was always struck by his immaculate appearance. Extremely smart and classy business suit, tie, glossy black shoes, neatly trimmed hair, faint aftershave scent - and once I asked him why he felt he had to be so 'up-market' in appearance. He replied "The aim is to always look more wealthy and better turned out than any customer you are likely to meet. It gives a psychological advantage."
Perhaps unfortunately, I didn't entirely take his advice on board.
Tony
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Old 29th Sep 2016, 1:33 pm   #10
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Default Re: CHS to close

Talking about "the business", last time I tried to find somebody to repair a CRT monitor, there was nobody here (in Northampton), even though there must be numerous engineers with the knowledge. It's not as if everyone disappeared since the early 2000s! That was in fact why I joined this forum, to ask advice on doing it myself (and thanks to that help, it's still working after my cautious opening it up and twiddling about ).

I am aware that there are problems sourcing specific parts now, but it seems nobody even wants to open up anything with a CRT in it and take a look in case it's a simple or do-able repair. In my case it was just general dirtiness and the connector onto the neck of the tube. Would have taken an engineer half an hour to make good as new.

Several members offered advice btw, and I remember McMurdo was particularly encouraging.
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 9:14 am   #11
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Default Re: CHS to close

Sorry to hear that CHS is closing. I have often used them for manufacturer's spares and other items, some of which aren't stocked by other suppliers, but I guess it's a sign of the times
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 11:04 am   #12
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I remember them as being the suppliers of replacement Ekco line output transformers, the clear plastic ones that used to split apart, in fact I have an idea you could just get a replacement case.

Peter
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 12:07 pm   #13
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Default Re: CHS to close

Hi
As Michael says - what will the delivery times be from ASWO? Currently it's a few days to get an order from Germany but I can't see that improving in the future for obvious reasons. So the fact that I could order from CHS in the afternoon and be reasonably confident the customer's set would be ready the following day has changed and, customers not being the most patient of animals, may well mean they'll take a trip to the shops to buy a new set and abandon the repair.
Maybe ASWO will get a new distributor in Britain but I very much doubt it.
How sad our once thriving trade has come to this!
Must stock up on Vestel LED strips while I remember.
Glyn
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 3:24 pm   #14
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Default Re: CHS to close

I'm remaining sanguine about the demise of the TV spares people. When I started in the service industry there was no internet, and when Farnell, RS, SEME and HRS brought out their CD-ROM catalogues we thought it was the bees knees!

We have the choice of the world's suppliers through ebay and amazon now, although we no longer get the reps, calendars, year planners and free ashtrays. We're also faced with diversity in products like never before; my travails at trying to get a remote for my skip-found LCD TV of a brand I'd never heard of shows how hard it must be for a supplier to keep everything on the shelf compared to the heyday of UK brown goods manufacturing. ASWO, and Willow Vale/HRS successor Connect have huge warehouses so fingers crossed that consolidation is a good thing in the long run.
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Old 30th Sep 2016, 10:27 pm   #15
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Default Re: CHS to close

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter.N. View Post
I remember them as being the suppliers of replacement Ekco line output transformers, the clear plastic ones that used to split apart, in fact I have an idea you could just get a replacement case.
A number of suppliers made replacement cases for Ekco LOPTs in the mid 60s - which would have preceded the birth of CHS if my maths are right.

One I recall couldn't have been simpler, consisting of a single plastic sheet moulded into a straight sided arch with all the usual eyelets.

Simple it may have been but it worked without any problems ...
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Old 1st Oct 2016, 12:23 am   #16
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My recollection could be faulty, I remember fitting those replacement cases, maybe I got them elsewhere, I definitely remember them as a supplier of LOPTS for something, maybe it was something else.

Peter
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Old 1st Oct 2016, 8:05 am   #17
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Default Re: CHS to close

Sad day indeed. I've fond memories of both CHS and SEME and their reps Bill Edwards and Bob Tannock (and I still have a SEME tie in the wardrobe). Occasionally both would turn up at the same time... that was fun.
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Old 2nd Oct 2016, 2:38 pm   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aerodyne View Post
Their rep visited often and I was always struck by his immaculate appearance … and once I asked him why he felt he had to be so 'up-market' in appearance.
He replied
"The aim is to always look more wealthy and better turned out than any customer you are likely to meet. It gives a psychological advantage."
Perhaps unfortunately, I didn't entirely take his advice on board.


The current thinking in the workplace seems to be that wearing a tie creates a 'barrier' between individuals and hampers communication, which I suppose is the 'psychological advantage' to which that SEME rep was referring.

Hmm… maybe I should start smartening myself up a bit for work…

Last edited by Wellington; 2nd Oct 2016 at 2:41 pm. Reason: hanging preposition
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Old 6th Oct 2016, 10:46 am   #19
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Default Re: CHS to close

From the letter received from CHS dated 26th September:

Dear Sir,
due to circumstances beyond our control Charles Hyde and son Ltd. has decided to cease trading as a spare part distributor from the 30th November.


I don't believe the reason for closure of this excellent firm is due to any downturn in trading activity although we all know it's nothing like it was twenty years ago. CHS had branched out into supplying parts for the white goods trade where there still some money to be made.

I'll not bother signing up to Aswo. Just another excuse to get out of this stupid TV servicing trade.

DFWB.
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