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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 9:38 am   #61
Nuvistor
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Just before I finished in the trade the firm had some slot machine CTV’s on rental. I didn’t do the emptying, the boss did that, not because we weren’t trusted just it kept us available for repairs, he eventually employed someone to empty them
Any way he arrive at one customer to find no one at home but he could see the TV switched on, calling back later he asked why leave the TV on, “Well I am saving up so I have to keep putting money in the meter to keep it going”. Any money over monthly rental was returned to the customer.
Quite often customers would request that he shortened the time per 50p so they could save up.

I found it a bit sad that they had to resort to those tactics to save a bit of money, not to mention the extra cost of electricity on some of those early CTV sets.
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 9:46 am   #62
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Attending to an onsite repair many years ago in a care home for the elderly we were called to an small aging KV series tv with intermittent volume faults.So upon a brief test before taking back of and concluding that we had found a number of dry joints that require attention,the lady replied Yes dear theve been telling me that for years!
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 9:48 am   #63
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

I walked into this house where the lady was obviously fastidiously house-proud, and the complaint was the "Inside of the screen needs cleaning", which would have been fine if it was an old b&w Thorn etc, but unfortunately this was a modern 26 inch Finlandia (Salora).
It looked perfectly clean and unblemished outside and in to me until the lady drew back the curtains and in the direct sunlight, with just the right viewing angle I could just about perceive some streaks from her cleaning activity.
She was having none of that, the marks were on the inside of the glass!
So knowing I was on a hiding to nothing I asked for a bowl of water, some detergent and two cloths.
To prove my point, (never a good idea in these circumstances) I drew an imaginary line down the screen and cleaned and dryed one half. As soon as it was obvious that I was right and without giving me the opportunity of doing the other half she told me to leave
"So you think I keep a dirty house?"
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 10:06 am   #64
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Phone rings.
'Can I help you?'
'Could you repair my TV?'
'Certainly sir. Can I have your name?'
'Pardon?'
'Your name. Could I have it?'
'Pardon?'
(getting frustrated) 'CAN I HAVE YOUR NAME!!!'
'It's Pardon! Stan Pardon!'
Mr Pardon became a good and regular customer after that...
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 10:41 am   #65
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Not a TV anecdote but a video recorder one.
Had a call at the shop late one afternoon from a worried rental customer.
Sir ! i cant use my video recorder please can you send an engineer out asap !
Oh dear Why cant you use madam?
Because my pet mouse has gone inside the flap and wont come out!!

Well madam i cant send an engineer out at this time of the day ,but if you wedge the flap open im sure he will come out at some point !
Ring me tomorrow if hes still stuck in there! and make sure u unplug the video recorder just in case !
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 11:05 am   #66
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

I've got a 'nightie' one. Our regular field engineer Terry was called out to a fault on a rental TV in a rather less-than-salubrious part of town. This customer was a married lady of somewhat generous proportions.
Terry knocked on the door and the lady appeared in a *very* see-through nighty, all smiles, but when she saw Terry the smile was replaced by blushes as she exclaimed 'Oh no I'm sorry, I thought you were the Gas Man!'
Gawd, that poor gas man....

There's another nighty one coming.
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 3:34 pm   #67
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

In the Red Corner we had a rather temperamental TV with some nasty HT Faults-In the Blue Corner we had an Engineer ready to take on the Blighter! It went to Ten rounds but the Engineer finished the Job and taking the the Belt from services rendered!
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Old 22nd Jul 2021, 5:56 pm   #68
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

I played a trick on one of my apprentices once. We were going through a batch of Alba/Bush ctv portable returns for a contract customer. So before my apprentice showed up for work, I took one of the colour portables and swapped the line scan coil wires over. Everything was OK whilst he checked the display in the bench mirror. He completed the repair, put the back on and then turned the set round for a final check that all was well. It was not until the adverts came on that he realised something was not right. After a while of head scratching he looked at me and I suggested some possible reasons for the reversed image. I thought that I was going to learn a new swear word that day.

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Old 23rd Jul 2021, 8:21 am   #69
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

I never really did much TV stuff, though as a 17-year-old-who-had-just-passed-his-driving-test I did help out a friend who ran a local TV shop. Saturday mornings were his busiest time in the shop so I would be given a couple of deliveries to do - typically "Take this telly round to Mrs. Smith and set it up". Occasionally I'd be asked to do something simple like wire-up another TV outlet, this was in the days when a house would only have one telly which would be moved from room to room, so the 'extension' was just a coax-socket, coax stapled to the skirting, through the wall to a flying-lead-with-a-plug to be plugged into the existing outlet.

One such saturday-morning-wire-job I got to do was odd: I whizzed round to the house in the trusty mini-van and was shown into the front room whose curtains were drawn and it was only lit by a single candle. Through the gloom, as well as the typical 1960s Ultra TV [the version with four spindly legs], I spied a coffin, lying on a table, with the lid off, and someone 'in residence'!

Seems they wanted the TV moved to the living room so they and the expected stream of mourners/condolence-deliverers could watch it while Old Uncle Albert laid-in-state until the funeral the following week.

Job done - quickly! - cash changed hands with 'a little bit extra for you' and I drove back to the shop; whose proprietor suggested I should have tried hooking Uncle Albert to the TV EHT to see if that would move him into the 'living' room too!
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Old 23rd Jul 2021, 9:59 am   #70
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Customers are either 'Comunicators or contesters' Where as Engineers have had to learn how to become mediators aswell as Gladiators with the nasty Gremlin repairs that are set in our strides at times!
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Old 27th Jul 2021, 10:08 am   #71
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Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Hi. I always used to enjoy reading Les Lawry Johns stories in a magazine for television engineers (although I do not repair televisions). Also the section in Radiophile magazine called "Browsing with Bruce". He really made the magazine very interesting with his stories from his experiences!
I was once told a joke about two television aerials "getting married"
the service was wonderful
the reception was utterly awful
I thought it was brilliant!
Cheers
Mike
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