Guarantee and repair scams.
It's your aerial, Madam:
With rental and guarantee work, there is no money to be made by the shop - there
is only the cost of the work or replacement. If they just tell you, "no guarantee,
no repair", Trading Standards can jump on them from a great height.
So they must make you believe that you have no claim on them, that there is nothing
wrong with the equipment in question.. "it's your aerial Madam" often works fine.
I have also heard this used to avoid fixing problems caused by the initial repair
not being done right.
You need a new one:
To repair a product takes time and parts, selling a new item is a quick exchange of
goods for money. Often, it can be much more profitable for them to just sell you a
new one. Not that they wouldn't make money on a repair, just that they can make
even more if they can convince you to buy a new one.
Techno-babble:
Many salesmen and dodgy repair people will drop in the odd technical term to
impress the hell out of the customer. The chances are that they don't really
understand it, they are just dropping in words they have heard.
Test equipment claims:
Sometimes a salesman or engineer may come across a customer who disputes the rather
high repair charge or claim that a new one is needed. This is where the impressive
test equipment and workshop claim comes in useful. The wording may go something
like, "we have a large workshop and £1000s of test equipment, which cannot be
wrong". The very wording of their claim shows their lack of knowledge.
Test equipment can be wrong: it must be regularly calibrated in a
proper lab to ensure accuracy.
The equipment does not state what is wrong: the engineer decides that from
the readings. The engineer can be wrong.
Most CB repair places have very little test equipment. Unfortunately, CB
repairs do not pay enough for such equipment. Unless the shop also repair more
expensive equipment, they will not be able to afford such test equipment and regular
calibration.
I have heard the large workshop and test equipment claim from a shop who I knew to
be doing their repairs in a cupboard under the stairs (around 6'x2') with less
test equipment than many CB users. What little they had was outdated or broken, but
the customers never needed to know that.