Hi there, please feel free to move this, but I need to talk about this, especially for future customers. So I live in London, and I've had this beautiful red WM-DD30 in immaculate condition for years, as it was my dad's player. I was initially hesitant to send in my Walkman, as my past experiences with his business practices were questionable. "how much to clean the battery contacts of this CD player?" "I don't know, how much do you think its worth?" "I have no idea... £20?" "Alright." Fun fact, wiping alcohol on contacts and having it still not work is not worth 20 quid, and he was asking £150 for a center gear replacement and a four week turnaround time. Not desirable for a college student. So I decided to take it apart and replace the gear myself. Difficult, but doable, right? There are parts available and a full guide on The Walkman Archive. So I took a £40 gear and replacement parts and took it apart, replaced the gears and all, but eventually couldn't figure out why the buttons weren't staying pressed down. So I went over back to Galaxy Spares and he replied that it will be 90 pounds to check it out. Fine. Reasonable if i couldn't do it. I come back the next day with he parts and he looks at me incredulously that he even suggested such a low price of £90. Great memory. So he takes it and tells me there will be a two week turnaround time. Four weeks later, I'm feeling a little concerned at this point and give the repairman a call. "Hey, I was just wondering about the status of the Walkman since it's been two weeks later than the repair time and haven't heard anything." "Yeah, I found a little bent part of the metal and I'd have to take the whole thing apart to fix it, so its not working." So... you're saying its unrepairable?" "Not unrepairable, this just isn't worth my time." Excuse me, How is this not worth your time? Is it also not worth your time to call me and tell me you could do it? So I guess Ill go pick up my nonfunctional Walkman. I head on over and request my paperweight back. "Yeah, these are difficult to repair. You gave it to me in pieces, right?" Who gives these in pieces? I said no and asked me to come back tomorrow. I come back tomorrow and he just hands me the Walkman, and after closer inspection back home, he didn't put any of the parts back in their place. Wires showing near the battery compartment and the buttons sunk in and non functional. Its as if he just crammed it all in there and called it a day. I think I'm just disappointed that my family Walkman, an item that is incredibly important to me as these are to all of you, was handled to a man who holds a specialty job service for these, and does not care or hold the passion to fix these because it does not suit him. If that's the case, then maybe he needs to rethink his profession. It seems that my options are either settle for a paperweight now, try and find a junk DD30 that works, send out my Walkman to Europe to someone who actually cares at probably a much higher premium, or just sell it for parts. I.. I care about this thing so much, as they're such beautiful jewels of the past, and to have an experience like this where its just ruined is... heartbreaking. The one model I have from my family is destroyed, and the one service I was recommended to go to was not a positive experience. TLDR: Galaxy Spares and Repairs in the UK was a disappointing experience where the repairman offers a very passive and forgetful service in which he simply does not have the time for further disassembly. I do not recommend them.
I think the best thing to do is to put it to one side and maybe buy and practice on a few machines yourself before going back to it. The problem is that most people wouldn't expect someone to spend more on repairs than the going rate for that model on eBay. I do understand why you would though. I have my late Mothers Sanyo Radio Cassette here. I would be lucky to get £20 for it on eBay but wouldn't sell it for ten times that.
I feel your pain, I have a 60's Benz with dual Zenith Carbs, supposedly wonderful if they are working correctly. I can't find anyone to dial them in for me no matter the price, same issue with some other vintage equipment I have. I think the number of people working on vintage audio is really shrinking fast and working on a full-size amp is much easier, quicker and has a better financial return. In the early days of the forum there seemed to be many more places and members servicing equipment but a large number have disappeared. It may take some work but I'd try and find some old TV repair shops, we still have some in town but they do very little internet advertising, those guys used to work on boomboxes and Walkmans. Sometimes the local radio club (shortwave) will have meetings or sales, you might be able to get some leads but it will also take time. We also have some members on the forum that might work on it, hopefully someone will speak up.
Horrible and frustrating to hear your story. Don’t give up, though, I’m sure it’s recoverable. Take a deep breath, and when you’re ready to, make a decision on sending it off to someone who really knows what they or doing, or immerse yourself in the great information that is out there on forums like this and give it a go yourself. Your impulse is right to value and bring this back!
It is extremely frustrating to have such an experience, @Archerg ! From my experience I can tell you the following: generic electronics repair shops are not able to properly repair walkmans. To run such a shop, the monthy expenses are very high, especially in a country like UK. That is why electronics repair shops develop strategies for dealing with repairs very quickly and do as many of them as possible in a day. Unfortunately, those strategies only work on those products which they have a lot of experience on, like: iPhone, iMacs, laptops, tablets. Those types of products are extremely different in regard to repair than a walkman and have different types of problems. For example, multi layer ceramic capacitors and mosfets do go short-circuit a lot on these new devices, while that's not the case at all on walkmans. Even more true for mechanical aspect: these new devices are completely solid-state, so these technicians will have zero experience in dealing with mechanical stuff. When repairing a walkman, there are a lot of mechanical problems to deal with, especially on DD units. The conclusion is the following and I want this to be a reference for everyone trying to get a repair service for an old audio device like a walkman: only send your old walkman for repair to someone which does this kind of repair on a regular basis and is familiar with these kind of repairs. Otherwise, the risk of getting the device in worse condition than it was before is very high. It simply comes down to the fact that these people have no idea on the common problmes these devices have and hence are unable to repair them. I can do a proffessional repair of your device, however I'm located in Romania and the shipping costs are not the lowest. That's why I recommend getting in touch with @Deb64 as she's located in the UK as well and can do a proffessional repair. There may be other members of this forum which do proffessional repairs and are located in the UK, but @Deb64 is the only one I've came across up until this point. If you want to learn how to repair these devices yourself, I recommend getting youself lower end ones and start experimenting on that, as even if you break something, there won't be a huge loss.
Thank you everyone so much, it looks like ill give Deb64 a reply, and hopefully it'll work out. I do enjoy coming onto these sites as everyone is very friendly and knowledgeable about these old audio players. It helps a ton!
