VB Electronics Ltd - Calgary

Horrible Experience. I've written the full story below, but long story short: Frank charged me $100 for a "Free Quote" and nearly short circuited my device by leaving it partially re constructed with loose cable connections and parts free inside the device. He originally wanted to charge me 5 times more to simply replace an easily repaired port on my music instrument that I simply didn't have time to fix myself. Frank took advantage of my desperation. Here's the full story: I was given Frank's contact info in a time of desperate need for repair of my Music Gear. It was a simple USB Port to replace. Despite my initial explanation and information I gave him about my rig and the problem, he didn't believe me, and insisted he would need to keep my gear to open it up and take a look inside just to give a simple quote, and couldn't do it with me there. So initially I was very unimpressed and didn't feel right about trusting him. I had no other option, so I had to. I had initially told him I wasn't sure if I would be able to justify paying for an expensive repair, and he agreed to simply open it up and give me an accurate quote about what a full repair would cost, if I were to have him do it for me. Giving me the quote for free, with no strings attached. He also mentioned he'd give me a call the next day with the quote so I could decide if repair was worth it. Sunday rolls around, I've been too busy to call him, even though he said he would call me, two days prior, I finally call him, no answer either time. Now I'm starting to worry. He's not responding, and he has no way other than his house phone number to get in touch with. Did he steal my gear? Is he purposely ignoring me? Turns out. No. Thank goodness. He finally called me back, late Sunday night. Frank quoted me $250. That's 2 +1/2 hours labor (@ $95/hr) + $17 for a replacement USB part. Considering my gear is currently worth < $500 on the used market, that's outrageous, so I wanted to reconsider my options. Frank offered to lower his price to $200, still way too pricey for most. So I told him I would be picking up the unit as soon as I could. He made me wait an additional day, until Tuesday afternoon. At this point I'm very uncomfortable and feeling cynical about Frank. Tuesday afternoon comes, I arrive at Frank's residence to pick my my gear. He had only mounted 3/40 screws, just barely enough to keep the metal plate on the bottom of my gear somewhat secure, then Bam! He whips out a $100 invoice. I'm at a loss for words. Based on our previous conversations, this shouldn't have cost me anything. When I confronted him on it at his door, he was combative and wouldn't listen to anything I was saying. He didn't even offer to change anything. Luckily I had cash on me, as I half expected him to do something shady like this. I paid Frank $100 just to get my gear back and reconsider my options. Meanwhile, a friend of mine found a local shop selling the correct USB replacement part for $1.68. Said friend is also much more comfortable and experienced with a soldering iron and repairing electronics than I am. So we buy the part for $1.68, and spent only 30 minutes replacing the part. Only to find that Frank had disconnected cables and important connections inside my gear, for no reason. He also misplaced screws, and didn't tell us about any of it. I only spent $1.68, and 30 minutes of our time to repair this gear. Frank wanted to overcharge me by 500%!!! (Going off standard labor rate of $95/hr). Frank and VB Electronics Ltd. shouldn't be in business if he continues these shady, scam-like practices. In the end I spent $100 on a lie and all I got out of it was more stress and a potentially broken device. Thanks for nothing Frank.

I had a great experience dealing with Frank. I had a strange buzzing/rattling sound coming out of my DRRI when certain note were played. I had changed the power tubes but the problem persisted. Turns out I just replaced a bad tube with a bad tube. Frank put in a set of matched groove tubes, biased the amp, and it's back to normal. Thank you!