[TenTec] TenTec Support

[Jim Brown]

I want to post a very public thank you to the TenTec service department for their help in 
resolving some problems with a Titan 425 I recently bougtht on EBay. I called for help 
several times, asking for ":whoever is hot on the 425," and was routed to John in the 
service department. John was VERY supportive of my fixing my problems in the field. He 
sent me a reed relay at no charge, and he talked through symptoms and probable causes 
on the phone. When I told him I might have a board that had been modified, he offered to 
send me a used one to try or compare on an exchange/loan basis. 

I eventually found several bad transistors and replaced the big vacuum relay. The amp is 
now purring along nicely.  

To put this in perspective, Ten Tec probably sold this amplifier about 20 years ago, and has 
probably not touched it since. I bought it on EBay, probably from the original owner, who 
had clearly taken good care of it. What other manufacturer in any industry would allow a 
(very) compentent technician spend a half hour on the  phone (spread out over several 
weeks) with a user to fix a 20 year old product that they haven't sold for at least 10 years? 
We all know that support like this is almost non-existent.  

BTW -- my 24 year old Omni-A just went out on loan to a member of our ham club who just 
passed his General ticket. 

The folks at TenTec clearly understand that the value of their products is tied to their resale 
value and the long term satisfaction of both original and subsequent owners. Credit Al 
Kahn, K4FW, Ten-Tec's founder (and also the founder of Electro-Voice) for this positive 
attitude. That's also the way he ran EV. Although I've never met him (except once on 40 cw), 
Al is one of my heroes. 

Jim Brown  K9YC