Sorry for dredging up such an old topic, but I'd not noticed it before, and as it's my service, I thought I might add a few notes.
The service I provide is £30 + parts. That can seem quite a bit when you consider that you can get a new Spectrum for £15 without difficulty. However, I should point out:
* £30 includes Recorded Delivery 1st class postage.
* "Minor" parts (i.e. RAM chips, transistors, capacitors, sockets) I charge nothing for, unless I need a lot of them (e.g. all 8 RAM chips, but this is very unusual thankfully).
* I often change all the electrolytics as a matter of course.
* I also check and often replace the colour dials on issue 2 machines - these get old and lose their accuracy, so replacement can help a lot.
* I'll often convert it to composite video while I'm at it.
* I check for a weak M1 line on the CPU too as this can cause trouble.
* I replace membranes for cost price (i.e. £7 for a rubber key) so no labour fees.
* I provide a warranty on the repaired Speccy for a month (but I usually fix it free anyway after that)
* you get to keep your childhood rubber-keyed chum going rather than buying one you don't have emotional attachment to.
So even if a repair only takes 10 minutes (i.e. how long it takes to replace TR4 and TR5), I can still do a lot more to rejuvenate your favourite Spectrum. And some repairs take a lot longer than that, trust me....!
Incidentally, I'm going down to the Spectrum30 show next month with my soldering iron, so I'll be (trying to) repair sick Spectrums that are brought with their loving owners.
