AboutKenneth Saunders Expertise Any mechanical clock question - no battery clock questions and no appraisals.
36 years as a professional clock repair person- still a full time clock repair service owner.
Experience 36 years as a professional clock repair person- still a full time clock repair service owner.
Question Completely went over by a clock person in L.A. $250-$300 to clean up & get time set right ... approx 10 yrs later clock not keeping time right / chimes not correct for time .. could not keep it running .. took it to a clock repair Nov 07 ..they said it would take 3 months (very busy) .. I started going back to pick it up in Feb 07 and here it is the end of May 07 ...clock in pieces at the shop ..I am horrified .. I contacted sheriff dept just so I could get all my parts back that are not sitting near or around my clock .. hope to get all the pieces & get it to someone who knows how to put it back together ....DO YOU THINK IT IS WORTH IT?? Do you know a place in Riverside County area?
Answer "worth" is in the eye of the beholder. If this is a family heirloom- probably worth it. If this is one of Seth Thomas's very rare and sought after antique clocks-probably worth it. If this is one you picked up in a garage sale 10 years ago for $25 and you never really liked it- probably not.
Probably worth more to you than anyone else in the world and worth more to you than you could ever expect to recoup by selling it on the open market.
For a complete overhaul done properly in CA, $300 is probably reasonable. I gather you did not get an estimate Nov 07? You just left it and said "fix it" with an open cost? They were never supposed to call you with an estimate??
If you took it to a full-time clock repair person who was that busy, you probably took it to a quality shop.
They say in clock repair you have three choices :
1)fast repair
2)quality repair
3)inexpensive repair
and you get to pick any TWO! and the third one will not be what you want.
Many repairs, even minor ones, often require disassembly of the mechanism itself, just to get to the problem, not in itself "horifying" at all. I need to know more info about what transpired, what you told them, what the nature of the needed repairs are, and what they say now.
Advise more info and perhaps I can get you another repair person in Riverside County, but I am not convinced you would fare better.
And FYI it is the end of May "08" today, not 07
