Expert: William J Perkins - 12/27/2008

Question
I have a Seth Thomas Legacy IV Mantel Clock it says it is made in Germany there is a 7009 and E399-273 on the inside.  We cannot get it to chime.  My sister in law took it to a clock repairman in Houston and he told her it worked just fine.  We live on the other side of Texas from Houston and have done everything it says to do, but we cannot get it to chime.

Answer
Here we have a situation of two dispositions.  1) the clock runs properly or, 2) the clock does not run properly.  In this instance if, as the clock repair person who said it ran properly should have told your sister how to make the clock do so.  Obviously, in this case, the owner must not be doing something or not doing something properly, in either case he should have instructed your sister in the procedures for set up and running.  If the the clock repair person is wrong he should have either corrected the problem himself and if not referred you to a source to obtain such corrections as needed.  I would suggest you find a repair person in your area and personally take the clock to him and see what you can work out.  From your description I frankly suspect you have a defective clock.  In any case you need local attention.  To locate such service use the Internet.  Go to a site called local.com, when you enter the site it will ask you where you live and the service you want.  In the box for location enter your town name,  In the box for service wanted enter clock repair, then enter search.  You will be rewarded with a listed of prospects.  Let me know how you come out on this, regards WJP