Sahara support woes

[jimbopembo]

I contacted Sahara last week for support with an out of warranty touch screen that has failed. I new it needed a hardware repair, and I asked for a quotation. They forwarded the request, without my approval, to IDNS who sent a quotation to the school - £175 for a PCB, £175 for a PSU, and - wait for it......

£575 for a site visit.

Call me suspicious, but it looks to me like the price has been inflated to encourage schools into buying new kit!

I'm not overly impressed with Sahara's play on supporting its customers.

Just wondering if any of you guys and gals have experience/ contact details for 3rd party repairs and parts??

[jimbopembo]

Bump:)

[Accura2k7]

Looks like a day rate site visit to me! Id be questioning the time onsite verses the cost.

[atcoates]

Could you get parts only and fit yourself?

[jimbopembo]

Okay....

After speaking to a Sahara rep who called me yesterday.....

They don't supply spares to end users, only via their nationwide repair service - provided by a 3rd party. He stated that the call out charge (prices provided by IDNS) is so high because of the travel distance.

So, my take on it is this - if your school has a Sahara touchscreen that is out of its 3 year warranty period you will have to pay £575 just for the call out, and a £925 total fix cost - you cannot go 3rd party for a fix. However, they also offered the option to buy a new 55" replacement at £2,350 fitted:hand:

I'm genuinely disappointed with Sahara's treatment of it's customers who have out of warranty screens - schools shouldn't need to be budgeting for such expensive equipment at the end of the warranty period.

I'll be doing a bit more due diligence before I make future recommendations.

[difinity]

How hard would it be to remove the power supply and the PCB ?

Sending them off to be repaired would cost a fraction of that £925.

[Katy]

Also if you think you can do the fix yourself with the parts - worth asking IDNS if they could supply you with just the parts, I've done similar before with an out-of-warranty item (can't remember what the item was or if it was with IDNS though)

[Fazza]

Ask your existing IT suppliers if they can get hold of the parts you need and then have a go at fixing it yourself.

[jimbopembo]

It seems like quite a straightforward swap out - the pc band psu just unscrew and slide out. I’ll speak to IDNS.

[difinity]

It seems like quite a straightforward swap out - the pc band psu just unscrew and slide out. I’ll speak to IDNS.

 

If they are easily accessible and you have another of these screens, swap the boards one at a time to identify which is faulty. No point in buying both boards.