I Bought ARGOS CUSTOMER RETURNS to FIX - Can I Make ££$$€€
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2023
- Hi, in this video I bought an Argos customer returns box to attempt to fix the broken items.
So what will be inside, will anything be fixable or will it all be broken beyond repair.
Let's find out.
If you would like to support these videos, please click here / mymatevince
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince. - Jak na to + styl
So nice to see these things being fixed instead of being sent to landfill
The same i think - thank you ! BTW the glue gun (by hot-air) was great - i hope one time in a wholesale you would find the real glue gun :) but it wastes more glue than your method. Like a toothpaste tube wastes more toothpaste than needed :)
what would have been nicer is if these ultra cheap low quality items were never produced in the first place
Low-cost, bulk buys by big chains order these substandard items for big profits
Yepper!
Don't worry, Amazon still throws lots of good things to landfill 😢
I love watching you bring these broken items back to life. Thank you from a bedridden old man. I find it entertaining and educational.
I like these random fixes. Honest faults indeed!
Excellent, thanks devtty 😎
Old devices often had block/part diagrams glued somewhere inside their cases. And it was a norm to get the schematic sheet distributed as an insert in the user's manual.
I remember that too.
Those were not that complex back then, nowadays everything is in one chip with billions of transistors and proprietary circuitry, but without what we have these days we wont be on the internet or we would still use computers the size of rooms
@@309electronics5 Things like color tube TVs were quite complex. Certainly more complex than 90s highly integrated devices. Also, there are schematics of things like PC and laptop motherboards available to download (not always legally, but still). Usually it's just a couple of sheets. Would be easy to print and put into a manual. No one expects internal chip diagrams. Even just a part list would be enough.
I think companies have come to two conclusions here. Most people will not even think of repairing something and of those that do, few will try. Add in the desire of companies for customers to buy again, though why one would if the thing broke, and why would printing a schematic be anything but a useless cost to a company?
Doesn't happen much these days with these cheap Chinese products. Except some microwaves, maybe... edit: however, it doesn't take that much more time to add the part number of the ICs to the silkscreen... I loath seeing "U1", "R1".. ok, cool, that refers to a reference number on the schematic, we don't have one... just print the part number.
I am an electronics engineer, I have a bachelors and a masters and spent most of my career as a design engineer and watching these videos make me realise how much of a prima Donna I am. I would want schematics and a direct line to the designer, a rider and an assistant. Well done guys for doing this, believe it or not most engineers are happy you exist, the companies we work for probably not so much! You patience as well is astounding, I would have bailed in the first I don’t know… 2 minutes. The reason it is not printed on the silk is the BOM.. I think there does not need to be a schematic available but the BoM would be helpful
The 2nd clock was definitely tampered with. There's no way it would have left the factory in that state. Someone messed with it, and then returned it as faulty. My #1 reason for never buying open box or returned goods, even if they work, is that you never know who had them before, and what they did to them.
Or maybe someone sabotaged someone else's alarm clock for some devious motive. Then the owner rightfully thought it had just broken and returned it as faulty.
That's far far less likely, often times you cannot get a full refund for a working product, it's easier to just open it and snip a wire, then when the company receives the item and verifies that it doesn't work, you get your money back.@@Toca_waffle843
Buy a clock and change your mind there is no refund. Take the back off and cut random wires gets your money back.
@@mbak7801 Exactly that!
Then the seller's loss gets put into the overall price of their products, so the rest of the customers pay for a select few to enjoy free products.
I've got a cheap scale to use in making espresso and it's inaccurate, so I decided to return it. Had to contact Amazon because I couldn't print a return label and spoke with two different agents, got the label issue sorted, all without even asking me what was wrong with the product...
Could simply be terrible QC.... never know.
Love your patience / ingenuity, and ability to apply what you know to fix these things. Excellent video presentation as well.
The AM radio has been purposely damaged/disabled so that it could be returned as not working.
In case the staff plugged it in not only does the Tuner not work there is no sound. No-one opens the equipment up to check for physical internal damage so they get their money back. And they then go back and purchase another one which they will also return within the year of purchase.
Thanks @Mymatevince for another cracking video, you really are awesome!
Love these random faults. Great job Vince
Thank you Phil😎
I repair a lot. Love to see broken things brought back to life! Always new things to learn from watching others. Many thanks for your excellent channel. 👌
Awesome video! Its so satisfying fixing stuff. The cool thing about this is if monetised this video has probably made about £400 so it was worth him doing it but also it has likely inspired many to try and repair broken stuff too 😊 everyone's a winner!
Great video 🍻
20:09 The polarity of the speaker does matter. As soon as you get near another speaker with the correct polarity, playing exactly the same, you may hear some weird sound cancellation effects 😉
Starting at 26:30 , you talk about "Right to repair", how it would be better to have access to documentation of circuitry in some way. Somebody already mentioned, how it's been normal, that schematics and parts lists of a product were included in delivery...they stopped doing this decades ago, bit by bit, time flies 😳
Louis Rossmann is heavily lobbying for RtR and I think its a good thing to make people aware of these bad practices.
34:54 Measure it. Your Multimeter has mA uA and A connections. To use them, plug the red probe into the A. Break the circuit and use the probes to bridge the supply output to the circuit input through the multimeter. If the measurement is below 0.2 A (200 mA) use the mA mode and connection. And MAKE SURE you are not using the amp measurement connections for modes they are not intended for, as it MIGHT DESTROY your multimeter, or the circuit, or both, you can even pop a circuit breaker by accident. Never measure how many amps a supply can provide, if you don't know its regulation capabilities...done it on a german 3.5 kw breaker 🙈 nice pop
39:22 list of features says it, Power Supply Ripple Rejection. This is kind of what you want for the application "radio". Both were a good choice, but the first may have had a hard time coming up from shutdown with its max 0.5 watt rating 😅 the second one delivers roundabout 1 W max. and might pop just like the factory one, if 1W is not enough (measure it 😆).
EN and SHDN with the line above means NOT in binary logic. So like, not shutdown when true (voltage).
The 'wire with fabric' will be Litz wire, where wire and thread are spun together to reduce 'skin effect' where radio frequencies are present. It also is used on loudspeakers to reduce metal fatigue where the link wires are flexing...
Absolutely right. :)
Such a great video Vince, It was a pleasure to watch with insight and knowledge. Takes me back when I used too repair Mum's Boot-sale items.
She always said, that, it makes good practice for me. Until, I spent nearly an hour repairing a radio to working order. When finished, she said that she nicked it from a stool after an argument with a seller... I felt like tossing it in the bin.
I did see the funny side after a time. Sadly we lost her 23yrs ago. Sad, but good times...
Brilliant watching you work through these faults. Well worth watching. 👍👏🏴👍👏🏴
Hi Vince, I enjoyed every minute, love the way you go about fault finding, ok it may or may not be financially worthwhile but you are keeping these out of landfill which is superb, I will certainly be watching future vids. as they really make my day, pity there isn't a channel on free view it would be so much better than the mindless crap they have showing right now, keep going you're a star mate.
Fun series, love the multiple random repairs.
Thank you for the enjoying content as always. Loving watching it when i chill on weekends. :)
Excellent video. I like the way you go through your thought process while doing the repair. Subbed.
Nice to see items being fixed instead of going to landfill. It is particularly good to see when some of the fixes are minor. Minor glitch in the rolling text? Chas Newport is listed twice in the club member section.
🎵Newport, Newport, so good they named him twice 🎵
just came across your channel last night, brings back lots old memories of taking stuff apart to diagnose and fix and sell on, its so satisfying seeing some many of these products with such minor issues fixed to find a new home and giving it a chance to do what its designed for, save so much junk in landfill that doesnt to be. i always salvage batteries out of disposable vapes and build portable power banks or LED portable torch or lanterns for camping with them or repurpose them for other electronic projects in future. Subbed by the way cos im sure alot of your contents will help myself others out there to fix their goods before even considering dumping it.
yeah what i think happened with the second clock is that someone didnt like it so cut the wires and returned it as faulty - they also asked for a refund.
I don't know why you'd do that. It's a cheap clock radio, clearly, but a cheap clock radio is better than no clock radio in my view.
i did that with a cheap cellphone. intentionally overdischarged the battery and tampered with the charger so I can return it. Some stores just don't accept a "change of mind/item no longer needed" as a valid reason to return a product.
@@RealEpikCartfrenYT What country do you live in? I think here in Australia we generally have the right to return something if we decide we don't like or want it, but it has to go back within 14 or 30 days or something. I could be wrong though, I can't remember exactly, but you do have rights as a consumer.
@@Lachlant1984 Bosnia and Herzegovina is my country's name.
There _are_ stores which do accept returns normally but in this case I needed to tamper with it as they only accept if it's faulty.
Argos has 14 day money back no questions so seems a bit silly but people be crazy :)
Honestly, this could've gone on for 3-4 hours, and I'd still be here. Great video! Liked, Subscribed, Bell'ed, and Commenting for the algorithm. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and process.
Great work, Vince. Very interesting troubleshooting video, thanks.
hi vince you make fixing things look easy ..... and brighten my day as i am disabled a bit ! i have been watching you for a long time kind regards paul h
Nice fixes as always :) Looking forward to the next part.
The FM antenna is usually a single wire and the AM antenna is a coil around a ferrite rod. Good work, man
A really good fault finding video please keep them coming
Astonishing detective work. Such great logic. Sherlock Ohms. I couldn't do this. I haven't the temperament (yet). But I carry these thoughts with me when I get frustrated working on something. It's like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Thank you for that.
I’ve always backed away from electronics... you sir are educating a old folk that will take on any repair as long as it’s challenging
28:00 Absolutely well put my friend. The problem is that they want you to buy a new one when it breaks 😑
The words I'm looking for here are Deft and Skill. So enviable to see such confidence and slick work by someone who really knows what they're doing all the time and knows how to do it. And 80% of that skill is diagnosis of what's the source of the problem. I'm really impressed with this.
glub glub glub glub
Thank you for all the content..... you are a Legend!!! 😁👍
very interesting ..... jealous of your electics knowledge and ability
Many thanks, your videos are always educational and inspiring 👍
I suspect that the Bush DAB Radio had the wrong power supply plugged into it that took out the regulator and audio amp IC.
Great fixes as always, Vince. 😊
Yep, very often these audio things have centre negative and most supplies are centre positive. I bet they didn't check first.
@@englishrupe01 Japanise products tend to use centre negative. i.e. Casio, Brother, Epson etc.
@@chrisg6597 Yep, and a lot of guitar stuff does, too.
@@chrisg6597 And several '80s home computers too. If you're lucky the device will have a reverse diode on the input that will blow dead short in the event of reverse polarity and only kill the power supply not the whole device. If you're REALLY lucky it might also have a fuse which will blow when the diode shorts to protect the power supply as well
Could the problem be the cells were fitted arse about face
If your worried by the current draw in battery mode of your radio (or any battery device) simply put your meter into Milliamp mode and pull out a battery and remake the connections but with your meter in series, basically let the current flow through the meter as wall as the radio and read of the current when on and then measure when off. Probably next to zero when off maybe a few milliamps, dunno...cheers.
You need microamp resolution to measure this, but his multimeter has that setting.
Hi Vince your videos are good and helpful
Pretty easy fixes, Nice job.
Great video. Extremely peaceful. Therapeutic ❤
Love these types of fix it videos
Great work I love watching your videos I find them really interesting and learn a thing or two and wanna thank you as well
I have been finding random stuff people had thrown away and repairing them for years, but until I seen your video it never occurred to me to buying them online. 🤔🤔
Brilliant video, gotta love pulling something apart to figure out how it works. 👍👊
Question. Is there any advice you can give about buying these kind of returns boxes? My research came up with a lot of scams, empty boxes etc.
Thanks 🤟 looking forward to the next video
Wow! I love those ebay returns and you got four out of four so far. Really really good.
The second clock, with the cut wires, looks like someone has a "smart kid" wanting to repair items and opened their new clock radio and cut some wires to "repair" the clock. Parents noticed no sound and returned the item.
Nice job on all the repairs!
Thanks for the trip down not so good memory lane. I started in the electronic repair business as an apprentice in the 1960s when things that were sold were on the whole repairable, though since then things have gone down hill to the throw it away it is not repairable for most things we have today. I was very glad to hang up my soldering iron put the Avo 8 in a box and put it in the loft though I have kept its long time replacement Fluke in my workshop that does not have any thing to do with electronic repair. I wish you all the very best for the future but on those three radios you looked at I do not think you broke even on time and components.
Excellent. Perhaps you will next get the two sound bars that I took back to Argus because they didn't work.
I wondered why they were on special, special offer.
I really like the way you will have a go at fixing just about anything.
Nice fixes Vince!
I love the fact that you're able to fix some sort easily. Because I quite like this brand I know they're not very good but they make items of a company's don't
I loved these fixes.
Hi Vince, what a fixer MARATHON! BTW I think that the regulator on the radio blew because someone connected a 12V or a laptop adapter to it. Regarding the power draw, you can always disconnect one of the battery leads and put the multimeter in between to measure it. ;-)
Cheers Marcel👍
😂 worked in a Alba Bush TV refurbish place when i left school this is a common fault .. they all either dont align or brake off. and normally can be fixed with a soldering iron . RADIO/TV fix.. keep up the good work ..😍
With those dome switches, you could turn on the radio when it apart and press the button with your finger to test. More often than not the switch is not the fault, but looks like you got lucky with that one and it wasn't aligned correctly :) Good to have a success on the first one. The speaker fault looks deliberate. Customer didn't like it and wanted a return. Looking closely at the speaker, looks like it was deliberately cut. There is a band switch on the radio, someone cut out the AM Loop Antenna also. Speaker polarity with a single speaker is not important as a speaker uses AC, so you can connect them either way. On a device like this phasing is not important. The battery polarity, I've seen it often with Chinese made devices having the colours wrong
I remember when I bought broken PC Speakers from Conrad Electronics für under 5 Bucks, it had the Ground trace missing on the Audio Input. I soldered a Jumper wire and fixed it, It's unbelievable that some Manufacture skip the quality control, at least for some people it's an advantage to get a Cheap Device which are sometimes easy fixable, but for regular customers it's annoying to have the rassle to return it, or even fail after a short period of time.
Great and interesting video, well done getting them working. Regards mark
Well done spotting the ferrite rod AM aerial.
Hi Vince ! Always looking ahed for all videos you putting out on Yt ! Speciell those whith the R,R !
Using your amplified speaker (line in) for fault finding is an excellent idea. But to protect it from input shock, add to the end of the cable, in series: a 50n capacitor and a 220k resistor.
Great perseverance on the Bush!
The ENABLE pin, is high to enable. The SHDN pin had a line above it, so it was an inverted signal, so that's low to shut down. They are the same thing.
Yeah probably just inadequate current on the first one.
Hello from Tampa Florida! I just surfed onto your channel and enjoyed them (4). I really don't know small electronics but.....I did learn one thing. Don't buy Bush transistor radios 😅.
Great videos and I'm subscribed
Excellent video. Thanks
That first clock, when you put the dome in where the original had been not responding, you didn't completely seat the dome into its little nibs. This has the effect of making it taller than spec, which points back to the idea that the button above it is a bit short or otherwise mis-formed.
no
That was such a great watch. 👍
Always fun to see the Omega make an appearance!
More of these videos pls Vince!😀
Mate Vince you did better than l did changing the 7 x 18650 cells in our stick hoover. I let the smoke out for good when a component shot out a big spark as l accidentally shorted out something or other with a wayward loose wire…!
Glad I watched this video as I have a USB power socket to replace, I hadn't realise the milky white blob was just hot glue holding it in situ!
Nicely done!
vince mate u do make me happy with these vids mate i got box full of bush radios ect to fix and a amplifier might send amp to u tho
good trying to fix video Vince funny I was going to buy one of these Argos return but decided not to bother as I didn't think there would be any resale value
Well done Technovince!
Could you imagine if you fixed these items while at a remote location outside? Bush Bush fixes :) Great video as always!
Blast from the past, havent seen a vince vid in years
a great pity that not more High Street, Catalogue and Retail Returns Centres aren't employing apprentices, repairers, restorers and technicians to repair and fix stuff to restock as 'refurbished' etc. - Would make such a difference especially for Electron waste such as these from entering landfill.
It really is such a shame that people are so quick to throw things away and buy new things. There are pretty much no consumer products you can buy that are made to last like they used to be!
BER - Beyond Economical Repair.
A technician being paid £8 per hour takes two hours to fix a £10 radio. Which probably cost £4 to manufacture before the markup.
I know this because I worked at an eFab firm where they were fixated on the length of time to repair something. Their margins were very low which was on them.
@@kjamison5951 Exactly my thoughts. Only practical as a hobby. It's a shame stuff has been cheapened so much as to become disposable.
@@kjamison5951 spot on, not economically viable.
You don't know how Argos returns work or where they Go So why comment
Hi Vince. Unless they are heavily shielded, switch mode power supplies cause too much interference, especially on AM bands, to be used inside radios.
Thank you Terry👍👍
Cool show . its hteat seeing things get fixed
Its great .!!
That power regulator IC on the DAB radio, didn't have any sort of feedback pin. The extra pin was to put a capacitor across to reduce output noise. Can't think why, it can't be a switcher internally without any sort of coil, or a capacitive voltage multiplier, cos they only work on whole-number multiples of the input. Usually. But whatever, that's what the data sheet said it was for, a 470pf cap to reduce noise. That, the shutdown pin, and the usual 3 for a regulator, and that's your 5 pins.
Well done on the fix btw! Nice work.
I'm alway very heavily hit by hay fever and this season I've tried a Bilastine-based product and it was working really great WITHOUT making me tired. I very strongly recommend that you try one of these new ones. (I too am rocking a Philips air purifier for good measure)
Yeah if you get your money back and still got some parts, plus you’ve entertained and educated so on balance I would say it’s a 👍🏻 and you gained another subscription from me, as that was my first visit to you.
Great video 👍
At 3:03 there is a tiny little piece of black (possibly plastic?) visible on the centre of the affected cap, moving the switches around probably disturbed it. Nice troubleshooting though!
noticed that also, a very small speck rendered it useless! great fixes Vince!
I have the exact same Bush DAB radio from Argos about 3 weeks ago. For the price (£19.99) you can't really grumble, it does what it was designed to do.
Got me really excited for a roller video
The Artful Spudger!
Consider Yourself My Mate!
The 8002 amplifier chips are realy common they are in almost every (cheap) thing. I bet someone plugged the wrong voltage in the white radio causing the chips to blow up. You are lucky the main processor of the radio (on the little pcb thats soldered onto the main pcb under a sticker) is fine and did not get damaged
Ilove you Vince ❤ all the time fix
Good clear video and informative. One thing though. I would recommend using something like Knipex wire strippers, side cutters are just wrong. Then soldering a 3/8th stub. Cutting off 1/4 to leave a 1/8th nub of neat wire to dab onto test points on the board. Using fly leads with long bare wire or worse a frayed end of multi-strand is asking for a short circuit. Otherwise a big thumbs up.
Nice to see some seven segment LED displays, even if not attached to a nice old 70s calculator. Please Vince please do another vintage calculator repair.
i feel you mate! i have hayfever too and i despise it.
Shocked and happy to see that someone's still making portable CD players!
A hundred Thumbs Down? WT? Great as always Vince, I thoroughly enjoyed your repairs!
Those snappy triangular switches can be a real sod to align right. I had one of the 1970s Mastermind games, and the whole keyboard works like that and I took it fully apart before realizing quite how it worked right. There were a few keys non-functional. Getting that back together and working nicely was a nightmare.
I have a portable air conditioner with those PCB buttons and it was getting very hard to turn on so now I just switch it off at the socket.
great video vince :-)
I don’t know why but I love the look and the varta name batteries. I wish we had them in the USA.
That radio was indeed interesting! Well done as always Vince 👍
Thanks Garth, that was the best one for me too 👍
I bought one of these bundles Vince (pretty sure same seller). They’re all Argos returns and are mostly easy fixes. They downsides are some are cheap plastic breakages that very hard to fix confidently.
Yeah, I bet it is the same seller👍 Nice to get some easy fixes though even if the quality of the products are questionable!
@@Mymatevince I don't believe that many people are buying those CD Walkman things when you can just load a heap of music files into your phone.
The quality of these units is below any quality level at all. Harsh clicky buttons and cheap components, mass produced with little or no QC. Why do we import such tat?
For the second bush radio: looks like someone needed the JST connector which is why it is missing and also the wires to the speaker.
Either this or it was a QC Unit, which was intentionally manipulated, that got through.
Very interesting and instructive video - great idea about the component labelling. Problem is no financial incentive to make stuff repairable. Maybe EU will legislate on this one day as part of CE