I brought my 1970 Marshallamplifier in for repairs in May of and over the years I paid him a total of $1500 deposits (I have all the checks from the bank if you require them) because he saidhe did not have the resources to procure parts needed. He tried to justify his charges and time delay in the repair by saying that theOEM parts for such and old vintage amp were expensive and very hard to get. Healso said at various points of contact by phone, that my output and choketransformers were bad, and that my Power Transformer needed to be replaced.
By July I was sick of getting the runaround and told him to have myamp ready because I was going to come with the Sheriff. I picked up theamp in July and brought it back to Melbourne where I had moved, and the ampblew up! I took the amp to another repairman who later stated under oath inBroward County Civil Court, that the only thing he could tell had been done tomy amp in 5 years was the changing of $80 worth of tubes, and the replacement of the ohm selector switch withsomething one would buy at Radio Shack!
The technician did acknowledge the replacement of myoriginal transformer, and noted the sloppy and haphazard method in which it wasdone. The amplifier was not biased correctly if at all, and jury rigged to runon an improper replacement transformer. He reiterated that all the other partsthat I had been told needed to be and were supposedly replaced by GaryPhillips, were items that were installed at the Marshall facility at the timeof the units manufacture, and had NEVER been removed or replaced! The originalfilter capacitors were still installed after Gary Phillips repair job thattook over 5 years, and that is the first thing a qualified and competenttechnician would have replaced, as stated by the technician as well as theMarshall service manual for the amplifier!
Soin other words, my vintage Marshall Drake Transformer had also been swapped outrather shoddily with an inferior Laney 50W model that he cannibalized fromsomewhere. It was never rewound as Gary Phillips claimed on his invoice, andwhen asked to produce the invoice for the rewinding service he claimed somelittle old man in New Hampshire he uses had submitted to him for the work, hecould not produce the document in court! I had that particular item thathe installed sent to be checked and inspected at Mercury Magnetics inHawthorne, California. They reported and documented that the transformer hadnever been opened, let alone rewound as claimed by Gary Phillips.
The whereabouts of the original Draketransformer that was outfitted with my vintage Marshall amp (I have owned theamp since it was new) is unknown, but I suspect it has fetched a pretty goodpiece of change on the vintage OEM Marshall Amplifier parts market thatapparently went into Mr. Phillips pocket! I have no proof, just a suspicion. I brought Gary Phillips and hisAlpha Kinetic, Inc.organization to Small claims court in Broward County, Fl. And was awarded a judgment of $480 plus court costs with 6% interest, because the judge was rather dumb in technical matters, and actually lost mycase for months in clerical errors, so who knows if she even rememberedanything about the fraudulent repair charges of the case. She probably justlooked at some figures (basically what the TRUE technician charged me to REALLYfix the amp) and signed off on it on July 25th. I do not believe she was qualified to peruse allmy evidence and documentation from qualified sources, and come to an informedand FAIR judgment. She did not seem very interested in the technical evidencepresented, and was easily detracted from that spirit of that conversation byGary Phillips wife changing the subject.
He has refused to paythe total amount of $705.18 judgment, and he is now changing the name of hisFictitious Name registration at Sunbiz.org to Gary Phillips, Inc., probably inan attempt to escape any of his liabilities to this case, and probably others Ihave heard of from other Amplifier Parts Suppliers around thenation..
Hemay also be transferring property into his wife's name that might be liable toforfeit. This is of course, is illegal, and I may avail myself of further legalaction in Civil Court should he not pay what the court has ordered.
The Case # is: COCE-10-017223presided over by Judge Lisa Von Tefs 54The ordered and signed date was 07/25
I am sick and tired ofthis whole affair, and I am getting more and more aggravated by the day. Mr. Phillips believes he can ignore all my efforts tobring him to account, and that I will relent at some point. I can assure him Iwill not. I will pursue this affair until he is held accountable for his underhandedattempt to abscond with a goodly sum of money I paid him for services that wereNEVER rendered! He also had MY property for 5 years and did not do anyeffective repairs to it, and may have actually been RENTING it out when hemight have had it working! Studio musicians pay up to a $100 per day to usethese particular vintage Marshall amplifiers.
Further delay of paying thepaltry sum ordered by the impotent court system on his part will only make mydemand for monetary restitution increase. I have already filed various judgmentliens totaling $40, and I will also be filing liens in every county which Mr. Phillips owns real property, including out of state assets (my demands willtotal an additional $500-$1000 after I take into account all the research, traveling, and fees I will have incurred in doing such).
The Broward County Better Business Bureau has also received a full report ofthis incident, and a link to this report shall be available on every onlinemusicians community bulletin board that I can find on the internet.
As I have statedpreviously, Civil Action is not out of the question at this point. I believe Istill have enough evidence and expert testimony still available, as well as allthe notarized and necessary documents to pursue the matter until Mr. GaryPhillips is held to the degree of accountability which his actions havewarranted.
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