Winston Electronics, St. Louis MO

I took a studio monitor here. Their policy is a non-refundable fee of $60. I don't make a lot of money but I'm principled about spending money locally, plus they are an authorized service provider for Yamaha and I didn't have much time to deal with it myself and wanted to free up my time for other pressing things.
I dropped it off on the 4th. Heard back on the 8th that the voice coil in the woofer was the issue and it needed replaced, and that they would contact Yamaha. Didn't hear anything after that and eventually called them back on Tuesday. They said they still hadn't heard anything back from Yamaha.
At this point I decided to look things up myself, which I had been avoiding, but was able to sign up for Yamaha 24x7 and with a little digging, found what I thought was the part. I called Yamaha to confirm this, all which took about 10 to 15 minutes. It was out of stock, back ordered for 6 weeks, so I figured that's probably what the holdup was, but surprised an authorized Yamaha repair shop couldn't find this out as fast as I did.
Eventually called back again, and they said it would be $75 (this is on top of what I already paid) and that it would be 3 months.
The price for that speaker is $55. Most other places I found it out of stock, but it was in stock at ZenPro Audio, and a genuine, new part. After shipping it amounted to $65. Had Winston wanted to charge me $20, $30, or even $40 on top of what I already paid I would have had no problem with it, but this was pretty ridiculous, considering that shortly after the conversation, I ordered it and it has already shipped. It will be here next week.
It's not hard or time-consuming to swap out a speaker or diagnose one. I cannot imagine anyone justifying around $70 per hour to do this kind of work.
Still, I wouldn't be giving this review if that was all that happened. I also asked for a partial refund of the diagnostic fee due to this (hopefully) rare circumstance with the long wait time (which I would not have expected or asked for if things had worked out differently, and I was not asking for the full amount, just whatever they thought was fair), but I was denied, so you've earned yourself a bad review.
Maybe I caught them on a bad week or they're really hurting, but I really did not appreciate how this was handled.

Winston Electronics fixed my 40 year old Sony receiver. Its crankin out the tunes as well as ever! I was impressed with the turn around.

Bill did an amazing restore / brought back from the dead on an ampeg 6x10 cabinet. Was diagnosed and back to me with a TON of work done in about two weeks. Fixed the top of the cabinet, glued it all up, and replaced all speakers. Highly recommend!

Took my JBL 835 here to get a rattle fixed. Thought it was going to be a major issue. Turned out I came to the right place. He found the issue which ended up being minor, fixed it in no time and didn't charge me a penny. Couldn't believe it!

This place is really cool and a rare find these days. They also happen to be musicians. I was looking for someone to re-cone old speakers out of a jukebox, this was one of the few places in town that actually does it there. They were able to do a custom job, change the magnets to match the impedance of the new receiver, it’s fantastic that places like this still exist.

My MAudio Midi Keyboard USB port piece broke. I took it to Winston Electronics’s on a Monday. They Had it Ready on Thursday. Good Work

Winston Electronics did a superb job restoring my velodyne subwoofer. Again I say thnks and the good communication regarding what was going on with the speaker. Thnks Bill and staff. It’s sounding great

This is one of my go to places for instrument repair, they do great work and try their best to get it done in a decent amount of time and not have your item/s forever, highly recommend for repair

Love this place. Very professional. My equipment is very old and they are willing to check it out even though we may not be able to get parts. Very nice, knowledgeable.

I am from southwest Missouri and any time I have issues with my Samson PA system, I have mailed it to this repair shop. Their customer service is top notch, and they do excellent work.

In August, 2017, I dropped off, and they accepted, my Teac X-1000R because of a tape transport problem, and since it needed some repair, to also go ahead and clean the electrical contact parts of the switches and level controls, as they were noisy when moved. They were busy with equipment field repairs (repairs done at customer's location), and I did not expect to get it back right away, just to have it fixed right. Well.
1. I finally got it back in February, 2018 after leaving it in August, 2017.2. I walked into the place several times, only to be told the owner/technician was not in, but that he would call me regarding the ever-increasing time they have my machine. I NEVER, NEVER got a phone call until February when they said the repair was done.
3. Every time I walked in, one of the gals in there would always say that the owner, Ron did call or that he will call; my caller ID NEVER showed a call from Winston Electronics until Feb. 2018.4. When I did get it home, I was unable to fully check it out due to other family issues (the folks who work there aren't the only ones with this problem) ; the tape speed and reel size select switches were broken to the large/high setting, but since I don't use this machine for 7" reels or 3-3/4 IPS speed, this was no big deal to me, and I TOLD THE LADY WHO WORKS THERE THAT I DO NOT WANT THEM REPLACED. Guess what, Ron said when I finally went to pick it up, that that is what the months-long delay was about. He ordered parts that I did not want replaced, cost me time in fixing my machine because those parts are hard to find (ANOTHER reason I did not want them replaced!) refused to keep in contact with me regarding the parts issue, I believe intentionally in order to make money on parts.
5. Also, the switches not replaced and the input/output level controls are STILL noisy when rotated; they were not de-ox'ed.
6. The tape transport belt problem was fixed, but the capstan motor speed is not adjusted properly, I have to turn the pitch control down almost all the way to get a pre-recorded tape to sound they way it was recorded in the studio.
7. Last, but not least, the string tag Winston Electronics put on my machine was wrapped around the shaft for the Mic input ; I had to use an Allen wrench to remove the knob in order to remove the string. Thanks, Winston Electronics!
Bottom line, if a business does not listen to their customers, then this is what they get. I paid them their money, and got a poorly adjusted tape speed, noisy level controls, unnecessary parts replaced (told them don't want them replaced, don't need to spend the money on new switches) and NO COMMUNICATION until they got the parts they wanted to replace and do the work they wanted to do, and on their schedule. It should not take from August to February to clean controls and fix the tape transport.
Inexcusable and Unacceptable; Ron Winston and company don't even deserve one star.