Japanese Ingenuity
01.01.1970
How do you get a garage door fixed? This is a problem even in Japan as Fr Dave Padrnos explains.
The garage door breaks down. I can't open or close it except by hand and backbreaking effort. I call the phone number of the company indicated on the machine and ask for a repairman. The person I get on the line has never heard of the device and cannot help. He says that he gets many calls like mine. Next I search the Internet looking for the name of the company indicated on the garage door. I find such a company and dial it up. The person I get this time has never heard of the item and can't help and doesn't know why the name of his company is on our garage door.
As a last resort I call the construction company that recently built our new hall. They send out the foreman. The foreman calls the company I had reached the second time and is referred to another company. Finally the foreman is able to get the attention of this company, which promises to send out a repairman right away. Nothing happens for two weeks so donning my repair clothes and gloves I take to the ladder. An examination of the garage door opener reveals a missing pin that attaches the chain rotor to the motor drive shaft.
Apparently it busted under the considerable stress it suffers in its link position. I find a screw that just fits the empty hole, insert the screw and, after some adjusting of the chain to match the timing mechanism, bingo! The problem is solved. Realising that a copy of the actual missing pin is probably necessary, I call the foreman and explain. First of all, he can't believe that no repairman has come. Secondly he can't believe that I know what's wrong with the device. Thirdly, he can't believe that I fixed it.
Within a few days two repairmen arrive and spend a great deal of time gazing at the garage door opener. One asks me if I know who made the garage door opener? The other points out to him that this information is already available in the fax I had sent to their company that he has in his hand. I explain how I fixed the garage door opener by replacing a missing pin. Disbelief overwhelms them. One climbs the ladder and watches the mechanism work when I open and shut the door.
Of the replacement screw he exclaims," It just seems to go round and round." I ask them if they can possibly order a copy of the missing steel pin. No response. Ten days later I receive an estimate of the charges I will incur in order to obtain the necessary steel pin. First of all, the whole motor has to be replaced. Then the steel rails on which the door slides have to be replaced. Including labour, travel taxes and the unrecorded fees to be paid to the local foreman, the estimated cost of replacing the steel pin comes to 100,000 yen (AUD $1,660.00)!
I believe I'll write and let them know that their company will be my first choice once the repairs they have indicated in their estimate become necessary. And then just stock up on a few screws…
Fr David Padrnos is the Director of the Region of Japan.
