Terms of Service

1. Who these terms cover

These terms apply when Retrology Repair (“we”, “us”) does repair, diagnostic, restoration or modification work on equipment you (“you”) send, deliver or hand to us. By leaving equipment with us, you agree to them.

We are a sole trader based in Wellington, NZ.

We are registered for GST. All prices we quote and display include GST at 15%.

2. What we do and don’t take on

We repair consumer and studio electronics, broadly from 1980 to 2005 — consoles, handhelds, home computers, audio equipment and arcade hardware.

We may decline any job. We are most likely to decline where the device is unsafe, where parts are genuinely unobtainable, where prior repair attempts have caused damage we can’t reliably work around, or where the cost of repair would clearly exceed what the device is worth to you.

Declining is not a judgement about the device. It is usually about whether we can do the job properly.

3. Your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act

If you are a consumer, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 applies, and nothing in these terms limits it. Under the CGA our services must be:

• carried out with reasonable care and skill;
• fit for the purpose you told us about;
• completed within a reasonable time; and
• charged at a reasonable price where no price was agreed in advance.

Any part we supply must also be of acceptable quality.

If we fail to meet a guarantee, you have remedies under the Act. We cannot contract out of these, and these terms do not try to. Where anything below appears to conflict with the CGA for a consumer, the CGA wins.

4. Business customers

If you acquire our services for the purposes of a business, then under section 43(2) of the Consumer Guarantees Act and section 5D of the Fair Trading Act 1986, we and you agree that the CGA and the relevant provisions of the FTA do not apply. You agree it is fair and reasonable to be bound by this.

This applies, for example, to arcade operators, venues, and studios having equipment serviced commercially. It does not apply if you are buying as a private individual, even if you own a business.

5. Getting your device to us

We accept equipment three ways:

• Mail-in, from anywhere in NZ.
• Drop-off, by prior arrangement.
• Local pickup, free across Wellington, Johnsonville, Lower Hutt, by arrangement.

Please contact us before sending anything. Unannounced deliveries may be refused, and we can’t be responsible for equipment we didn’t know was coming.

Tell us what the device is, what it does wrong, what you have already tried, and any prior repair work — including work you did yourself. Prior repairs are not a problem, but undisclosed ones waste diagnostic time you will be paying for.

6. Shipping, packing and risk

In transit to us, the device is at your risk. We recommend a tracked and insured service. We are not responsible for damage or loss in transit before the device reaches us.

Pack for the courier’s worst day, not its best. Most transit damage we see is inadequate packing rather than mishandling: heavy items with no internal bracing, CRTs without corner protection, boards loose in a box. Remove or secure anything that can move inside the device.

On return, the device travels at your risk. We pack carefully and send by a tracked service, but once it leaves us the carrier’s terms apply. If you want the return shipment insured, tell us and we will arrange it at your cost — we recommend this for anything valuable, heavy, or hard to replace.

Return shipping is charged to you at cost, and is payable before we dispatch. We will tell you the amount when we send your quote — or, if the device turns out not to be repairable, when we tell you that.

This applies whether or not any repair work happens. Getting a device back to you costs the same either way, and the diagnostic fee covers bench time, not postage. Local pickup and drop-off avoid it entirely.

7. Batteries, tubes and other hazards

Some equipment cannot be shipped normally, or cannot be worked on safely without precautions.

• Lithium and lithium-ion batteries are dangerous goods. Do not ship a device containing a swollen, damaged or leaking battery. Tell us if any battery is installed so we can advise on carriage.
• Leaking alkaline or NiCd batteries should be removed before shipping if you can do so safely — leaked electrolyte spreads in transit and turns a small repair into a large one.
• CRT devices store a lethal charge long after being unplugged. Do not attempt to discharge a tube yourself before sending it.

We may refuse, or return at your cost, anything that arrives in an unsafe condition.

8. Diagnosis, estimates and quotes

Every job starts with a diagnosis. The diagnostic fee is $25 incl. GST and covers the bench time to reproduce and trace the fault.

After diagnosis we give you a written quote. The diagnostic fee is credited against the repair if you go ahead. If you don’t, or if the device turns out not to be economically repairable, the diagnostic fee is the only charge for our work — plus return shipping if you want it posted back (§6).

A quote is a fixed price for the work described in it. An estimate is our best judgement and is not binding. We will always tell you which one you have.

Some faults cannot be fully diagnosed without partial disassembly or repair — intermittent faults especially. Where that is the case we will tell you before you commit, and quote a stage at a time rather than pretending to certainty we don’t have.

9. Approval, and when things change

No billable work happens without your approval. If we find additional faults, or the fault turns out to be different from what the quote assumed, we stop and come back to you with a revised quote. You can approve it, decline it, or ask us to stop.

If you decline further work, you pay for work already approved and completed, and we return the device — reassembled where it is safe to do so.

Sometimes a repair reveals a second fault that was hidden by the first. This is normal on equipment of this age and is not a sign that anything has gone wrong.

10. Parts

We use new parts where they are available and appropriate. Where they are not, we may use new-old-stock, salvaged, or reproduction parts. We will tell you which, because it affects both the price and what you can expect of the result.

Some parts are simply unobtainable. Where a repair depends on one, we will tell you before you commit rather than after.

Parts prices are quoted GST-inclusive. Special-order parts may need to be paid for up front, and are non-refundable once ordered.

Replaced parts are disposed of unless you ask for them back at the time you approve the work.

11. Turnaround

Turnaround times shown on this site are indicative, and run from the point work is approved, not from when the device arrives.

Realistically, delays come from parts availability and from intermittent faults that need extended soak testing. We would rather tell you a repair is slow than return a device that fails again in a month. If a job is going to run materially over, we will tell you.

12. Prices and payment

All prices include GST at 15%. You will receive a GST invoice.

Payment is due in full on completion, before the device is returned or collected. For parts-heavy jobs we may ask for a deposit covering the parts before we order them; it is applied to the final invoice.

We do not charge interest on overdue amounts. Where an invoice goes unpaid we rely on our right to hold the device (§13) rather than adding charges to a bill you have already not paid.

13. Our right to hold your device until paid

Where we have done work on a device, we have a repairer’s lien over it: we may retain it until you have paid what you owe for that work. We will not exercise this unreasonably, and we will always tell you first.

14. Warranty on our work

We warrant our workmanship for 60 days from the date the device is returned to you. If the same fault recurs because of work we did, we will re-do it at no charge.

The warranty covers the specific repair we performed. It does not cover:

• new or unrelated faults, including ones that were latent at the time;
• other ageing components that fail afterwards — on equipment this old, fixing one fault does not stop the next;
• damage from misuse, liquid, impact, power surges, or further work by others;
• consumables, and parts we advised were salvaged or reproduction, beyond 30 days.

For consumers, this warranty is in addition to your CGA rights, not instead of them — and your CGA rights are not limited to 60 days.

15. Data, storage media and configuration

Back up anything you care about before sending a device. Hard drives, memory cards, save batteries, internal storage and configuration can all be lost during repair — sometimes unavoidably, because the repair requires it.

We take reasonable care, but we are not a data recovery service and we do not guarantee data. Where a repair will definitely destroy stored data — replacing a save battery, reflowing a board with battery-backed RAM — we will tell you beforehand where we can.

Do not send memory cards, game media or accessories unless we ask for them.

16. When a device can’t be repaired

If we can’t repair a device, the diagnostic fee is the only charge for our work. We will tell you what we found and why we stopped.

You then have two options, and both are fine by us:

• Have it back. If you collect it, that costs nothing further. If you want it posted, return shipping is charged at cost (§6) and payable before we send it.
• Ask us to dispose of it, at no charge. Sometimes a dead machine is not worth the postage, and there is no sense paying to have it shipped to a bin.

Devices we disassemble during diagnosis are returned reassembled where that is safe and practical; if a device was already partially dismantled when it arrived, or cannot be safely reassembled, we will return it as-is with the parts bagged.

17. Collecting your device, and uncollected devices

Please collect or arrange return within 30 days of us telling you the work is done.

Small items are stored free. If your device fits on a shelf, leaving it with us a while longer costs you nothing.

Large items may attract a late-collection charge. By “large” we mean equipment that takes up floor or bench space we would otherwise be working in — CRT televisions and monitors, arcade cabinets and boards, and other bulky equipment. Where a large item is not collected within 30 days, we may add a late-collection charge of between 5% and 10% of the repair total, depending on how long it stays with us.

We will always tell you before any charge applies, and give you a chance to collect first. If you are having trouble paying, talk to us — we would far rather work something out than have your equipment sitting here.

If a device remains uncollected, we may eventually dispose of it under the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017, which sets out the procedure we must follow:

• We must hold the goods for at least two months.
• We must then give you notice — either written notice at least one week before sale, delivered to you, left at your address, or posted; or by advertisement in a local newspaper.
• That notice must state our name, the amount you owe, a description of the goods, and the time, place and auctioneer of the sale.
• Sale must be by public auction.
• Proceeds are applied in order to advertising costs, selling costs, transport and storage costs, and then the debt you owe us.
• Any surplus is paid to the nearest District Court Registrar, where you may claim it. We cannot keep it or donate it.

We would much rather return your device. This clause exists because it has to, not because we want to use it.

18. Photographs and repair logs

We photograph the equipment we work on, and we publish written repair logs with those photographs on this site. It is a substantial part of what we do — it is a record for you, and it helps the next person with the same fault.

By default we may photograph your device and publish those photographs and a write-up of the repair. We will not publish your name, address, contact details, or anything else identifying you.

Tell us if you would rather we didn’t, and we won’t. There is a checkbox on the contact form for exactly this. There is no charge either way and it makes no difference to how the repair is handled. You can also ask us to take an existing log down later, at any time, and we will.

If your device has anything identifying on it — an asset tag, an inscription, a name plate, personal data on a screen — tell us and we will crop or exclude it.

19. Modifications, and work we won’t do

We install modifications — region-free mods, video output mods, replacement drives, capacity upgrades and similar — where they are lawful.

We will not install or configure anything whose purpose is to infringe copyright, and we will not supply infringing copies of software, firmware or games. If you ask us to do something we consider unlawful, we will decline and return the device.

Modification is not reversible in every case, and modified equipment may behave differently or be worth less to a collector. We will tell you what we know before doing the work, but the decision is yours.

You confirm that any equipment you leave with us is yours, or that you have the owner’s authority to have it worked on.

20. Limits on our liability

Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act, the Fair Trading Act, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Subject to that:

• Our total liability for any job is limited to the amount you paid us for that job.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss — including lost revenue, lost takings, loss of use, or loss of data.
• We are not liable for pre-existing faults, or for the failure of other components not covered by the repair.

Equipment of this age carries inherent risk. Desoldering from thirty-year-old boards can lift pads; plastics become brittle; a device that was working in one respect can fail in another during normal, careful work. We take real care and we tell you honestly when something goes wrong, but we cannot guarantee that handling old equipment is risk-free — and any repairer who tells you otherwise is overselling.

21. Privacy

We collect your contact details and information about your device in order to do the work and contact you about it. We handle that information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and our Privacy Policy.

22. Changes

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your job is the one published when you approved the work. Material changes are reflected in the date at the top of this page.

23. Disputes and governing law

If something goes wrong, tell us first — most things are fixable directly and quickly.

If we can’t resolve it, the Disputes Tribunal is available for claims up to its limit and does not need a lawyer. These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have jurisdiction.

24. Contact

Email us at [email protected], or use the contact form.