I just hate doing quotations because of all the implications involved. The requests come in many different forms, often starting with a phone call which goes as follows: "I live in Outer Woop Woop. Do you do free quotes?"

In other words, are you prepared to drive all the way out to my place, strip down the set and repair it before you can give me a cast-iron guaranteed quote and then put it all back to how it was and return home – all for free. Not even charities do that.

Then you have the guy who thinks he is being really helpful because he has jammed his 150cm rear-projection TV in the back of his smallish station wagon and brought it in, expecting a free quote based on a quick view through the rear window. Obviously, I’m expected to fit my Kryptonite eye adaptor, remotely scan all the circuits and, without diagrams or test instruments, locate the exact fault and suggest a cheap fix.

Other clients think that by just quoting the set’s model number is enough for me to surely know the cost of the repair.

For all these misguided people I have to tell them that free guesses are free because they are worthless. In most instances, I have to repair the problem first to be sure, because often the original symptom hides other problems behind it.

The insurance companies are more reasonable in that they will pay for the quote but this is still going to be a close guesstimate, because the cost of doing the full repair often exceeds the quote.