Why “Beware eBay VCR seller Natob82”?

[916Area52]

Pleased that I didn’t see this forum thread before reaching out to Natob82

Regarding… https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/14390-beware-ebay-vcr.html

My experience,

Recently I put a call out to have two of my JVC HR-S7800U VCR’s serviced and or repaired. The two 7800’s (from eBay) have seen about two hundred and fifty VHS tapes (respectively, from me) run through them. The only TLC that was shown to them was a tape path cleaning and lube/greasing every fifty tapes or so. After recently experiencing some concerns/issues with these 7800’s, Natob82 answered my call for service and or repair for my JVC HR-S7800U VCR’s, with the following known issues…
#1, HR-S7800U Had begun to suffer from ghost loading/un-loading. Also, the shuttle switch was not functioning properly.
#2, HR-S7800U Had developed a drum squeak and had become increasingly noisy when loading and unloading tape as well as coming in and out of FF or REW.

Sent these two VCR’s off to Nato82 for service, and he provided the following…

“Hi Roy,
As promised, here is the work I did on your 7800s:
#1
I replaced the video drum with a low-use, well-functioning one. I also fully serviced the tape mechanism by replacing the belts, removing all the old grease, doing a deep clean, replacing the worn brakes, and regreasing the mechanicals.
#2 (notated as “2” on the front left top of the display face)
I serviced the tape mechanism as mentioned above. For the selector knob, I initially thought it might need either a complete replacement or a new flex cable. After inspecting it, I found the issue was with the contacts between the board and the PCB for the knob. I cleaned and reseated everything, and now the knob works perfectly. If you run into any more issues, let me know and I can send a replacement knob. But from what I found, it was just a matter of poor contact between the knob electronics and the main board—pretty common with these flex cables. Of note your flex cable was in really good shape, it just needed to be thoroughly cleaned.
Let me know if you have any questions, thanks!
- Nate”

Yesterday (9-16-24) I received the two 7800’s back after being serviced/repaired by Natob82. This morning (9-17-24) I couldn’t wait to check out the freshly serviced VCR's.

The following are my findings…

#1 VCR- Removed the top... Looked pretty clean. After doing a closer inspection, found the tape path was clean, the drum and video heads were clean as well. Loading belt is new. Ran a test tape through it, tape loaded and loaded just fine. Shuttle knob worked fine as well. Started an archive (doing so now as this is being written) session. The VCR does not have a squeaky drum as it did before the service. However, the VCR did make some un-familiar noises at the beginning of the archive session, I'm thinking that the belts were finding their groove. Anyway, no more un-familiar noises are being heard. The picture quality of the tape being archived looks good.

#2 VCR- Removed the top... Looked pretty clean. After doing a closer inspection, found the tape path, drum and video heads needed a cleaning. Loading belt is new. Ran a test tape through it, tape loaded and loaded just fine. Shuttle knob is very tight when moved to the right, when moved to the left for scanning- the tape and drive stutters, not a smooth scan. I will take you up on your offer "If you run into any more issues, let me know and I can send a replacement knob". As with #1 VCR, it did make some un-familiar noises at the beginning of the archive session, again I'm thinking that the belts were finding their groove. Anyway, no more un-familiar noises are being heard. The picture quality of the tape being archived looks good.

Bottom line…

Would I use Nato82 services again? Absolutely!

My other two JVC HR-S7800U VCR’s will be off to Nato82 shortly.
They suffer from the following ailments…
#3 (from lord smurf), S7800U has begun to suffer from ghost loading/un-loading. Also, as the archiving session continues, the quality of the files suffers.
#4 (from eBay), S7800U become increasingly noisy when going in and out of FF or REW.
I’m sure there are other issues other than what I observe and or aware of.

My .02
Roy

[lordsmurf]

Cleaning is not rebuilding or refurbishing.
More eBay nonsense.