Wow. Extraordinarily bad. If you yearn for the used car sales tactics of the 70's, then this is your shop.
The short summary is I was charged $52.75 to be told that it would cost $800-$1000 to fix my amplifier. But the 'good news' was I could apply the $52.75 towards a new amplifier purchase at Paragon. I then took the amp to another local technician who diagnosed and fixed the amplifier so quickly I now question if Paragon even removed the cover. It seems that I paid $52.75 to receive a sales pitch.
The longer blow by blow account. I took my Carver Amp to Paragon for repair because of a problem with the output dropping off after a few minutes of running. I paid $52.75 for an initial evaluation and was told it would take about a week to get word back. After a week I received a call - I believe from the owner. He informed me that the bias was all over the place and that it would about $800 to fix, but the good news was I could apply my $52.75 towards the purchase of a new amplifier at Paragon (presumably costing 1000's).
I then started asking some specific questions (I'm an engineer) about what they were seeing in the diagnosis and the responses got fishy. I was told that the bias was 'out of control and all over the place'. Also that they couldn't get the schematics for this amp. I then informed this guy that I had found the entire service manual (service manuals contain schematics and quite a bit more useful information for repairing) online previously. The response back was 'well yeah we found that but Bob Carver would often just modify production amplifiers on the fly and that's what we have here so your amp doesn't match the schematic'. Uh-huh.
At this point it was fully apparent that the fix was in. However the voice on the phone didn't sense my loss of faith at all. For the second time I was robotically advised that 'the good news is you can apply the $52.75 towards the purchase of a new amp.'
I stopped in the next day to pick up my amp. Got the amp. Got the paperwork with an $800-$1000 estimate to repair, at that point the person I was talking to on the phone previously came into the area. He didn't really seem to remember our conversation. But he did remember to tell me once again that 'the good news is I can apply the $52.75 towards the purchase of a new amp'. No thanks. I am not going to make a multi thousand dollar purchase from someone I can't trust.
I then found a technician working out of his home in the area. The difference was between Paragon and this technician was huge. Competent and professional I watched as this technician used his specialty equipment and his head to narrow the problem down to a few possibilities in about 15 minutes. I then left -- but within a few hours I received an email. The repair was complete and he was in the middle of a 6 hour test of amp to ensure that everything remained stable with time. The technician commented that this was one of the easiest repairs he has performed. He didn't see any bias problems (which is what Paragon claimed), the problem was fixed by replacing 4 rather small transistors. When I picked up my amp I asked him about the service manual. He had found it online. So I asked if the actual circuit matched the schematics. Yep, it did.
So in the end I got my amp back. It sounds as sweet as it ever did and I'm a little wiser for the experience.
I noticed that in the few good reviews on repairs the reviewers actually were sold on buying new equipment or the repair was very simple like a switch or a cord. I didn't see any reviews where equipment was ever actually repaired at the circuit level. I wonder if it ever is. I want my $52.75 back. And no, I don't want to apply it towards the purchase of new amp.