We made a big change to our site this week by totally redesigning our search results. A couple new features you’ll notice:

1. TV Kits results display first. We’re working on acquiring more models, but you should notice results for various Vizio TV models.
2. In-stock parts display first to make your search a little faster. You can still request out-of-stock parts or sign-up to be notified when we have a certain TV part again!
3. The design is a little bigger, cleaner, and hopefully, easier to scan. We’re still making tweaks, but it’s close!

If you see results that don’t look quite right, please clear your cache (Windows users: press Ctrl+Shift+R)! Also, feel free to give us your two cents about this new design in the comments section. Thanks!

Oh, the irony…

7,014*

*The number of coupon codes used on our site in the past 12 months! If you’re feeling frugal, here are a few ways to hop on this savings bandwagon:

1. Become a newsletter subscriber. Head over to your account, click “Newsletter Subscriptions,” make sure the box is checked, and then save (horrible pun intended).
2. Friend us on Facebook. We’ve been known to post Facebook-only discounts.
3. Start buying more from us! (How’s that for “salesy” and direct?) We give frequent customers discounts based on order volume.
4. Join NESDA. WE offer 15% off and free shipping on orders over $75 to all NESDA Members!

Hey all!

I’m very excited to announce that we now offer complete TV Kits! These kits will help increase first-time fixes, eliminate the apprehension of a misdiagnosis, and boost your spare parts inventory! We only have a few Vizio models right now, but we’ll be adding to our selection in the weeks to come. Let’s breakdown these TV Kits and what they’re all about…

1. Each TV Kit comes packaged with bubble wrap and parts are in individual ESD bags.

2. On the side of the box, you’ll see the parts included in the TV Kit.

3. Most kits include the main unit, power supply, and cables. All parts are harvested from new TVs and tested.

If you search “sj-kit” you’ll see our available TV Kits. We’ll be adding website features to make this search easier soon. It’s important to note that our policies are different for TV Kits. While they carry the same 180-day warranty as all ShopJimmy parts, there are NO RETURNS on TV Kits, as each part is fully tested. We’ve also priced them very fair, so discounts, customer group specials, shipping specials, and/or coupon codes DO NOT apply.

Anyway, give ‘em a try! Thanks for your continued business!

Jimmy

Name: Keira

Position at ShopJimmy: Customer Service Representative

One sentence job description: I am a human emoticon that writes down lots and lots of numbers and also makes coffee.

Favorite LCD breakage story: “My girlfriend dropped it.” Okay. Sure.

TV model in your living room: LG 42PC5D-UL. Working here has made me realize that this is not at all impressive.

Family: Two cats, Zooey (insane) and Danger Kitty (indiscriminately affectionate). Also some people.

Hobbies: Cow tipping, throwing stuff off the bridge, cat impressions.

Favorite restaurant: It used to be Azia, which is now closed. I am still not over that.

Go-to Pandora station: Radiohead

Beverage of choice: Yes.

In-flight reading material: Last time it was Wuthering Heights. Which would be more aptly titled A Very Long Tale of Domestic Violence and Incest in Which Virtually No One Has Any Redeeming Qualities and Therefore Why am I Still Reading This Oh Yeah Because I’m like 200 Pages in and I Might as Well Finish It. But usually I just watch movies on my iPod.

Sports team(s) you root for: Sunnydale Razorbacks, Caprica Buccaneers, Gryffindor Quidditch.

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: The next two discs of Battlestar Galactica and a portable DVD player.

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: A brunette. Sometimes.

You can find me on…

Hello fellow NESDA members! We just wanted to reach out to those of you that will be attending this year’s NPSC convention in Indianapolis, July 25-29.

Once again, ShopJimmy will be having a booth (13 and 14) at the convention and we would love to either meet those of you who we have yet to meet or catch up with those we have met in the past. Even if you don’t have time for a little sit down to chat about all things TV, at least swing by the booth to say hello, grab a badge extender, piece of candy, pen or even a catch a glimpse of one of our ShopJimmy models (Adam, Jimmy, Jon, or Justin).

If you are interested in meeting up with any or all of us, please email us anytime.

Looking forward to seeing all of you!

…this might be taking our beloved game a little too far. While we’ve developed a new version of the game on conjoined conference tables (we call it “Long Pong”), the elimination of an opponent, table, fun, and ball seems odd to us. Check out the video below and let us know what you think!

We know there are a lot of interesting things on the web today, but we want to make it as easy as possible for you to follow our blog. Here are a couple ways you can stay in the SJ loop:

1. You can add our posts to your RSS feed. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Basically, it’s a way for you to keep track of all of your favorite sites’ updates and posts in one feed. Look for this link (see pic to the right) on our blog to add us to your RSS feed.

2. Follow us on Twitter. While we don’t tweet all the time, we do make sure to tweet blog posts. Plus, it’s something you can brag about to your kids (we know those moments can be few and far between).

3. If you do follow us on Twitter, you can set an SMS notification (text message) for our blog-related tweets. Click here and follow their instructions (the verification process takes one text message and about two minutes). Once your phone number is verified with Twitter, head over to our Twitter page and click on the phone icon (see pic to the right) to receive texts when we post cool stuff!

4. Bookmark our blog in your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.).

5. If all else fails, check back often! We try to post at least a few times a week.

Doug Miner was a close friend to me and to ShopJimmy as a whole. I spoke with him once a week on the phone. He was an invaluable source of information, and our first stop for advice on anything. Some of ShopJimmy’s policies and practices are direct results of Doug’s input. He wasn’t a frequent ShopJimmy customer, but for good reason—he was too good as his job to require our services. He could fix virtually anything at the component level.

Doug could switch from a joking mood to sincerity in a second. I often shot him emails complimenting him on his witty one-liners posted on the various email chat lists we used mutually. The only time he wouldn’t pick up one of my frequent calls was when he was already on the line, presumably helping one of the countless other people fortunate enough to count him as a friend.

Some of us at ShopJimmy met Doug in Nashville last August. We hadn’t expected him there, and we were thrilled to finally put a face with the name, voice and personality we were already so familiar with.

He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

Adam Nyenhuis / Jimmy Vosika / ShopJimmy.com

Every week we hold a “Town Hall” meeting to discuss our current projects and company developments. At the end of these gatherings, we have an NBC-inspired “Minute to Win It” competition. This week’s epic battle pitted Will (Shipping Dept.) vs. Ryan (Returns Dept.) to see who could stack five apples the quickest. After a few failed attempts and altered strategies (they actually started “eating” part of each apple to stack better), Will proved victorious. Win or lose, at least neither of them should have to visit a doctor for a couple days…

So, we’ve all been there. You’re staring at a part, then at our website, back to the part, back to the website. Pulling up the enlarged picture, looking at 15 different numbers on various stickers, or sometimes, none at all.

“How do I know I’m getting the right part? I mean ShopJimmy’s stellar customer service staff, especially Chris, are great with this stuff, but It’s past 6pm central time and I want to order this now!” you say.

Here are some tips from a genuine partologist:

Bar code stickers
Not quite sure fire, but a great place to start.

Panel Numbers
Especially helpful when dealing with main units and t-cons. Oftentimes, panel variations will be exclusive to certain main units, t-cons and even backlight inverters.

Shorten it up!
For example, 03-860-AZ0-IPOS150H brings up nothing, but if you drop off the 03, you get your exact part number. You can also drop a few off the end (sometimes we do that here). Just kind of play with the number a bit to see if you get a match.

Don’t trust the manual/schematics/manufacturer customer service!
These are all helpful resources, but nothing beats having the part in hand.

Work backwards!
This can be a little tedious especially with brands like Element and Polaroid, but getting an idea of what type of number to look for, like 860-XXX-GFXXXXXXXH can give you an idea of what to look for on the board. And it’s better than going with your first instinct to smash the darn thing with a hammer.

Check the back!
Sometimes the part manufacturers do things for no other reason than to mess with you. One of these tricks is to put the part number on the non-component side (also know as “the back”) of the board. Why? We’ll never know.

Contact us!
Sometimes all you need is a second pair of eyes to solve the problem. Sadly, radical (omit comma) elective plastic surgery is still a few decades in the future. (I’m gonna get me some tentacle fingers!) So let us help you! We have a bunch of resources and we would love to hear from you. So you can chat us up on Live Chat right on the front screen, email us at sales@shopjimmy.com or call us at 877-881-6492. We’re here from 8:00am-6:00pm (CST) Monday through Friday and 10:00am-4:00pm (CST) Saturday and Sunday.

We often say that “boasting isn’t in our business model,” but it’s always nice to receive positive feedback from our customers. It helps validate all of our hard word and continued mission to make you happy. Here are a few recent remarks from some pretty cool people (thank you!):

“THANKS for everything. You have an AWESOME business – very nice easy to work with people and it is appreciated.” – Billy G.

“Hi! It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I give you a ten!” – Andres V.

“Thank you, I will send business your way. You run an honest business with fair prices, you don’t see that much any more. Thanks again.” – William E.

“Thank you so much for these discounts. You will never know how much that means to us. Thanks for all you do, great working with you and your employees.” – Elaine Y.

“Thanks much! You guys are the best by far.” – Ron H.

“Your company has been a pleasure to work with. Simple user-friendly website, fast and efficient customer service, reasonable prices, quick shipping and parts as described. I will definitely be buying from you in the future, I just wanted to drop a line and say thanks!” – Steve M.

“I’ve had a monitor sitting in pieces for 3 years with a bad inverter. When I last tried to find the part it wasn’t available anywhere. I didn’t want to dump it in a landfill somewhere, and since I was (finally) cleaning my office I thought I would look again, although I didn’t have much hope. I found one online for $130 – but I can buy a new monitor for that so why would I fix an old one? Then I saw a guy on eBay who might be able to fix it for $35. I was just about to email him when I saw your website and found the part for $20!!! Great service – Great Website – Love the tech-to-tech stores idea (I owned an auto-repair shop and always ended up with special order parts that I couldn’t return but didn’t need – could have used a similar service then).” – David L.

“I’m so glad I found you, I knew “you” were out there, somewhere . . . Just placed my order to replace the power supply on my son’s TV – thanks for the 15% discount!” – Randy M.

“I just ordered a replacement power supply board for my LG 37LB1DA which took a crap late last night. I took the TV apart today after work and saw the tell-tale sign of a blown capacitor… and some other solder points on the underside look a little crispy as well… I decided it would be best to order a new board all together. I found your site and the parts in a matter of minutes! Awesome site, simple checkout process, and THANKS for the 15% off and FREE GROUND SHIPPING! I will for sure be ordering from this site again when mine or another friend/family member’s TV takes a dive! Thanks again!” – Benjamin D.

“SHOPJIMMY RULES!!! Placed an order for a Pioneer part. Thank you for the discount. I was told that the system was still running slow when I called in but your staff is always a pleasure to speak with. Thank you!” – Ray S.

“Great place for getting hard to find electronic parts.” – Larry G.

If not, you’re missing out on a Memorial Day coupon this week! We’re starting to send out newsletters each week with updates, discounts, important information, and maybe even a funny SJ story or two.

If you’re not a subscriber and would like to be added to the list of cool kids, please email Ryan (ryan@shopjimmy.com)!