And after about $200.00 and two hours time, he winds up with a softener which STILL has an antiquated mechanical timer. If he is doing it himself, he can buy a NEW MODERN softener from Sears for about twice that, and if he is lucky, the new one will "snap" onto the bypass valve without any modification. I NEVER advise the customer to repair an older softener, regardless of who will be doing the work.
I don't think his Sears is a mechanical timer, for the last 20 years all their controls are electronic metered.
It sounds as if you don't know what gear and switch he is talking about. Electronic or mechanical (day timer), they all have this gear and switch. So do all other Ecowater made softeners; North Star, Whirlpool, GE, mortonsalt.com etc..
As to fixing used equipment, that's your choice but I did it and did a lot of it for the first 18 years I was a dealer (until I went online in 2002) and I made gobs of money doing it while no one else in my area of central PA would. That got me many referrals that didn't cost me anything to get and many of them led to me selling new equipment. People really appreciate the offer to fix something while comparing the cost to buying new. Anyone refusing to fix something like a water softener is upsetting their prospective customer, and that is easily proven by reading posts on the internet. It also says that the guy doesn't know softeners very well, and who wants to buy a new one from someone that doesn't know all about them but the novice prospective customer?
Plus it really pisses off the guy that calls with a problem that he wants fixed and then is told to replace it instead. That's the bad rep part; "He only wanted to sell me a new one.... so I got online and for X dollars I got a new part and put it on and its been working fine for ...".
I didn't want the bad rep so I learned to fix'em all buy tearing old ones apart to see wha twas wrong with them and I offered repair compared to my price for a new one; right on the phone.
Most people opted for the repair. And they sure as hell will today with our economy the way it is, it's human nature if you think about it.
I've never been arrogant enough to spend my prospective customers money for them and I always saw repair as an additional profit stream for my business. Plus I always fixed my own stuff around the house. And it became a substantial income stream and led to a lot of free word of mouth advertising for me in both water treatment and well pump work for both repair and new sales. You can't beat word of mouth and it is all FREE, which decreased my overhead and thereby increased profit. How do you beat that by refusing to repair a control valve or replace resin?
BTW, you can buy an adapter for his clamp on type tank for $20 and then put a new or rebuilt Fleck etc. control on his present softener IF the cabinet will allow it or he will go without the cover. And most folks usually don't buy a new SEARS/Ecowater softener after having one break and then getting on the internet and reading all the problems people have with them.