Appliance repair or appliance replace ???
Hello. My name is James and I own and operate an appliance repair and installation company in the Peoria and Bloomington Illinois areas. It has come to my attention that blogging is a surefire way to reach out to customers to provide them with answers to questions about appliances and general information that I tend to give to customers when I am in the field. So here is goes..... blog #1.
To repair or not to repair-
One situation that I find happening more and more these days on repair calls is that after the diagnosis of the problematic appliance the customer will be "on the fence" about whether or not to invest the money in their current appliance. This is certainly understandable due to some brands very high cost of replacement parts and the age of the product when it breaks. In the eyes of the customer if the washer or refrigerator breaks down after only 2 or 3 years they will certainly wonder if it will continue to break down again and again every few years in turn costing them more and more money. Also some replacement parts can be up to half the cost of just replacing the entire unit. These are indeed great reasons to question whether or not to get the repair done so let's try and break it down with some questions and answers that may clear the water some.
One thing you should be informed of is the warranty of the parts from the manufacturer. This information is usually within the books that come with the appliance. I know that most people glance over the book for a few minutes and then it goes somewhere else maybe never to be found again. I do the same thing but in reality what should be done is the receipt and all literature that comes with the appliance should be readily accessible. This could save you hundreds of dollars on repairs in the future as most appliances come with a standard factory warranty of 1 year and the majority of them have some kind of limited warranty for 2, 3 years or up to the life of the appliance. Parts warranties mostly but this still saves a major amount of the repair cost. Another thing I tell customers to avoid is buying the newest and fanciest appliances that just hit the market. You, unfortunately, are the Beta tester for these manufacturers but more about that in another blog.
Getting to the matter at hand, I think that when repair of an appliance is needed some simple steps or thoughts should come into play.
- How much is replacement, including delivery, installation, haul away fees and anything else that seems to come up in that situation.
- Are the new appliance really any better the the one you have right now. The trend seems to be that I hear a lot of "My parents had a washing machine that they used for 20 years and then gave it to me and I used it for 10 more". Well I am afraid those days are well past us so buyer beware. I get asked all the time which kind of appliances do I recommend and my answer is usually " old ones".
- Is the service technician on your side. In other words does it seem like they are charging way to much for some reason. Maybe they really don't know what the problem is and is just scaring you out of the repair by jacking up the cost so they don't have to figure it out and just collect the service fee. I hate to bite my own kind but this certainly happens everyday somewhere. I'm telling you I hear it everyday when I install appliances for the BIG BOX stores; "The technician said it will be over 500$ to repair it so we just bought a new one". I can not think of many appliance repairs that cost even close to that much. Ask them for a detailed bill and I bet the answer will be different.
In closing, I do believe that there comes a time that replacement is the only option but repairing those appliances that are already in your home is generally a little easier on the wallet and considerably less time consuming. Just make sure you are getting all the information from a qualified technician with experience more than a few months of tech school. Or just call us at AASAP Appliance, we will give you the answers for the questions you have.
Have a great day.
James Wilms - owner