Why do appliance repairs (dishwasher, laundry, fridge, etc.) seemingly cost as much as the appliances themselves?

Question

Why do appliance repairs (dishwasher, laundry, fridge, etc.) seemingly cost as much as the appliances themselves?

In: 5618

Answer 1

Cost of parts and cost of inventory.

I’m currently fixing a split AC unit at home. The unit costs about $500, plus installation cost.

I finally found the part I need online for a reasonable price ($70) and had to wait a month for it to ship from China. Turns out I need a second part that will be about 30.

A repair company would have to stock hundreds of these parts and hope they have the correct one in order to do it in 1 trip.

For them it would be much easier to replace the indoor unit with the newest model than it would be to stock the hundreds of parts they need to fix this.