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

Repairing an appliance takes expertise, time, and replacement parts. Add all of that up with a fair price for the technician and it comes out to about the same price as a new unit just because of the economy of scale for manufacturing. Basically, it’s not because repairing is expensive, but because making new stuff is cheap. Repairing made more sense in a time when such items were harder to come by, but with such optimized production and delivery processes, they are much more accessible.