Why do appliance repairs (dishwasher, laundry, fridge, etc.) seemingly cost as much as the appliances themselves?
In: 5618
You don’t live in a rough enough neighbourhood to have a ‘guy.’ The guy is like your uncles friend, usually in their 30s and their only job is fixing shit in the hood. They fix anything from the satellite TV to a dishwasher to a cupboard door hanging off in the kitchen for like 20 bucks. They always smell of something not unpleasant but strange, and you know their joggers have been on for more than a week but damnit they can fix shit. Usually found hanging around near a corner shop or walking to or from a place to get parts.
You don’t live in a rough enough neighbourhood to have a ‘guy.’ The guy is like your uncles friend, usually in their 30s and their only job is fixing shit in the hood. They fix anything from the satellite TV to a dishwasher to a cupboard door hanging off in the kitchen for like 20 bucks. They always smell of something not unpleasant but strange, and you know their joggers have been on for more than a week but damnit they can fix shit. Usually found hanging around near a corner shop or walking to or from a place to get parts.
I want you to come to my house and fix something:
1. Drive to my house. .5 hours
2. Diagnose what the problem is and take alliance apart: 1-2 hours
3. Order part: .5 to call locally etc.
4. Go get the part and come back: 1hr
5. Replace part: 1 hour
6. Drive back to shop: .5 hours.
The repair just ran you 5-6 hours…. How much would you charge?
I want you to come to my house and fix something:
1. Drive to my house. .5 hours
2. Diagnose what the problem is and take alliance apart: 1-2 hours
3. Order part: .5 to call locally etc.
4. Go get the part and come back: 1hr
5. Replace part: 1 hour
6. Drive back to shop: .5 hours.
The repair just ran you 5-6 hours…. How much would you charge?
Your appliance was created with labor and a supply chain far from the US/EU price rangers. The same labor, parts, shipping etc. would cost a lot more in the US. This means the price is artificial low – and when you get a repair you pay the local economy price – not what it would to manufacturing. On top of that, manufacturing doesn’t require a lot of skilled labor. Your repair person does. Add supply chain issues that make part prices overly expensive, and quite a few repairs end up costing very close to that of a new unit.
Your appliance was created with labor and a supply chain far from the US/EU price rangers. The same labor, parts, shipping etc. would cost a lot more in the US. This means the price is artificial low – and when you get a repair you pay the local economy price – not what it would to manufacturing. On top of that, manufacturing doesn’t require a lot of skilled labor. Your repair person does. Add supply chain issues that make part prices overly expensive, and quite a few repairs end up costing very close to that of a new unit.
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.
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.
Imagine baking a cake. You bake two 8″ rounds, pop one out, put a layer of icing on top of it, plop the second on top, then frost the whole thing. Not too hard, right? Especially if you’ve been baking cakes for years.
Now imagine your customer has a finished cake, but there’s something wrong with it. Oh no! You need to fix it! But the customer doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong with it. Is it the wrong color frosting? Are there almonds instead of walnuts in it? Is there chocolate frosting between the layers instead of vanilla? Are there raisins in it!?!?! Well, you have to figure that out.
So you have to test the outer frosting, carefully take samples of each layer, carefully separate the layers to look between, and you found it! The middle frosting is white vanilla when it is supposed to be vanilla dyed pink! So you carefully remove all the white vanilla, then go back to the shop to look up exactly *which* shade of pink it was supposed to have, make a new batch of the right color pink, then reapply it to the middle, then re-stack and button up the cake so it looks good as new.
Which of those two processes seems like it will take longer? Because human labor is so valuable, the biggest driver of cost is the amount of time it takes a person to fix it.
Imagine baking a cake. You bake two 8″ rounds, pop one out, put a layer of icing on top of it, plop the second on top, then frost the whole thing. Not too hard, right? Especially if you’ve been baking cakes for years.
Now imagine your customer has a finished cake, but there’s something wrong with it. Oh no! You need to fix it! But the customer doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong with it. Is it the wrong color frosting? Are there almonds instead of walnuts in it? Is there chocolate frosting between the layers instead of vanilla? Are there raisins in it!?!?! Well, you have to figure that out.
So you have to test the outer frosting, carefully take samples of each layer, carefully separate the layers to look between, and you found it! The middle frosting is white vanilla when it is supposed to be vanilla dyed pink! So you carefully remove all the white vanilla, then go back to the shop to look up exactly *which* shade of pink it was supposed to have, make a new batch of the right color pink, then reapply it to the middle, then re-stack and button up the cake so it looks good as new.
Which of those two processes seems like it will take longer? Because human labor is so valuable, the biggest driver of cost is the amount of time it takes a person to fix it.
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