Hiring an appliance repair service professional can be a hard thing to do. There are a few factors that make the appliance repair industry hard for homeowners to navigate.
First, there is the debate about fixing an old appliance or simply buying a new one. Often times when a major appliance breaks our first response is to buy a new one. However, it is often much easier and less expensive then one thinks to fix an existing appliance. Therefore, doing the repair can save significant money.
Second, if you are like most homeowners you don’t know the first thing about your appliances. This means you are really at the mercy of your professional when it comes to what parts need to be replaced and what they say needs to be done (as well as how much it will cost!)
Finally, there is the challenge of locating the right appliance professional for the right job. Sometimes different repairmen repair different brands.
So what do you do?
We recommend:
• Asking your friends and neighbors to see if they have had good or bad experiences with local appliance repair pros. Simply knowing that another person has had a good experience with a company prior to calling them lessens your chance of hiring a problem.
• If you have the time, call a few companies and ask them about your appliance issue. This will help you determine fair market price for your job. This does not mean you should always go with the lowest price, you should go with the company you feel most comfortable with and who you feel will fix the appliance correctly (and return if the repair is not working).
• Always ask if the company charges a fee for your service call. Many appliance repair pros charge a small fee for coming out and giving an estimate. These fees are often legitimate because many times it can be a very small issue that the contractor is called out for. If it takes 30 minutes to drive to a customer’s house just to discover that the job takes 30 seconds, the workers need to be compensated for their time. However, you can ask them to waive the fee if it is determined that there is actual work to perform (this is, of course, only if you hire them!)
• Ask if the company has insurance. Make sure this fact is stated somewhere in their contract, even if they have to write it in themselves. You take a risk of liability when you use companies that do not carry insurance.
• Ask if their parts & labor come with guarantees. Make sure you get this in writing. An inexpensive fix is not really inexpensive if it is not guaranteed to work!
• Always get a statement of work performed in writing. Keep this filed away. Again, everything that is important to you should be in writing!
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