Fridge Repair Costed $300, Fair or Rip off?

• 

  Banana on 29/09/2014 - 18:33

  I remember we had a bar fridge that was broken. Called the repairman and quoted around $300 too. However not sure whether it was an easy fix or not.

  • 

    Wallace on 29/09/2014 - 19:48

    How long did repairs take?

    And how long ago was this?

    • 

      Banana on 30/09/2014 - 22:01

      It was some time this year. We ended up getting a new fridge as it was not worth it.

• 

  Settero on 29/09/2014 - 18:41

  do you have a itemised bill ?

  it sounds expensive if it is true that the part would cost 40$ and that the labour rates where the normal 9-5 rate and not some special late night/weekend rate.

  and they probably charged alot more than that for the part, they dont sell parts so you can not expect the cheapest price for the part. you maybe have payed 2-3 times what you think just for the part.

  • 

    Wallace on 29/09/2014 - 19:46

    The bill is not itemised.

    Excuse the repairman for his terrible English and spelling, this is what he wrote on the receipt:
    "Found unit a faulty main couhall to replace couhall & also adjust tilt and clean

    Drain & Disc

    $285 + GST & disc $300"

    This what he did:
    1. Replaced faulty control unit. (Took half an hour or less)
    2. Adjusted the fridge to tilt slightly on an angle so fridge door closes automatically. (Took about 1-2 minutes)
    3. Used a blower to blow the dust off the radiator and get dust all over my kitchen. (Took about 1 minute)

    He did arrived outside of 9am - 5pm. I booked yesterday (Sunday) afternoon but he did not arrive till 7:30am today (Monday). Does this justify such high rates?

• 

  snappy1234 on 29/09/2014 - 19:26

  Had a similar problem with a faulty defrost element in a Westinghouse fridge(frost free model) (behind the top freezer compartment)

  I was at work, my missus was desperate to get the fridge all happening as she had a mate coming from OS the next day,
  long story short bloke ran a hairdryer inside the back of the freezer for ten/fifteen mins.,undid 4 screws swapped the element (bit like a long skinny element in a kettle just heaps longer)popped the screws back in.
  fridge back on. (not quite $300 but more than $250)

  Me no happy (specially as friend was basically a sponge ;)

  (part was cheap like this OP too.)

  • 

    Wallace on 29/09/2014 - 19:57

    I don't want to name names but was your repairer a Melbourne based company?

    • 

      snappy1234 on 29/09/2014 - 21:07

      @ Wallace
      No- was when i lived near Gosford NSW (quite a few years ago)

      fridge is awesome (have since swapped that same element myself and also the thermostat myself)
      both easy jobs.

• 

  tooblue on 29/09/2014 - 22:38

  Recently a toilet seal cracked and water leaking, I called three plumbers and all quoted $180 ~ $200. I managed to buy one replacement from bunnings for $3.00, spent an hour studying the toilet and replaced the seal. Are the plumbers rip-off?

  When servicing my car, the garage recommended to change the air filter and quoted over $100. I called a few garages and was quoted similar price. Then I ordered the air filter from eBay and followed Youtube video. It took inexperienced me less than 10 minutes to finish the job. Are the garages rip-off?

  I guess when we don't have the tools or the expertise, we will have to live with it?

  • 

    sneakydean on 30/09/2014 - 14:32

    You were POSSIBLY ripped off by the garage.On one hand My last car service I got a call from the mechanic 20 mins after dropping off car and was told need a new filter and that would add $20 to the cost of the service.
    On the other hand Ive just now looked at SuperCheapAutos site and filters go from $10 to $99 so if your car requires a specific type of non common filter then maybe its right to spend abit on a filter

    I guess when we don't have the tools or the expertise, we will have to live with it?

    Maybe but More and more knowledge is being shared to us via sites such as youtube where you can see how to do alot

  • 

    Wallace on 30/09/2014 - 15:44

    Yeah, if you don't have the skills and knowledge then you're at their mercy.

    I should've googled and tried to diagnose myself but I wasn't confident opening an electrical item.

    Now I too realise it's a lot easier than I imagined.

    It's just that our usual trades person we use wasn't available and had to try someone else. His prices are NEVER that ridiculous.

  • 

    TheOneWhoKnocks on 05/10/2015 - 09:13

    How much oil did you get on yourself?

• 

  Geewhizz on 30/09/2014 - 08:09

  +1

  So $99 is the callout fee. Assuming you can buy the part for around $40, that leaves $160. What value do you put on him actually knowing what was wrong with your fridge as opposed to you NOT knowing, and him being able to fix it? Sure, you can buy the part (dont' forget you've actually got to get it shipped …. has your food gone rotten in the time it took to get it?)

  He worked for a pittance while he was learning his trade so that you wouldn't have to go out and buy a new fridge simply because a $40 part is not working as it should. That's all got to be worth something?

  The age and condition of your fridge (and your budget) would determine whether that was $300 well spent. If it's old and clapped out and likely to develop another problem in a week's time, probably not, and you'd do better to go out and buy a new fridge, but if it is generally running well, then it would have been pointless shelling out in excess of $1k when this repair fixed it.

  For what it's worth, he told you it would cost $300 for the repair and you accepted that price, no questions asked. There was really nothing stopping you from asking him what parts needed replacing before you accepted his quote. If you had then googled and found the item for $40 online though, I reckon your chances of him hanging around to talk you through fitting it would have been pretty slim.

  • 

    Wallace on 30/09/2014 - 15:24

    The Hoover fridge is about 20 years old. Maybe $300 is not too bad.

    It's just that he really gave me reason to think he was dishonest.

    He was able to diagnose what the problem was over the phone but didn't tell me what the problem was and told me about the $99 call out fee without a rough quote.

    He made it sound so simple I couldn't imagine that it would blow out to $300.

    After the repair he was going to take the faulty part with him and not even show it to me unlike other repair guys that show you the new part before installing and leaving the old part with you.

    Had he showed me the replacement part before quoting me and me agreeing, I would've saw it was a cheap part and perhaps may have googled it in his face. That would've been cool!