A customer told me 'it's cheaper to buy new' and I've been chewing on that all month

I was finishing a dryer repair, a basic belt and roller job, and the guy paying the bill said the line I hear a lot: 'At this price, I might as well have bought a new one.' But this time he added, 'You folks are a dying trade.' It got under my skin. On one hand, I see his point. A basic new dryer is maybe $500. My labor and parts hit $300. But on the other hand, his old unit is a solid Whirlpool from 2010, all metal parts. The new one he'd get is full of plastic and boards that could fail in a year. I told him that, and he just shrugged. It made me wonder if we're losing the fight on value perception, even when the repair is the smarter long-term play. How do you guys handle that 'buy new' comment when you know the fix is the right call?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina_johnson8619d ago

Ugh, does that line drive anyone else nuts? I had a lady last week with a fridge not cooling, just needed a new start relay. She said the same thing about buying new. I flat out told her the new models have those fancy boards that love to die right after the warranty. She listened, but you can see them doing the mental math, and the cheap price tag always wins. How do you even get people to see past the sticker shock?

piperwhite19d ago

Honestly, that sticker shock is real. Maybe frame it as a monthly cost? A cheap new fridge might be $800 but dies in 5 years. A $200 repair could get her 5 more years from a solid old box. That's like $3 a month to keep the old one going versus $13 a month for the new one that'll probably break anyway.

adams.cameron18d ago

Nina_johnson86 is right, new ones break faster.