Thx: doitmyself, BITOG members, NO THX: SEARS

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Popinski

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Original Post:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...435#Post1635435

So I wait a week for the Repair man's phone call. As stated earlier, I requested a diagnostic and repair job on my dryer on the internet. I took about 15 minutes to type in every single detail on the SEARS request page. You had to pay a $129 Diagnostic and labor fee.

On Thursday, 10 MINUTES BEFORE CLOSING, the repair man call's and says the following:

Repair Man: So what's the dryer doing?
Me: I typed it in on the internet, did ya see it?
Repair Man: We never read those.
Me: (I explained to him on the dryer problem). On common problems, how much do you think it'll cost?
Repair Man: Well, it varies, it could be anything. It could be a common problem
Me: Ok, so on common dryer repairs that you've done, how much did it usually cost?
Repair Man: Well, it all depended on the problem.

So at this point, I knew that he wasn't going to tell me unless he gets his $129. I keep this conversation up for 10 more minutes and he failed to tell me some estimated cost on some parts. Finally, I asked him one final time and I was pretty mad and he replied "$20-$200" on parts. Because of the bad phone call, I said "Thank You" Hung up.

Then BITOG Members said : "Sears is a ripoff" etc etc etc.

BITOG Member Doitmyself sent me a private message and gave me some ideas and motivated me into fixing it myself.

Before I did it myself, I called ACE hardware. This is what they said:

Me: (Explained Dryer problem)
Ace Man: We highly recommend that you fix it yourself and save yourself some cash. This job is very simple.
Me: How?
ACe man: (Gave me some Tips on repairs)

The problem? A $4.00 Thermal Fuse!!!!!!

SEARS ESTIMATE: PROBABLY OVER $200

TOTAL COST THANKS TO BITOG, DOITMYSELF AND ACE HARDWARE: $4.00
 
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Excellent. Most of us on this forum are DIY guys and love stories like this.

10.gif
 
Yep. Our refrigerator stopped cooling back in May. We called an appliance repairman and he came and took a look at it and said a new thermostat and control board. He came by the next day with a new control board but it was revised and wasn't compatible with the User Interface (the controls of the temperature) and it would need to be replaced also as the older control boards aren't available anymore. This was all true, just a sneaky move on Frigidaires part. He told us all in all it would be over $600. We declined repair and a long story short I fixed it all for $16 for the evaporator heater control thermostat. :D
 
Screw sears.

grats on fixing your own simple problem and not being taken advantage of.
 
Thermal Fuse, baby!!! Thermal flippin fuse.....

Same EXACT thing happened to me with my dryer. Couldn't afford to call a tech to repair it so I was using the ol' lavanderia for awhile.

I thought it was the timer as I saw some burn marks on the contacts. Figured it got smoked by a power surge so I bought a used one off ebay. New was $120-150, used $40. Unfortunately it did not fix the problem.

Did some more poking around with a meter and tracked it down to the dang thermal fuse. Local appliance parts place wanted $15 each. E-Bay sellers have it for $1.50-2.00. BINGO! Fixed the problem.

I'll bet that Sears tech had a good idea of what the problem was, but didn't want to give away the fix. Can't say that I blame him, he's gotta make money, too. Just not off us.

Good work, fellow dryer repairman!!
 
Big surprise? Not really. Sears wants to fix your dryer, not sell you the knowledge to do it yourself.

Good job, nonetheless
 
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I had a similar situation with GE service repair. I had their extended warranty on my dishwasher and the control unit blew out. Called for service and the tech had me go through the diagnostic by pushing a number of buttons and said "your control module is broken, we will ship you a new one and the repair guy will call and do the install." So the next day the guy calls and schedules 2 days later to allow the part to arrive. Then he no shows th appointment while I take 1/2 day off to be there...
mad.gif
. So I call to reschedule and ask where he was. the scheduler says there is no appointment in the computer...so she schedules 3 days later...second no-show. By now I have the new part with a prepaid return label for the old part. So I DIY the part and put the old one on the shelf in the garage. Diswasher runs perfect. While I had it out I replaced the pump which was squeaking and reinstalled it under the counter.

SIX MONTHS later
54.gif
they call and ask if I wanted to schedule the appointment to fix the control module. Now I am fuming. I told the lady they sent me the wrong part and the pump was bad and not the control unit. So I sent the old module back and the sent me a new pump that I returned to the parts store for a refund.

FOUR WEEKS LATER..
33.gif
..they called and asked if I needed the pump installed....I said 'what pump?" The lady apologized and said it must be a mistake.

Now I know why GE stock is at $14 instead of $70
 
So what did you want him to do give an estimate to repair by diagnosing the problem based on a phone call?
 
Nice story. It's successes like that that keep you DIY.

More than saving money on parts and labor, you can save yourself time as well. No need to schedule appointments and take time off work to meet with the repairman.
 
After a 10 percent coupon, I'm pretty sure that my brand new amana extra large size electric dryer was right around 300 bucks.

How do they justify 200 dollars to repair a 300 dollar unit?

Lowes delivered it and hauled the old one away also.

I see no point in buying a high dollar washer and dryer, the stackables and top loaders are just prone to more problems.
 
Originally Posted By: Amkeer
So what did you want him to do give an estimate to repair by diagnosing the problem based on a phone call?


All I wanted were some numbers so I could get an ounce of an idea. I have no idea what the parts cost. I don't want to spend over $200 on a 16 year old dryer. That's why I asked him for some rough estimate on cost of parts in which he failed to answer. That's why he lost business.
 
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Originally Posted By: JustinH

I see no point in buying a high dollar washer and dryer, the stackables and top loaders are just prone to more problems.


I agree 100% with this. Our 7 year old GE front loader started leaking water out the bottom. I could see it was dripping down the from the main basin. We have an appliance warranty plan through our electric company.

Service guy comes out (free of charge) and says the main basin is cracked and it's not covered by the warranty plan (of course). $270 in labor and over $300 in parts. Service guy and I both looked at each other and said in sync "New washer".

Went with a $500 top loading Whirlpool Cabrio from Lowes. Did some digging on the web and it looks like these things are a piece of cake to work on if I need to in the future.
 
I intend to keep everything I have going as long as I can find parts. Most of the new stuff is outrageously expensive, failure prone, and difficult to work on.
 
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