|
September
26, 2005:
Repair Or Replace
Interview
with Tod Marks, Senior Editor, Consumer Reports magazine
www.ConsumerReports.org
|
Mike
Carruthers:
It
used to be that when a toaster or blender or TV set broke, you
took it to somebody to get it fixed. But things have changed.
Tod
Marks:
You know VCRs today have almost no serviceable parts.
When a VCR breaks, you basically have to chuck it.
Tod
Marks, Senior Editor for Consumer Reports magazine which has
as its October cover story, “Repair Or Replace?”
The
old products in many ways were more expensive but they did have
serviceable parts. But in order to make things cheaper, like
a VCR, (which you can get for 39 bucks today), you’ve got all
these
plastic parts fused together, put in a sealed plastic case.
That’s the economics of making cheap products. And you can’t
fix them, even if you had good intentions and wanted to.
And even with
products than can be fixed...
If you look at
the average price of repairs, it costs anywhere from $45 to
$85 (or higher in big cities), an hour to hire a repair person.
If products are getting cheaper but repair rates are going up,
it argues against the repair more often than not.
In addition,
there are fewer and fewer repair centers to take thing to. So
the general advice from Consumer Reports...
Today, it really
doesn’t pay to repair any product that costs under $150. Further
we say, it rarely makes sense to repair any product where the
repair costs is at least 50% of the replacement cost.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net.
I’m Mike Carruthers and that’s Something You Should Know
|
