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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to feel upset at the greed of some people

82 replies

happyfrown · 22/07/2018 13:00

this will get me thumbs down but need to vent.

ive had my oven for around 5 maybe 6yrs, well looked after and clean. was gutted when a few months ago the fan went on the blink and I have to prod the fan to start the spin. i looked on ebay for the part, around £30. but watching the youtube vid to fix it didn't make me feel confident to do it myself.
so went to my local appliance shop. not a branded place more like second hand goods. asked if they sell any parts and if they do repairs. was told no don't sell parts. so i said ok if i buy the part off ebay could they repair? then he said they do do the part to order in but was more then ebay price but wont fit it? he said to have a look around if he had any cookers to buy. told him i don't need a whole oven just that part. sorry and left.
so last week the grill decided to pack up only half the grill works. looked up that element possibly needs changing. again not something i comfortable with.
went to a different place, again new and second hand type. walked in asked about parts and repair. got a arsey reply along the lines of ''ooh you looking at £90 for fan motor, how ever much for an element then the repairs fee your looking at oh i don't know £200 plus. your better off buying new''

yes of course cos that will line his pocket more! i said i aint got the money for a new oven. mentioned that i found parts online cheaper if i can just get it fix. got a straight up no. even suggest i ask my family for money to buy new. family i don't have.

i understand they are making a living, i get they might be struggling and need every sale. i just get upset that if i could help someone i would. they would still get some of my money but not money i aint got.

OP posts:

JustHereForThePooStories · 22/07/2018 13:28

My 24 year old oven is still working like a charm! The fan and element went about 8 years ago, and a local tradesman replaced and repaired with new, authorised, parts. Think I paid £150.

At the time, I was just getting it repaired as a stop-gap, thinking I’d need to buy a new one within a year or so. Never happened. My lovely little cooker has never let me down.

The front of it looks shabby and all the markings have been worn off over time, so it’ll be replaced when I get a new kitchen next year, but I’ll miss it.

OP, sometimes it’s worth taking the advice of a tradesman and using their parts for a repair. That way, you usually have some form of guarantee.

placemats · 22/07/2018 13:29

Try local 'retired' electricians. They will charge less and give you an honest opinion. I got my curtains and blinds done recently for a fraction of the price - felt so bad about it I gave him a well deserved tip.

However, I despair at the way in which goods are made these days. It's not sustainable for the planet.

You could also try local ads re someone refurbishing their kitchen who may want a new oven.

DiegoMadonna · 22/07/2018 13:33

I hate this throw-away society we've created where it's cheaper to buy new things then just fix the ones we've already got

This. It's amazing the amount of hate an OP would get if they started a thread about throwing their yoghurt pots in the normal landfill bin, but at the same time nobody wants you to fix something when you can just chuck it and buy new. The carbon footprint of manufacturing and shipping all these appliances is massive.

Anyway OP, seems you're probably just asking the wrong people. I don't live in the UK but don't you have repairmen there? Like general Mr. Fix-its?

4littlebirds · 22/07/2018 13:34

Agree with earlier comments about throwaway society and it is a shame that stuff doesn’t seem to be built to last anymore.
but by the sounds of it your oven is on its way out anyway, so it might be more economical to buy a new one if you can afford, or a decent used one if you can’t.
Maybe see if you can sell your present one for spares, or repair for a few quid.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 · 22/07/2018 13:34

You won't have to lug an oven home and fit it yourself. If you buy from a high street name like curry's you can pay extra for them to deliver, install, and take the old one away. The total cost for that should be about £90 on top of the item price

MadisonAvenue · 22/07/2018 13:36

Like Tinkly's husband, mine will have a go at fixing things like this rather than pay someone to do it. He fitted a grill element a few months ago so all that cost us was £30 for the part and it didn't take him very long at all.

There was an electrical part which failed on our hot water tank too, a tradesman quoted us £300 to replace it. He was the only one to respond to our query but when we accepted his quote he said he'd call when he'd sourced the part and we heard nothing more from him despite leaving a few voicemails.
We found that we could buy the part, the same make as the existing one, on Amazon for £45 so bought it and it took my husband 30 minutes to fit it.

It's so easy to find instruction videos online.

DamsonPie · 22/07/2018 13:36

Every business buys stuff at trade price and sells it to you at retail price. Asda charges you more for a pint of milk than they paid for it. That’s how they make a profit! Obviously they’re going to add a mark up to the price of the part - that’s how a business works. And they won’t take the liability for fitting (old, broken, faulty?) parts you’ve bought from god knows where. I’m not surprised that you can buy a new cooker for less than the price of fixing the old one.

Original poster

happyfrown · 22/07/2018 13:38

ive already said greed was wrong word, guess im just stressing over it. and that i was unaware i was asking in the wrong place.

but you know if i came across some one who needed help and i had that skill id help.
should ask for the thread wording to be changed but they might as well delete it as i have seen where i went wrong.

OP posts:

ToadOfSadness · 22/07/2018 13:39

Look on one of the local sites, Kahuti, ScoopLoop or a Facebook Group near you and ask for a recommendation. We have a neighbours group on FB and people are asking often for electricians, plumbers, builders etc.

Or look on Google for electrical repairs. When our oven stopped working our heating engineer fixed it, he was here anyway, and no part was needed, he just took some of it out and put it back together again.

TashaYar · 22/07/2018 13:42

but you know if i came across some one who needed help and i had that skill id help.

That’s nice, but you can’t expect businesses to work for free just to “help”.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 22/07/2018 13:46

Madison People just aren't handy any more are they? My DH grew up fiddling with his bike and fiddling with a motorbike and an old mini as a teen.

He's tried to make sure all our kids are reasonably competent at stuff like maintaining their bikes; fixing puncture and brakes, changing tyres etc. Only downside is all the kids in our street call round with their crocked bikes for help if they spot him out in the garage.

NoelHeadbands · 22/07/2018 13:51

but you know if i came across some one who needed help and i had that skill id help

What, even if it was your livelihood?

Have a post on Facebook though, ask on any local groups, you might find that there are people on there who can help, rather than where you’ve tried already

WorraLiberty · 22/07/2018 13:51

but you know if i came across some one who needed help and i had that skill id help.

What? Everyone? All the time?

How would you find time to earn a living?

Peartree17 · 22/07/2018 13:52

There used to be a scheme called, I think, LETS where skilled people did exactly that, OP - swap skills. So you swap your skilled labour for someone else's. Physio treatment for electrical repairs, say. Curtain-making for car mechanics. Obviously you need to trade according to actual market rates, or people get hacked off giving up hours. And you need time. Is there such a thing in your area? Might be worth thinking about for the longer term.

In the short term, we had an electric oven which we bought secondhand for £30 and it did us fine for years. The thermostat was shot, so you couldn't bake cakes or anything that required precision, but it was absolutely fine for roasts, casseroles, cooking on the hob - bedrock of family cooking. Could you get something like that?

FancyADoughnut · 22/07/2018 13:55

but you know if i came across some one who needed help and i had that skill id help

Helping your mate out say moving some furniture is 'helping out'. What you are asking is for a business, who is liable for when things go wrong' to effectively not charge an amount that enables them to stay in business and use unverified parts because you want to pay the minimum from eBay. What if everyone expected that?

Oldraver · 22/07/2018 13:58

There are quite a few companies that sell appliance parts and they very often have a YouTube tutorial in how to fix it.

Things like elements are literally pull out old one, push back in new part

ijustwannadance · 22/07/2018 14:04

Of course they aren't going to fit some potentially dodgy parts you've bought elsewhere. It's their business.

pinkdelight · 22/07/2018 14:10

"if i can get a part for 30 on ebay why would i want to pay £90."

But you probably would end up paying £90 because they'd charge you a decent amount for their time spent fixing it. Either it's a professional service and you pay a fair fee for their expertise, or it's not and you bodge it together yourself using ebay and youtube. You can't go to shops and expect them to 'help' you out just because you need it. And besides, it's more likely an electrician/handyman you need rather than a shop that sells cookers - if that's where you go, you can hardly be surprised when they try to sell you a cooker.

Gaspodethetalkingdog · 22/07/2018 14:11

I once got a tradesman to repair a washing machine - part was quite expensive, the machine broke down a bit later, so I bought a new one - I don’t think they are designed to be mended

quarterpast · 22/07/2018 14:11

OP, I get that it's a struggle when you've not got much money I really do. However, my DH is a tradesman and there's a lot more to it than just 'helping' because he can...

There's insurance and the fact that as PP have mentioned parts bought off eBay could be broken or faulty and dangerous.
There's the fact that most tradesmen work on a set day rate which is how they make their living and it's their time and the fact that they will have brought all their own tools to do the job etc (tools are expensive), and the petrol they spend driving out to you.

All of these things are expensive and so when you buy in a service you as the customer are paying for everything a service costs to make it available to you, and the reassurance that the job is done safely and insured properly.

Given all of the above it's a perfectly sensible suggestion that given the fact you don't have the money to get someone to fix it properly it's better economic sense to just buy another appliance.

jellomello · 22/07/2018 14:13

Why don't you contact the manufacturer and see if they have engineers that do repairs?

seafret · 22/07/2018 14:16

You weren't wrong to ask if someone could repair your oven OP, some people are ignoring the fact that you were prepared to pay.

Not much gets repaired these days. It is a terrible waste. We sved to get dualit toaster second hand purely because it can be repaired. (it is also awesome!)

I think property prices have contributed to that as it is hard for the small trades/ repair types to afford workshop premises now (rent vs price you can charge per hour) so a lot of small businesses have gone under or become retail.

MoonFacesMum · 22/07/2018 14:21

I appreciate someone more knowledgeable than myself saying it’s not worth fixing something. I agree that repairs are better if you can, I don’t like our throwaway culture. But in some instances, it just isn’t worth it. Our dishwasher recently died and I called out a repairman who said sorry, not worth fixing. So we bought a new one from Curry’s. The repairman would have got more money from me by selling me the part and billing for his time, but he was doing his job properly.

Original poster

happyfrown · 22/07/2018 14:27

thanks for your replies. i see all the points.
i guess i was just fretting and looking for help paid help not free

will get post deleted as i can see people will just keep posting replies that im asking for nothing and i am thick for not knowing i was asking in the wrong place. though your all right my MH cant handle it right now so best i delete it knowing i was bu. thanks

OP posts:

Mummyoflittledragon · 22/07/2018 14:31

I don’t think you need a qualified electrician to replace the part as you’re replacing like for like. Just an handyman/woman. So buy the part. Pay for someone to fit it.

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