Vacuum repair shop unreasonable

[Honestmummydearest]

So a minor (but helpful) element of our vacuum stopped working a month ago. Not essential but a nice-to-have function. It annoyed me enough to Google buying a new part which might have cost £30-£45.

I thought, make do and mend, so took it to a local small business repair shop on the high street, thinking I’d prefer to support them than Amazon anyway. Expected repair to take place in the shop or for them to at least give me a sense of severity/likely cost. They took a £10 deposit and said they’d be in touch. Fine, but I said, look, if it’s going to be more than £30 don’t bother, I’ll buy a new part.

4 weeks passed and I’d heard nothing. Couldn’t vacuum for that entire period. I called up and they said they’d sent it off but hadn’t heard.…..?
Right…? Can you chase it up please?
Oh yes ok.
Another week passes and nothing, so I email them. No response. I call again. I’m told it’s been fixed, it’ll be ready tomorrow. Great. I send DH to pick it up. He is charged an additional £19. So we’ve been charged £29 for poor service on repair to an item they knew I wasn’t prepared to spend £30 on. Is that coincidence or am I at fault for specifying a budget and they took advantage of it?

AIBU or is this the state of the service industry now? No wonder the high street is dying.

Well it’s poor that it took so long and they didn’t communicate with you during that time. However I don’t understand why you’re unhappy about the cost - you said you didn’t want to pay more than £30 and you haven’t. It would have cost you more to buy the new part so they have saved you money (even if only £1!).

It was a very small job that you weren't prepared to pay more than £30 for.

Subtracting the cost of any parts or materials from £30, this didn't leave much for labour.

So they fitted it in when they could, around other jobs that were more lucrative.

You got your repair at the price you wanted to pay.

They could've said that they couldn't do it, that they couldn't do it at that price.

I can only guess but parts can sometimes be delayed
it might well of been over £30 but rather than get nothing even though they’d spent time on it they’ve charged you £29
i don’t think you’ve been ripped off as that’s for the part and at least an hours time

the problem is how long it took
I think the problem shops like this are dying is partly due to the example you give people happy for them to invest there time But don’t want to pay a lot mainly due to the cost of replacing isn’t that far away from the cost of repairing

chances are they got the part from Amazon

You have had it mended for less than £30, I am not quite sure how much cheaper you can expect a repair to be. And if you needed it more quickly you should have gone back to them sooner.

In fact I feel a bit sorry for them.

You are right that small businesses are struggling. Here you have a business who are hardly making any money on your repair. £29 including the cost of the part. They are probably congratulating themselves on doing a good job for you, building goodwill for future business, supporting local community and hoping you'll recommend them/good review. But instead you're complaining.

Other than the timeframe, I'm not sure what you're moaning about. The cost was cheap.

And if you don't vacuum in a 4 week period, that's on you. I'd have borrowed a neighbour's hoover rather than live like that 🤢

So we’ve been charged £29 for poor service on repair to an item they knew I wasn’t prepared to spend £30 on. Is that coincidence or am I at fault for specifying a budget and they took advantage of it?

They have done nothing wrong! You said not to spend more than £30. They didn't! You are being so unreasonable here!

Poor buggers fixed your vacuum, and under the max price you advised. It was probably not worth their time. I'm amazed you found a shop who would bother with such a repair. It took a while, but I would be celebrating if I were you.

Agree with the above comments that £29 for a repair seems very good value. Also, given they had to send it away, pay for someone to repair it, and pay for its return, I expect it cost a lot more, but they discounted it to keep within the £30 budgeted.

But I agree with your annoyance about the timescale, for something that you had assumed (reasonably) would be repaired in house.