Informal survey: appliance repair

[do_not_spam_me]

At least on one of those appearances he was with Norm of This Old House and The New Yankee Workshop. I remember them building window screen frames.

Amazingly, he was able to tell a saw from a hammer, but he couldn't quite guide the circular saw straight. Letterman complained about Vila plugging Sears so much.

They say Vila treats the craftsmen on his show badly to make himself look smarter. He'll ask one of the craftsmen on camera what he's doing, and the person will explain it. Then Vila will stop the camera and ask the question again, this time rephrasing it so it contains the answer the person just gave him, and all the craftsman can do is reply by saying, "That's right, Bob."

[hallerb]

wel;l I DONT buy stuff because so and so names on it, I buy what I think will do the job....

so his marketing doesnt matter

[bigjim]

[aspasia]

Not THAT small! Has to be paid annually. Not saying it isn't worthwhile (I haven't tried it); just pointing out real cost.

Aspasia

[Goedjn]

I think you've gotten the "on camera" and "off camera" thing backwards. In any case, given that many craftsmen are better at their craft than at talking for the camera, and the reverse is true for most showmen, I'd say that that's both typical, and proper. Irritating, if you're the tradesman in question and you weren't expecting it.

But that's what the guy DOES for a living, is re-package other people's knowledge into a standard format, and serve it up to a consumer base.

[PaulD]

[krw]

$30 for the drive over (pretty low) and a one hour minimum seem to be fairly standard.

I agree here. Most of the time they're just about at the end of their useful life when they first fail anyway. I had a drier eat a belt recently. I ordered the parts over the Internet and had it working the next weekend for $15 or so. If I failed at the repair attempt (never done it before) I would have just bought a new drier. Same with the dishwasher. I didn't even attempt to repair it. We were putting in a new floor and didn't want it to leak again.