Google is not always your friend. Search for a brand of trainers in your city, for example, and among the top search results you will most likely find a site that looks legitimate, but if you pay close attention to the web address (URL), you’ll spot the work of a scammer, often in the form of a missing letter.
If you lock yourself out of your house and google locksmiths in your area, you will most certainly get a quick response from someone whose intention is to charge you several times the going rate for their service.
It’s the same story with out-of-warranty appliance repairs.
Two decades ago, many a consumer in need of a repairer turned to their local phone directories, looked up the brand of their ailing appliance, then called the listed number.
A repair van would arrive, the client would be told it had to be taken to “the workshop” for repair, and invariably a very large quote would follow. If the client rejected it, they usually had a hard time getting their appliance back.
At least in those days, the hard-copy directory listings usually included an address, allowing people to track down their held-for-ransom appliances.
Today, many an appliance owner is caught by the results of a Google search.
When Mary of Cape Town’s out-of-warranty dishwasher stopped working last month, she googled “Bosch repairs”, and among the sponsored results that popped up first was “Repair Center” in Cape Town.
The only means of contacting the company is via a website form. There is no physical address — always a red flag.
“Miles” turned up the next day, took a quick look at the dishwasher and quoted R1,800 to replace the motherboard, which was accepted.
“Then he said the machine had to be taken in and asked for a R200 call-out fee,” Mary said. “We paid it and got no receipt.”
Off Miles went with their dishwasher to an unknown location and only a cellphone number as a means of contacting him.
The only time we would take an appliance away is if it’s a huge side-by-side fridge needing a big repair, or if there is not enough space to open up an appliance in a tiny kitchen
— Margaret Hirsch, CEO of Hirsch’s
Days later, Miles quoted Mary and her husband R3,000 for the repair: R1,500 for the part and R1,500 for labour.
“We felt this was not acceptable as he had originally quoted a lower price, so we asked him to return the machine without repairing it,” she told me. “Since then, I have phoned every couple of days, and he has said he will return it on specific days and has never come.”
All he did was increase the quote, via SMS, to R3,500.
“Miles now does not answer my calls,” Mary said. “I am not sure what else to do. One cannot get hold of the company as you have to fill in your details and they phone you back.
“I realise we have been rather naive, but we have never had problems before.”
I gave Miles a call. He acknowledged that he had possession of the couple’s dishwasher and that they had not accepted his quote.
When I suggested he return the dishwasher immediately, and that it was unethical to hold the couple to ransom, he mumbled some form of agreement and then said he needed more time.
Eventually, he committed to returning the dishwasher to its owners the next week.
I wasn’t terribly hopeful, but I’ve just had word from Mary that the dishwasher was returned to her — five weeks after it was taken away.
“I have no doubt that it would not have happened without your intervention,” she said. “I hope that all the parts are still there. We will try to have it repaired but will be careful about how we go about it.”
Here’s the thing: appliances seldom need to be removed from your home to be repaired. It’s a schlep and an expense for the repairers — two trips instead of one — so those who routinely do this must have ulterior motives: to hold the owners to ransom with a huge repair bill; to repair and sell the appliance; to strip the appliance for parts; or to accept payment for a repair job but return the machine untouched.
I collaborated with Carte Blanche on such a story about 20 years ago — I used my own washing machine as bait, and before the infamous repairers arrived to whisk it away “for repair”, we marked its key parts.
That’s how we could prove that the part wasn’t replaced, despite it being charged for.
Margaret Hirsch, CEO of appliance retailer Hirsch’s, confirmed that a dishwasher would always be able to be repaired on site, and most washing machines as well.
“The only time we would take an appliance away is if it’s a huge side-by-side fridge needing a big repair, or if there is not enough space to open up an appliance in a tiny kitchen,” she said. “But 99% of all repairs can be done in the customer’s home.”
If you’re in need of an out-of-warranty appliance repair, you have a few options: go with a reputable appliance retailer that does its own repairs, contact the brand custodians in South Africa — by means of a very astute Google search — and ask for their authorised repairers in your area, or seek personal recommendations from a trusted community WhatsApp group.
Get written quotes, query the terms of any call-out fee, find out exactly where your appliance is being taken — check out the address on Google Maps first — and make sure you have valid contact numbers.
Also question the repairer — before making payment — about their warranty Ts and Cs.
By law — the Consumer Protection Act — all repair jobs must be warrantied for three months.
As always, hope for the best but expect and plan for the worst.
• Contact Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via email: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler
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