Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
People throw things out because it's cheaper than fixing them. I have an employee that I caught trying to fix a dolly in my shop. He was sitting there with the casters pulled off and he was taking the bearings out of the wheels. His next step was to run around trying to find new bearings, which is the point at which I stopped him. Shutting down his production so I'm not billing his hours while he fatas around with a 20-year old dolly is the worst use of 2-3 hours I can imagine. Chuck it out, let me know, and I'll have a brand new delivered here by lunch for half the cost.
TVs are an even more pronounced example. Taking a couple hours off and hauling an old TV to some repair shop in the industrial park to pay a guy $90 an hour to fix it is really dumb. Just shoot over to Costco and have a new warrantied TV for the same or less than messing around with the old one is a no brainer.
New goods are so cheap and Calgary labour rates are so expensive that it no longer makes sense to fix your stuff. It's like if your dishwasher fails...just buy a new one. Taking the day off to have a guy come to your house to tell you your dishwasher isn't repairable and then handing you a $150 bill for his time is a bad way to spend your money and time off.
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I think that depends on what it is. I'm not throwing out my lawnmower without trying to fix it. I bought a good coffee grinder for my dad(I have the same one) and a piece broke. Went to their website, ordered it for a very reasonable price, and fixed it. They decided they wanted these things to be reparable, and not disposable so they go through the effort of supplying every piece for cheap. I think you could build one for the sum of the parts. We need more companies doing this, not charging $500 for a gear box on a $600 washing machine. Maybe if more things were repairable more people would learn to repair things on their own? Not suggesting fixing the caster was worth the effort...