MILWAUKEE — It's frustrating enough when a major appliance in your house breaks down, but what's adding to the stress is the long wait times to get them fixed.
Click hereto read one consumer's personal story on a delayed repair.
According to The Major Appliance Blues Survey by Allstate Protection Plans, 95% of homeowners report having a major appliance stop working at some point and more than 40% of those say they have had a problem in the past year.
"The average cost to repair or replace an appliance was $713, which is a lot of money," said Jason Siciliano, Global Creative Director at Allstate Protection Plans.
"28 percent of in-home service repairs weren't completed on the first visit and also people spent over 17 hours supervising a repair visit," Siciliano added.
The survey also showed on average, homeowners are without functioning appliances for 10.9 days.
"It's bad enough that your refrigerator stops working, but then when you have to take off multiple days off work to get repairs, when you have to pay $700 or more to get it repaired, that's really frustrating," Siciliano said.
While the pandemic's impact on the supply chain certainly plays a role in longer repair times, Siciliano says the dragged-out repair process itself needs to be streamlined.
"Another reason for delays is that there hasn't been a lot of innovation when it comes to servicing appliances," Siciliano said.
He says one way that would help solve that is to have a technician diagnose your issue over the phone first.
As far as helping out with the cost in the long run, he says you can also consider buying a protection plan. While a manufacturer warranty covers your appliance for a year or two, the protection plan can last up to five years.
"We want everybody to make a decision that's right for them. But you can look at the cost of the appliance and look at the cost of the plan and then judge. So is it worth it to spend that extra two or three hundred dollars, which is usually 10% of the cost of the item, to make sure that over a five year period you've got somebody to call if something goes wrong and you're not shelling out that $700."
