I had a certified GE service technician come to my home and install a electric glass top range that came with the home because it had broken from my cast iron sitting on it while the glass cooled.

I turned off the range with my Cast Iron on it, the cast iron cooled slower than the glass and the glass cracked. Poor design not built for cast iron.

This happened twice.

That meant I got to spend good time chatting with the service tech. He said he’s the last of a dying profession for a few reasons:

1. Nothing is fixed anymore except really old stuff. The things are simply replaced because the cost of fixing is higher than just replacing it with new. This means we’re literally throwing what are effectively new products into the landfill months after being installed. Even the old stuff, they are pushed into suggesting new build because the supply chain for old parts is small and there’s no money in it anymore.

2. There’s no career path for technicians because of 1 so where he used to be training apprentices they are going for other trades.

> cost of fixing is higher

Paying a human to do anything is so expensive. And it makes sense when you break it down by what their costs probably are.

I don't think anyone is even making a lot of money there is so much overhead costs.

But you have to use a human no matter what.

In this case the thing that changed was we went from fixing with a few parts, to wholesale replacing.

Do any appliance brands still do in company servicing? At least near me Wolf/Subzero and competitors outsource service.

Nope, talk to appliance people and they will tell you all of the traditional high end brands are junk now too

I specifically did not call them "repair" people BTW since most have lapsed into doing mostly installs...it's not even worth it to repair today's s junk and most people just replace. Cost of parts and labor now can easily exceed replacement cost (by design obviously)

Maybe Speed Queen is the one exception. I've had folks explicitly single out Bosch as a brand people still mistakingly believe is high quality. Follow the supply chain...it all comes out of just a few factories with most parts shared.

There are no longer high quality brands, only high price. High price is usually just for the name or appearance.

The thing with repair people is that they'll always complain that whatever model they see most often is crap, without comprehending that the reason they see that model most often is because it's sold 10-100x any other model.