Let’s be clear, I run my appliance repair business with the sole aim of making money.

I’m not here to adopt every headache that crosses my path. I’m here to take care of reasonable repairs for reasonable people only reasonable appliances that have reasonable access to them. This is my standard for everything that I do, especially now that I’m old and cranky.

Let me be clear, when people call me to work on appliances that are in unreasonable places. I’ll walk away. Let me give you an example, since I live in a tourist Town, I am often called out to boats and RVs for miscellaneous repairs. Last year I was called out to a big old RV that someone had taken the regular refrigerator out of and replaced with a Samsung.

The unit was leaking water from the floor and getting all over the place, it was easy to diagnose, but the owners had squeezed it into a spot that it could not be taken out of very readily, also it was fairly well secured in place with bolts and nuts. To make it even worse, to correct this problem, I would have to have access to the back of the machine, and this was impossible because the back of the machine was pushed up against a grate which was the exterior vent for the former refrigerator.

When I tried to explain to the guy how I could not do what I needed to do through that grate, he was extremely put out. Told me that all I had to do was just finagle it through the grate holes and I could get it done. To be fair, I might could have done so but it would have taken five times longer than a normal repair. I can tell you straight away, no one is wanting to pay 5 times more money for their repair because of that situation.

Also, I see absolutely no reason that I should have to spend five times more time on it than necessary or experience 10 times more aggravation from a person who is not reasonable. I didn’t walk away from the job, I ran from it, as fast as I could!

Another episode I had here recently involved a cranky old lady who said that her dryer wasn’t drying well enough. Always be careful when people move into subjective things.

I can measure a dryer to see if it’s reaching the temperatures that the manufacturer designed it to Reach. I can check the airflow and make sure that there is sufficient airflow through the unit to do the job. However, once I do these, that’s all I can do!

The clothes coming out of it felt just fine to me and I explained this to the lady. She just kept getting mad, she was mad at her old man because he didn’t think there was a problem with it, she was mad with me because I agreed with him and the temperatures and airflow were fine as I explain to her, but she was still just as mad as she could be. Bitching and whining and moaning, and while all this was going on I’m thinking to myself, wondering if there’s anything I can do to make this person happy.

Then I realize she was one of those kind of people, she was mean, bitter and unhappy. I would imagine she herself was the cause of all those issues although she’s certainly projecting it on everything in the world around her. And in that instance I realized this person was simply not capable of experiencing happiness, not with me, not with her dryer, not with her husband or her life.

I realized the only way to win this game she was playing was not to play it in the first place. I politely told her off, gathered my tools and left. She was absolutely furious, but I had and still have the most peaceful feeling ever because being my own boss means that I don’t have to put up with shit like that.

So take my advice, set reasonable standards on White appliance repairs you will take and who you would work for. It will make your life a whole lot easier. Another factor to consider is it because people are in capable of being satisfied with anything they are much more likely to leave negative reviews that can adversely affect your business in the long run. These days, I always refer these people to my competitors.

Article by Brett Singleton – A free lance writer who also runs an appliance repair service in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina