Since the start of last year, we’ve helped well over half a million households to fix their own home appliances. And given that customers are saving up to £100 a time compared with call-out fees to repair companies - more if their repair saves them from having to buy a new appliance – that amounts to truly massive savings for our customers.
But it’s not just the strain on household budgets which is causing more and more people to want to fix it themselves. I think that there’s an ethical dimension too. Now, I admit that this not based on an empirical view, but is founded purely on the comments of customers and friends I speak to. But I seem to be increasingly hearing a desire to push back at the throw-away culture in which we live; to reject the idea of built-in obsolescence in the goods that we buy. It’s clearly the Internet which is the driving force here. Consumers can now find the right parts for their make and model of appliance thanks to the simplicity of search on the eSpares website. And with how-to videos, the knowledge of what to do it easily available. Being able to source parts and find out how to fit them just wasn’t a realistic possibility only a decade ago.
And it’s not just about what we as a company are doing. Our customers’ reviews of the parts they’ve bought, many of which are packed with useful tips and advice, are making it easier for others to find the right parts and understand how to fit them. We’re all given confidence if we can see that other people like us have fixed it themselves without difficulty. The more people who choose to fix it themselves and share their experience of doing so, the easier it becomes for others to do the same.
I sincerely hope that I’m right about the ethical element and that we don’t return to a more throw-away society when the economy improves.
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