A recent survey by eSpares found that of the 5,000 households asked, a whopping 75% prefer to discard broken appliances rather than repair them.
The eSpares research doesn’t seem to explore the reasons why this figure is so high (if you can find more info, please post it below).
But it would be interesting to hear why you think so many people don’t consider repair as the first option. Any thoughts?
Resource Magazine has a good write up:
I think a lot of people think that its too expensive to repair items. We see this a lot at repair cafes.
James- do you have the actual report? I cannot find it anywhere just the summary statements and news posts. One thought - eSpares focusses mainly on white goods, these can seem especially challenging (size, access etc) and may account for the very low repair rates. Call out repairs are expensive unless you have an insurance policy (which are also expensive).
Great point Mark!
I’m afraid I haven’t been able to track it down either. Espare’s own writeup is also pretty vague on which types of products they asked about.
Totally agree. I think the (percieved) cost and uncertainty about where/how to find reliable repair shops are both factors here.
I was interested to note this:
Over 55s were the most likely to buy new replacements, with only 19 per cent saying they would fix an appliance.
Which
I haven’t looked at the details yet, but I wonder what the results would be if they also asked something like:
Would you get your devices repaired if good-value, local, guaranteed repairs were available?