[Workaccount2]

As someone who has a side job doing repairs, I charge more when customers try to repair things themselves.

There is a whole class of people who are smart enough to fix simple things, but not smart enough to recognize their limited ability. They will strip out all the screws on the machine and then claim warranty after replacing random electronic components on the control board. In reality the problem will be a dirty contact that is a 5 minute fix.

[mid-kid]

On the one hand what you're saying seems somewhat fair, but on the other hand, I prefer encouraging the attempt. A portion of the people who do this will never have to call you, having managed to solve the issue, and any experience gained with the attempt will go into doing it better next time.

In a world where people know less and less about how to solve problems themselves, I think repair skills are incredibly important for people to have.

Personally, I would happily pay more if you show me what you're doing and/or explain what I did wrong :)

[MostlyStable]

Yeah, I had the pump on my washing machine go out. I called the repair guy, he said there was nothing to fix, it just needed a new pump. He told me he could do it for $X (on top of the call-out fee), but it wasn't that hard and I could find the replacement pump online for ~1/3X and do it myself. I did that and it took 20 minutes. We will definitely be using that repair company in the future for anything that isn't immediately obviously trivial

[tristor]

> As someone who has a side job doing repairs

And how did you build the skillset to do this as a side job if it wasn't by making the attempt yourself using available information and learning? Isn't your position just ladder-pulling that creates a population of less informed and less capable people?

[Hackbraten]

> but not smart enough to recognize their limited ability.

Exploring the boundaries of one's own ability is not being "not smart enough." It's learning.

[Workaccount2]

You're only gonna learn you made a dumb mistake when you go poking around $10k equipment with no documentation, no schematic, and no community support.

[nathan_douglas]

Speak for yourself. I can make dumb mistakes with $5 equipment and all of the docs, schematics, and the spectral presences of the implementors there to counsel me.

[exabrial]

You have an obvious financial incentive to prevent people from trying to fix their own things...