Your Biggest Problem: Finding a Good Technician
Appliance repair used to be a trade you learned from another technician. Shops took apprentices, and schools taught it. Today, applicants trained specifically to diagnose the appliances in your home are almost nonexistent.
That is why we built a service training center in Norton. More on that later.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 40,500 home appliance repairers nationwide in 2025. That is a small group for all the refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, washers, and dryers in use. Not every technician works on every brand, either.
In 2003, a speaker at a service conference told us the average technician was 53. Anyone who was 53 then would be 76 today.
Why Aren’t New Technicians Replacing Those Who Retire?
When I went to Needham High, we had an auto shop and a wood shop. That was one way to get interested in working with your hands.
Bay State School of Technology trained many of our senior technicians. It stopped offering classes in 2018. There are fewer places for someone to learn appliance repair before applying for a job.
Who Repairs Your Appliance After You Buy It?
Why your refrigerator doesn't get fixed.
If the CEO doesn't value the position, typically companies pay very low labor rates, even to their third-party service techs.
Why would someone want to go to someone's house and fix an appliance?
The customer is often angry, and the technician isn't paid what the work is worth.
It's a whole self-perpetuating cycle. Nobody's training people, nobody's paying people, and organizations don't value people.
That's why your refrigerator doesn't get fixed.
Setting Up Service Departments
At Yale, we have 35 field technicians and over 100 people in service, from southern New Hampshire to Nantucket. Now imagine hiring and training technicians, stocking parts, dispatching calls, and putting vans on the road nationwide.
Spencer Stuart found that departing S&P 1500 CEOs served an average of 8.5 years in 2025. Among departing S&P 500 CEOs, 45% had served five years or less.
A CEO could spend years building a national service operation, lower current profit, and affect pay tied to financial results. That CEO might leave before the company can show whether the investment kept customers.
A CEO may be gone before a national service operation shows its value. How many will commit to that expense?
In my 40-plus years selling appliances, LG is the company I have watched make a major investment in service. Like them or not, LG has its own factory service division covering more than 200 service areas nationwide. It also works with authorized service centers.
How Do You Check Appliance Service Before You Buy?
You have the most power before you buy.
Most people find out about the service problem after an appliance breaks. Google the brand, “appliance repair,” and your ZIP code before you buy so you know what you’re up against.
In many areas, you will not find a dealer with its own service technicians. Ask the dealer which local company repairs the brand you are considering. Call that company and ask how long you would wait for a service visit.
Do that before you pay. It can save you weeks of frustration later.
Why Do We Invest in Service?
If everybody else, including your local dealer, is getting out of service or at least minimizing it, why are we continually looking for technicians?
I'll tell you the most important reason at the end of the article because it's personal.
Traditional marketing doesn't work.
We never spent nearly as much on advertising as everybody else. In 2007, we stopped what limited advertising we did and reinvested in service, installation, customer experience, and employee benefits.
To me, advertising is telling people the reason why they should shop. Instead of spending that money on marketing, we put it where we knew we'd get a rate of return.
36 years later, I'm still trying to improve service and get better people.
Now customers like you have a choice: buy from a place that has service or take your chances. That's a pretty compelling argument.
Self-Preservation With Builders
A growing share of our business comes from builders, especially luxury builders on the Cape, Nantucket, and in the western suburbs.
They do not want to hear, “Three weeks for service.” They want to hear, “We’ll take care of it immediately.”
Without service, we would not be nearly as successful with these builders.
Customers Don't Want to Hear It Either
Think about what you just bought: a $17,000 Sub-Zero refrigerator, a $10,000 Miele double oven, a $2,000 Miele dishwasher, a $5,000 steam oven, a $15,000 pro range, a $2,000 hood, and $2,500 for laundry.
That is $53,500. About what you would spend on a car.
Now it is Thanksgiving and the range will not cook. You hear, “Six weeks.” Everybody needs a working range for Thanksgiving, but that does not help you.
That might be the answer here, too. But you cannot build brand loyalty by offering the same poor service experience after the sale.
How We Compensate Techs
We learned that experienced appliance technicians were not going to magically show up at our door. So we opened our own service school. Two experienced technicians run it. If you are good with your hands and willing to learn, we can teach you the trade.
You spend four months in school, then a couple of months on the road with a senior technician. After that, you take a limited number of calls on your own. The goal is to have you working independently within a year.
You are paid while you train, with full benefits. After your first year, you participate in company profit sharing. We also match your 401(k).
It is in our best interest for a technician to handle a range of calls and earn a substantial living.
We Could Use 20 More Technicians
We have 35 field technicians on the road, and I could use 20 more right now.
If you know someone who is good with their hands and willing to learn, send them to one of our open houses. I’ll be at a few. I’d love to talk with them about building a career here.
Drop in anytime from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. You do not need an appointment or a resume.
Why I Started Service
I started service 36 years ago because I was tired of disappointing people by not having it.
I saw firsthand how unhappy people were with the repair options available. I figured I could hire three or four technicians and help when people needed it most.
Part of it was self-preservation. I wanted to protect my sanity. But I also live here. I can't hide from you when an appliance we sold you breaks and nobody comes to fix it.
I wanted Yale to be able to fix that fridge.
Why Should You Trust Us?
It seems that every appliance review has nothing but glowing comments about almost every product, yet you read customer reviews and they are almost universally bad.
We are here to fill in the disconnect. We'll give you the best features, and the drawbacks as well, including reliability based on over 33,000 calls performed by our service team just last year. Our goal is to give you ALL the information so you know what's right for you.
Please consider subscribing or adding to the conversation in the comments below. We appreciate you stopping by.
A Note About Pricing
Pricing on this blog is for reference only and may include time sensitive rebates. We make every attempt to provide accurate pricing at time of publishing. Please call the stores for most accurate price.
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