When our washing machine suddenly refused to operate last week, I had the moment of dread that precedes any call to anyone to repair anything.  It’s not uncommon for it to cost around a hundred bucks just to get the truck parked in front of the house, and labor is billed at a highly skilled level.  Then come the parts… As a consultant, I did a lot of work for companies that made complicated industrial goods, and in every industry I saw, parts were the gravy train.  From home appliances to cars to airliners, you can charge really high prices because once the customers need the parts, they’ve already sunk money into an initial purchase and into the repair effort that generated the part order.  The fastest and cheapest option is to buy the part at prices very lucrative to the vendor. So I knew that I could be in for a real hosing. It bothered me enough that I started searching using the brand name and the visible problem: “frigidaire...(Read Full Post)