Mechanics of at a AC repair shop working at their workshop in the Old Airport, Doha. Salim Matramkot © The Peninsula
Several customers have urged the authorities concerned to strenghten the monitoring of service fees charged by air conditioner mechanics.
“Two days ago I brought my window AC to a maintenance shop who asked me QR180 for refilling gas, adding that earlier, this job was done for only QR150,” said Adnan, a customer.
He also said: "The problem is that the repair costs have increased by 30perent and the fault with my AC still exits. When they fix a problem, it reoccurs after a few days."
Another customer said that earlier, AC maintenance shops were asking only QR150 to QR200 but now they are starting from QR300 as minimum price while they are giving guarantee of repaired ACs only for one day.
"The consumer protection department must monitor the repairing charges of the shops. Otherwise, they will continue to increase prices and we have nothing to do except sit without ACs in this hot summer," he added.
This reporter visited several shops and confirmed that the costs of gas refill were from QR150 to QR180 while costs of repairing varied from QR200 to QR300.
The price of used compressor is from QR500 to QR600, while the new one is QR1,200 depending on the type of AC and its tonnage.
“Yes, the repairing cost has increased due to high demand and this is a normal thing. We have hired shops and workers. The charges increased only by QR100 for repairing and QR30 for gas refill and even this difference varies from one shop to another. At many shops, the prices are still the same,” said an operator of AC maintenance shop.
He also said that the most of the ACs brought to their hops for repair work were old ones. "This is the reason that the problems with them resurface again. For the used compressors, we give four months guarantee".
On how many customers they get daily, he said: "We are receiving about seven to eight customers daily and most of the problems are related to window ACs." With the beginning of the summer, the prices of AC repairs are going up and most of the ACs which have problems are the windows ACs, said the mechanics.
