DOHA: The costs of air conditioner maintenance and repairs have touched their peak with high temperature and many workshops or mechanics are exploiting people who face an urgent need of repair and maintenance works.

Most of the problems occur in the window ACs compared to the split ACs and costs of maintenance range from QR100 to QR250, while repairing costs are higher than maintenance charges depending on the nature of fault.

“The problem is that these workshops are not repairing ACs with perfection because of seasonal workload which pushes them to do a hurried job and after a few days the same problem reoccurs. This is an extreme summer season therefore nobody can wait even a single day without an AC,” said a customer.

Replying to a question about if the workshops were giving guarantees, he said they would give in case someone buys a compressor from them and the guarantee is valid just for three to four months. The price of used compressor is QR500 to QR600.

He hoped that authorities concerned would monitor such shops because many of such shops were very small and did not have enough space to do maintenance and repair works properly while they were receiving a large number of air conditioners. “Due to space constraints and workload in peak season, they cannot do justice with their job and ultimately a customer has to bear the burden.”

Another customer commented that it was far better to buy a new AC because repaired ACs come up with the same problem days after repair. “These AC shops are not giving enough days of guarantee. Instead of bearing the price separately by repeated repairs every three days it is better to buy a new machine.”

When The Peninsula talked to some AC maintenance workshops they confirmed that it was correct that the repairing costs had increased due to more demand. “Our charges for washing window AC is QR80 and for split unit it is QR130. It also depends on the location of a customer’s place; near or far.”

For the prices of AC compressors, the most of the workshops have the used ones and its price per unit starts from from QR500. “The problem is that customers do not ensure maintenance of their ACs until the middle of summer then they start complaining. They must do periodic maintenance and not wait until the peak time.”

In case the maintenance include washing of AC and changing its fan and compressor, the costs may reach up to QR700. “Because our shop is not much big, sometimes it is preferable for us to visit the customer and fix the problem at his home. Also, we try to fix a problem in minimum time like one or two days. We are receiving more than 12 ACs daily for repairs,” said an operator of air conditioner workshop.