Electronic repair is a dying business now, with consumers preferring to buy new products rather than repair them, as electronic equipment is becoming cheaper and cheaper. Due to this, expatriates running such repair shops are being eased out of their business. Mostly, costs to repair damaged electronic items are more expensive than brand new items per se, imported from China, Malaysia, or Vietnam. Owners and operators of repair shops of electronic home appliances, who are mostly expatriates under Saudi sponsorship, say that less people are now utilizing the services of repair shops. “I am running my repair shop for 15 years, but now I hardly get any clients. My business has gone down compared to what it was 10 years ago. This is due to cheap imported electronic products from China,” said Azhar Iqbal, who manages his own electronic repair shop in Adama district in Dammam. Earlier, a 21-inch television was priced at about SR1000. The same can be available now at a mere SR300. “To repair a brand TV, the owner will have to shell out up to SR150. But mostly they would rather throw the damaged TV and buy a brand new,” said Iqbal. Another repair store owner said he is considering closing down his shop due to lack of business. “I am unable cope even with the shop rent. My old customers are also replacing their damaged items with newer ones,” he lamented. “A few years back I could save around SR5000 from this work, but now my savings don't even reach SR1000, add to this the spiraling shop rents and price of other commodities,” he said. High cost of spare parts and repair charges are also discouraging people to have their non-functioning electronic devices repaired. “For instance, the price of a spare part of a tape recorder could be SR35, whereas a brand new tape recorder is available for as less as SR50. When people bring their damaged items for repair and are told the cost of spare parts and labor, they usually decide to buy a new one rather than get their old gadget repaired,” one shop owner in Dammam said. Another shop owner, Bilal Mohammed, who has been in the business for 20 years said his shop is now a repository junk of electronic items. “About 75 percent of customers who bring in their damaged items for repair do not take them back upon learning the cost of repair. My shop has now become a junk yard of restored electronic goods,” he said. He said he may probably have to sell some relatively good ones in the auction market. Mohammed's collection of unclaimed items include play stations, computers, telephone sets, video cameras, video cassette recorders, radios, tape recorders, car stereos, televisions among others. “I keep these items for three months, and then sell them as second hand goods. At least this way, I earn a little,” he said. “It is sad that skilled professionals like us are being sidetracked off the market. We are helpless,” said Iqbal. __
