Well done with the repair. When our then 10ish yr old washing machine broke, the repairman charged about 40 to 50% of the cost of a new one, which in fairness wasn't exorbitant taking his time and overheads into account. But it was clear that I'd never get another repairman out. That was also close on 10 years ago and surprisingly that domestic appliance repairman is still in business.

It'll likely cost $200 just to have a repairman show up, and that's actually reasonable considering his time and overhead.

My friend's father had his vacuum cleaner die after 30 years. He went into the store and asked for another good quality one like that, and that he was happy to pay more for that kind of quality. The sales guy just laughed.

Why would anyone expect to find a quality appliance in a store these days? It's a toss-up as to whether you'd even be able to find a crappy hard drive enclosure at Best Buy. Brick and mortar are expensive, only the highest-margin items can be profitably stocked anymore. Raising the price just means the item will get ignored by everyone except people like your friend's dad.

Just get stuff like that online.

This is a common story: "I went into the store and asked for ______. The sales guy just laughed." Has it ever actually happened to anyone? That's not how retail employees work at all.

The sales guy didn't laugh at my friend's dad, just at the concept. It also doesn't mean he was rolling around on the floor like in a cartoon. It's really not that far-fetched a story.

I pity your local retail employees if they're never able to express amusement at something funny.

A new dryer is $25?