Many people in Ho Chi Minh City have fallen victim to dishonest repairers who use tricks to fleece, and even steal from, their victims when rendering repair services at home, local media reported. These people – who operate independently, not working for any service providers – often advertise their services of repairing air-conditioners, gas cookers, washing machines, plumbing and electricity systems, and others on the Internet, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said in a report published on Tuesday. One of the victims was Diep, a woman living in Tan Binh District, who on July 4 dialed a phone number to ask plumbers to come to her house to fix the water pipe system. This phone number was posted on the Internet as the contact of H.V., a company that was said to repair water and electric systems at home, Diep said. But Thanh Nien later found out that no such a firm exists in Ho Chi Minh City. On that afternoon, two young men came and repaired the leaked plumbing system for only 15 minutes and asked Diep to pay them VND200,000 (US$9.2) after saying that the system would never malfunction again. However, only a while after they left, Diep was upset finding the water pipe leaked again. Another victim was Nguyen Van Hien, living in Binh Thanh District, who also dialed a number posted on the Internet to call a person to repair his air-conditioner. A young man came and said the capacitor of the machine was not working properly and needed to be replaced with a new one at VND250,000 ($11.5).

Hien’s father, who did not know that she had called that man, contacted another repairer, who came and said the machine’s compressor was damaged and had to be replaced with new equipment at VND1.6 million ($73.3).

The father agreed to the price and the repairer took the old compressor with him when leaving the house. “Two repairers pointed out different problems with the machine and quoted different prices. The second repairer not only overcharged us but also took the old compressor away,” Hien said.Deceptive Another case happened to Huynh Thi Thu Trang in Phu Nhuan District, who requested a repairer to install an air-conditioner she bought from a supermarket a month before. After the installation, the person told Trang that the machine had run out of refrigerant gas and should be refilled, which would cost her VND300,000 ($13.75).

Trang turned him down and then phoned the machine seller to ask for maintenance services. The seller assigned a technician to check the machine and discovered that the repairer could have deliberately discharged the gas from it. Another victim was a woman named Dien in District 9, who asked a technician to come to her house to clean her washing machine. “My washer was operating properly but after the sanitary work, the technician said a chip was out of order and needed to be replaced at a cost of VND1 million [$46]” Dien said.Stealing Worse, some repairers of home appliances even stole things from the homes of their customers. Mai Ly, 30, said when she just opened an eatery at a rented house on Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh District last year,   two young men came, saying they were assigned by a gas company to check a gas leak. Ly allowed one of them to enter the house while the other stood outside near their motorbike. A moment later, the man inside rushed out holding a large gas cooker in his arms and the two fled rapidly on their bike to the astonishment of the witnesses, Ly recounted.Precaution At a recent meeting on crime prevention in residential areas, Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Tai, chief police officer of Tam Phu Ward in Thu Duc District, warned local people about such repairers. He advised that residents use repair services from reputable firms or those with specific addresses to avoid falling victim to criminals under the cover of repairers of home appliances. He warned that such criminals will not only steal property but they may also kill people while committing crimes.