Fix-It Businesses Get Helping Hand From Recession : Consumers: Repair shops in Orange County are seeing more customers who want to salvage their goods instead of replacing them. And patrons also want to dicker on the price.

One frustrating day last November, Jennifer C. Jones’ videocassette recorder spat out a tape she had just inserted, and then it refused to play any others.

Although her first thought was to junk the broken VCR and buy a new one, Jones decided that with the economy in recession and money tight, she couldn’t afford to pay $300 or more for a replacement. She carted the machine to a repair shop in Orange to determine if it could be fixed, and was pleasantly surprised by the final bill: $83.

“Next time when I have something break down,” she says, “I’ll look to have it repaired.”

Jerry Springer, Jones’ repairman, enjoys such stories. And he’s been hearing a lot more of them lately.

For Springer’s and many other electronics and appliance repair shops, a leaner economy means more work fixing busted televisions, computers, VCRs and vacuum cleaners.

In the past few months, D&H; Service Center of Orange, which is owned by Springer and his wife, Robin, has seen its business triple. A year ago, D&H; Service had about 30 VCRs in the shop for repairs, Springer said. Now the number is closer to 150.

“A lot of our customers say that times are difficult and that they feel a repair is more economical than buying a new appliance,” Springer said. “I hear that daily.”

Many penny-pinching consumers and businesses are opting to repair household goods rather than buy new ones. Although not always a bargain, the cost of repairing a broken item often is only a fraction of the cost of replacing it.

Ronald Rich, owner of Computer Systems & Solutions in Brea, is also seeing an increase in business. But he says he’s noticed another, less pleasing, effect of the recession: Customers are haggling more over repair costs.

“Sure, I’m getting more business,” he says. “But because everyone is becoming more conscious of the dollars they spend, there’s more bargaining now than ever before.”

Phil Kholer, owner of Icon Computer Corp. in Tustin, said his business has benefited from layoffs in the aerospace and defense industries, which have thrown a lot of highly skilled technicians onto the job market.

“I have just hired nine sharp repair technicians who know customer needs. I’ve never been happier with their performance,” Kholer said.

Icon has commercial contracts to service and maintain about 35,000 personal computers--its largest number ever, Kholer said.

The upturn in business has been a welcome change for electronics repair shops, which, like the fictional Maytag repairman, can lead quiet lives when appliances never break down.

“Appliance products are more reliable than those made a decade ago, so they don’t break as much,” said John Torres, an analyst at Ledgeway/Dataquest Inc. in Boston, who tracks the repair-service industry. “Advances in service technology have introduced significant efficiencies in the repair process.”

To expand their business, many repair and service companies have branched into related fields. Torres said traditional computer and appliance-repair businesses are expected to grow in the years ahead. But he foresees an even greater demand for companies that combine repair and service work with professional computer services, such as retrieving lost business data.

Some computer repair firms such as Computer Clinic in Huntington Beach have started selling new computers to boost their business and accommodate clients with out-of-date equipment that isn’t worth repairing.

“Selling new computer systems . . . boosted our sales tremendously” since 1988, said Thomas McTeer, owner of the Computer Clinic. Last year, the company’s revenue soared to more than $650,000, up from $521,000 in 1989, he said.

“We started the repair business on a shoestring because I was jobless,” McTeer recalled. “My wife and I worked out of our home. I took care of the repairs in a spare bedroom and she kept the books and schedule in the living room.”

“It’s bad times like this that got me started in my own business,” he said.

Some appliance service companies like D&H; have also tried to broaden the number of products they service. A few have started their own retail appliance stores on the side or begun offering “economic guidance services” to help customers decide whether to repair or replace broken equipment.

“I attribute a lot of my company’s success to our diversity,” Springer said. “We’re equipped to fix all repairs, and if the repairs justify buying a new appliance, we tell our clients.”