Told this story before. MIL's (Mother in law) GE washing machine failed. OBD (On Board Diagnostics) said it was an open mode shift coil. Repairman said he wanted between $333 and $400 (US) to fix. MIL decided to scrap it and buy new. Stopped her. Took the machine home and tested the coil and sure enough - it was open. So I cracked the case open and found a pristine coil, no sign of any problems whatsoever. Other than being open. So I checked the Fusible Link (FL). It was open. So I did some calc's and went to Radio Shack and bought a new FL for $1.98 plus tax and crimped the new FL in place of the old FL. The machine has been working nicely ever since. According to the calc's the old FL was rated for 106% of normal operation. The one I put in was rated for 133% of normal operation.No one is stopping anyone from repairing anything. That being said, a number of complaints are about the manufacturer not providing the documentation to do such repairs. Authorized service centers have the documentation. You can buy the documentation from different websites. Nothing prevents you from buying spares to swap out different subsystems.
The reason for the high price is because you can't get the Mode Shift Coil. You had to buy the whole entire mechanical part assembly for $135.00. The rest was labor because you'd have to disassemble the whole tub. The MSC was held on with just two bolts and plugged in. It was the easiest part of the washer to remove. Yet you couldn't get a new MSC. Could have if I bought the whole shebang for $135 and just swapped the MSC. But then I would have had an extra entire mechanism with no other purpose.