Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/07/07/waste-not-want-not.html
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*** if a repair takes longer than a month, the guarantee should be extended to match the repair time,**
What do they think this is the 21st century or sumptin.
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I wish them luck in passing this measure but at the same time I feel like these sort of things rarely make it. We read about these good ideas being proposed but seeing them pass is another thing entirely. Is there anything we can do to help this pass?
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There goes Apple’s business model if it passes. There’s going to be a lot of lobbying.
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Not to mention Walmart’s.
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The problem is that modern gadgets like cars and computers use increasingly integrated components and can be awfully complicated. In computers and phones this is to make the products do more in the same space while becoming more reliable and less likely to need repairs. In cars this is to make the products consume less fuel, last longer and be safer in operation. Would I trade my highly reliable twelve year old two door with an inscrutable engine compartment for my first car which spent half its time in the shop but had easy access to the engine and a carburetor I could tweak? No way!
There is also a trade off between making the manufacturer more responsible for the product and allowing repairs and modifications to be made by outsiders. You can’t let people reprogram their engines and then sue the manufacturer when the engine fails. I’m not sure how the law handles this. If your repair guy takes two months to fix your television, does that mean the manufacturer has to extend your warranty by two months?
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In Massachusetts we voted for right to repair for cars. One of the pros of living here is you have the right the Tesla repair manual. Only it’s at an exorbitant price and you have to rent access to specific parts.
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EU norms say that car producers can’t use IP to shut out third party repair shop, forcing customers to service only to official shops, and that if you use a not official spare part, the burden of proof that said spare part is not as good as the original is on the original car producer.
Also anti pollution devices should be guaranteed for a reasonable time/mileage
[edited to complete sentence]
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A Dell is available in the EU same as here in the US; a Honda Fit is called a Jazz in the EU, but is substantially the same. Why can’t we have nice things get the same consumer protections?
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In the EU, the merchant who sold you a gadget is obliged to extend you a two-year warranty (albeit after six months it is up to you to prove that the basic cause of a problem with the.gadget existed already when it was new if you want the problem to be dealt with under warranty). It is up to the merchant to get the gadget repaired for you (or exchanged) if it fails during the warranty period. So this measure might encourage merchants to find reasonably speedy repair guys.
Manufacturers are free to offer warranty protection that goes above and beyond the statutory warranty. However, if you buy something in a shop then your contract is with the merchant, not the manufacturer, so it makes sense to hold the merchant responsible for providing basic warranty.
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OTOH, when that highly reliable two door has a problem, chances are good you will have to pay someone at a shop to diagnose it and fix it. Our 2003 PT Cruiser had sleepover privileges at the local Dodge dealer during the last year we owned it because of a constantly malfunctioning turbo unit, which was inaccessible without removing parts of the rest of the car. Our Neon had to have either the engine lifted out or the front right quarterpanel removed if you needed to swap out the alternator, because tolerances were too tight to pull it out otherwise. My old 1996 Taurus was far easier to work on; I was able to pull and replace the water pump on one Saturday afternoon with only hand tools, ditto the alternator and a host of other parts. I doubt I will be able to do much work on my Fit, as much as I like it, just because if it’s not on top of the engine I will never be able to reach it without a lift, a hoist, and a host of power tools.
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If this were the 21st century all of Europe would have single payer healthcare by now! 
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A person could change the clutch in a 59 VW bus on the side of the road in 1 hr. Block up the engine, unbolt it, and roll the car away. Putting it back was the reverse. VW pioneered inscrutable engines because of the potential repair charges and because hippies were giving them a bad reputation. They also shot themselves in the foot, not as publicly as their diesel emissions fiasco though.
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The only people I’ve seen that were bothered about phones being the same size as/smaller than their previous models are tech journalists that are reviewing products they don’t have hands on access to. No one else gives a crap, and a lot of people would rather trade an extra couple of millimetres for a swappable battery.
Would love to watch Apple to argue in court that there’s an actual necessity/public demand for ever-shrinking phones and nobody cares about replaceable batteries.
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Spoiler: Practically everything the rest of the world does these days makes America look like weaksauce.
And you know what they say… if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be ducksauce.
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The of fixing things that are obviously designed to be unfixable can be fun. It would be nice to have legislation that would sorta make some manufacturers admit they just messed up the design. Like why would you make the main weight bearing hinge on a trailer fridge out of plastic when the other hinges are all steel. I’m just a home repairman (Dad) but the bizarre lengths these people go to make things my fault is frustrating.
Don’t worry, America will be great again any minute now. /s
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