Manufacturers have made it harder over the years to repair products, a consumer advocate who is fighting back says.
Gay Gordon-Byrne has been described as the most important political advocate for consumer rights in the United States.
As executive director of the Repair Association, she's spearheaded the Right to Repair movement in the US, focusing on some of the world's biggest corporations.
Photo: TED
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So how are manufacturers making repairs difficult or impossible?
“It's really very simple, they do less than they used to do. You may remember when you used to get a home appliance that it came with a schematic diagram? Well, they don't send them anymore, they just stopped.
“They stopped putting manuals into the products that they shipped and then they would put the manuals on the internet. And then they would say well, gee, we can't have just anybody looking on the internet at our website.
“So, then they wanted a password. And then they wanted money. And it just kind of slowly wound up in the situation where they provided nothing,” says Gordon-Byrne.
Manufacturers are also creating physical barriers to repair, she told Nine to Noon.
“One of the big problems physically is glue. And you can see why manufacturers might want to use glue, it's a lot cheaper to glue something together than to have somebody screw it together.
“But the result is you can't open it. And then if you can open it, you've got to be able to glue it back together. And again, there's a layer of difficulty that we never used to have.”
Various arguments are offered by firms as to why consumers shouldn’t be able to repair products, she says.
“The first one is that they're the only party capable of making a repair …then they start saying, well, it's for your own safety, because you might hurt yourself.
“But then that falls apart too. Because when you buy something, you become responsible for your own safety, just like when you buy a car, it's yours to drive, it's yours to wreck, it's yours to buy your own insurance. And ultimately, if you hurt somebody, it's your fault.
“These arguments fall apart rather readily, because there's no good reason other than money.”
She had a used computer leasing business at one time, she says.
“I bought, sold and leased used large computers. And the reason that there was a secondary market, and a very big one, a worldwide market that ran into many billions, was that you could fix them, and you could reconfigure them and you could put them out into some other person's data centre, having come out of some really big wealthy corporation, you could now use that equipment in some other corporation.”
That market rested on the notion that you didn’t have to use the manufacturer to fix something, she says.
This trend has also had a huge and damaging impact on the environment, she says.
“You can do the math pretty easily. If you've got 25, thingies, gizmos, gadgets, whatever, they have a digital part in them, and you can't fix them. Your ability to use that equipment before throwing it away is based on how long it takes for the first failure, and then you're done.
“If the battery runs out, you're done. If the glass breaks, you're done. If you have a loose connection in your wireless connection, you're done.”
Her organisation started to push back against the culture of no repair in 2013, she says.
“We were literally copying the auto industry, they had passed a bill in Massachusetts in 2012 that basically said, if you're going to do business in our state, Mr car manufacturer you have to provide all the necessary repair materials, parts and tools. And that went through, and it became the basis for a national agreement.”
They basically cut and pasted digital electronic product into the wording of that bill, she says.
One of the things they are up against is end user license agreement, she says.
“It's gotten so bad that when you buy something, I'll probably say 90 percent of the time an end user license agreement that you either never see, and you certainly can't negotiate it.”
Consumers are often unaware that they are agreeing to the conditions of these licences, she says.
“That's what the John Deere end user license agreement does for tractor owners, the moment you turn on the ignition on that product, you have been deemed to have accepted this agreement, which you probably never knew existed.”
Such practices contravene consumer law, but enforcement is lacking, she says.
“What we're trying to do is create state law where the attorney general in the state becomes the enforcement entity, and you don't have to go to court.”
It's digital parts in products that create all the trouble, she says.
“Not only can you not make one of those in your barn or your basement, you then have to have access to the software that makes it all interconnect.
“And if the manufacturer won't give you access to that software, it's game over.”
The right to repair movement in the US is making some progress, she says.
“Apple is actually our best recruiting tool, because they turn around with almost every product release and do something dastardly, that really infuriates their customers.
“And every time they make a new product announcement, we get more supporters because people are aggravated.”
Apple has said it will now make some parts, tools and diagnostics available, she says.
“They haven't actually done that yet. So, it's very hard for me to say they were effective or ineffective.
“I think they've been slow walking, I think I can say that pretty easily.”
Samsung and Motorola are making similar moves, she says.
“I think the writing is on the wall, these manufacturers are going to find themselves needing, in order to compete in the marketplace, they're going to need to make repairs much more available, whether it's going to be a very principled approach or a very slapdash approach, we don't know yet.”