'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

[mechanic]

Making their batteries user replaceable would be a start.

[Fredxx]

Which is why we should enact any legislation together with the EU, so Apple couldn't afford to do a 'Facebook'.

[Fredxx]

Can you cite any link to show that to be the case?

It makes repair much easier and cheaper if there are multiple independent sources of the same component, rather than being a dealer only part.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Making all parts third party replaceable as well.

Apple is now locking part compatibility in software, you need to be an authorized Apple Tech to make major part changes to a device.

[Adrian Caspersz]

You know about current model BMW (traditional engine, not electric) car batteries?

Only swappable by dealers with software.

[Robin]

I doubt that.

[Tricky Dicky]

We tend to buy mainly Bosch appliances one of the reasons being the availability of spare parts. Their website has nice exploded diagrams of all their appliances with all the parts clearly listed and so far I have always been able to source any required part without restriction. The only thing you cannot get are the service manuals and I hope the right to repair will make them available, then again making them only available to ?trained professionals? is another way of cashing in by offering repair courses.

Some years back we owned a series of Nissan cars and they used to sell the official workshop manuals and I got one which was the size of a telephone book. It was OK for a lot of the standard jobs but you soon got into jobs that needed this or that service tool. Whereas a Haynes manual might recommend using a Castrol grease tin to drift in a bearing, no such chance with the official manual.

Richard

[Fredxx]

I agree, but how long would you expect a hardware manufacturer to carry spares? 10 years, 20 years 30 years?

I expect it will be 6 years, as it would be consistent with legal claims. It would be a start.

One issue would be repair manuals containing proprietary information.

Another is that the importer is deemed to be the manufacturer, they come and go making a mockery of the proposed legislation.

[Fredxx]

Perhaps the tax regime should be different for manufacturers like apple, where a super VAT band is introduced for ones not conforming.

There is no point in forcing Apple to conform, where the alternative is that they, or perhaps their users, pay handsomely for the privilege.

[Fredxx]

I was aware of that, down to their smart charging.

I would be very surprised if the car would stop if you simply changed the battery. Or if it didn't learn the new battery characteristic over time. BICBW

[whisky-dave]

Not very practical. Of course you could apply this to things lioke car types that are dumped, you have to get the old ones repaied new tyres have a 100% VAT put on them.

[Fredxx]

Are you suggesting a manufacturer would make their tyres irreparable? I don't get your point?

Practicalities of custom and practice, and of course safety will always feature.

[Bob Eager]

I agree. On the rare occasions that I haven't been able to work it out for myself, or I want the quickest way, there are sometimes good YouTube ionstructions - as long as you know what you are going for.

[Michael Chare]

The availability of spare parts will help although I think it is only seven years after production has stopped.

What I would like is a manual for my washing machine (pdf). Also if it stops unexpectedly it should tell me why, i.e. what it is waiting for.

My Samsung TV is now getting on for 10 years old. I wonder how much longer it will last. A new one would be less that half the price I paid. I would think that a repair would be uneconomic if I had to pay for labour. My fridge freezer compressor failed. Unfortunately a DIY replacement is not possible because of the gas. I did find someone who could repair it, but the cost was about 2/3rds of what I had paid for it

13 years earlier so I decided jut to buy a new one.

[Tim Streater]

But it's still running Windows, though.

[GB]

A lot of people need to work for their mental wellbeing. We've seen that during the pandemic.

[John Rumm]

Not sure win95 is really a valid comparison. You can still write software for it today if you wanted, and it's not as if MS ever tried the keep the API secret or prevent others from developing for it.

Quite a different prospect when you take your 15 month old macbook to the Apple shop, and they say it's not repairable, but we can sell you a new one, recycle the old, and no, you can't have your data back. (or they quote a repair fee 50% more than the cost of replacement) etc.

In many cases there is no official repair option - especially things like water damaged iPhones - Apple categorically state nothing can be done and refuse to even acknowledge that 3rd party repair is an option.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, they need to get out from their houses. Very few people *work*, when 'at work', anyway, for most of the time

[Jethro_uk]

You can also spin up a virtual machine to do it in.

Didn't some flavours of Windows 7 come with an inbuilt XP virtual machine ?

[Fredxx]

Personal contact doesn't have to be through work, but it certainly helps.