NORFOLK, Va. — If your phone, computer, or vehicle breaks, what are your options? You can try to get it fixed, but it may be expensive. In some cases, depending on the product, it may be a cheaper alternative to buy a new one.
You can also try to fix it yourself, but then you might run into issues finding the parts or figuring it out altogether.
Your "right to repair" is once again a big conversation in the federal government.
Consumer advocates are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to make some changes, in favor of consumers, and you can weigh in until Friday at midnight.
As of Friday morning, the public comments on the issue spanned 20 pages, racking up more than 1,500 submissions to the FTC.
A good chunk of the ones I skimmed through are pushing for people's "right to repair" the stuff they buy.
“When you don't have the ability to repair your own stuff, even if you choose not to, it means that manufacturers have a monopoly. They can charge you basically whatever they want for repair and that ends up driving up the cost of repairs, which means that people will choose to throw things away instead of fixing things that could be fixed,” says Elizabeth Chamberlain, the Director of Sustainability for iFixit.
According to the company, iFixit is an e-commerce and how-to website that sells repair parts and publishes free, wiki-like online repair guides for consumer electronics and gadgets.
“We’ve got 100,000 guides for how to fix everything from toasters [to] tractors, and we sell parts and tools,” Chamberlain says.
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The company has partnered with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, more commonly known as PIRG. Together, they're asking the Federal Trade Commission to create a rule requiring manufacturers to make products that are easy to fix and share service manuals.
I followed up on that with Herb Weisbaum from Consumers' Checkbook. He tells me that not all companies have made it easy.
“They'll do things such as designing a product to make it difficult to repair. It may glue down parts or add extra screws. They may refuse to provide repair manuals or diagnostic tools or parts,” he says.
In the past, companies have disputed that, arguing that people can hurt themselves trying to fix products on their own and that the repairs won't be of decent quality.
“The FTC did a big investigation, called Nixing the Fix, where they looked at all of the arguments that manufacturers were making and they concluded that there was scant evidence to support those arguments,” Chamberlain says.
In addition to sharing that information, Chamberlain says the advocacy groups are also hoping to dispel false claims about warranties.
“It is illegal for the manufacturer to void a warranty for independent or DIY repairs. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act [has been in place] since 1975,” she says. […] “The Public Interest Research Group, that we work very closely with, has found that over half of electronics manufacturers are telling people that independent repair, DIY repair, will void their warranty. It's not true, but it's a very persistent myth.”
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Some action has already been taken. In fact, in 2021, President Biden signed an executive order supporting consumers' right to repair. The current petition created by iFixit and PIRG, advocates say, is the next step in protection.
“The petition [is asking] the Federal Trade Commission to create a rule that would tell manufacturers they cannot make it difficult to repair their products. They have to provide people or independent repair shops with the manuals on how to fix things in the parts if they need them,” Weisbaum says.
If you want to sign the petition, you have until midnight on Friday, Feb. 2. This is the first stage of the process, but if the FTC agrees with the motion and feels like there is enough support to move forward then there will be another opportunity for public comment.
You can contact your local and state legislators at any time to advocate for your right to repair.
