Right to repair – three words we have been hearing for the last few years. Last time, we talked about the brief history of the right to repair. To recap, it is a movement that’s fighting for consumers’ right to access repair resources for their devices from the manufacturing companies.
The next questions are: why is the right to repair movement important and why should anyone care about it?
The truth is most people don’t care about this until they have to face it firsthand. The movement matters to them when they have a $3,000 device that needs a simple repair. But, instead of having the right to fix it for a few bucks, they are forced to pay thousands of dollars to get it repaired from the manufacturer or, even worse, may be get a new one. Then, they care about their right to repair.
Besides, when it comes to supporting a narrative, people overthink too much over the superficial elements. Do I want to be a part of this issue? Do I like the group of people who are representing this issue? Am I in tune with their political ideas? What does it mean for me to join this movement? And so, the whole thing ends up being too political for everyday people to simply raise their voices.
But, it doesn’t matter! You should care and support the right to repair movement because it not only saves people time and money to fix their stuff rather than replacing it, but it’s also about the freedom of living our lives and having control of doing with our devices whatever we want.
Who wants to live in a world where you don’t even own the things you buy and someone else controls what you can and cannot do with it?
Become informed
First of all, do some homework on the right to repair movement. See what’s going on, what people are saying about it, see the arguments for and against it, become informed, and decide what you want to do about it.
Cast your vote
Once you have done your research, it’s time to choose if you support the right to repair movement or not. Choose ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and don’t just stay neutral or unaffected. Many states in the US have passed the right to repair bill and many are still taking people’s votes for it. Find out what’s happening in your local state and participate in the activities to play your part in the story.
If nothing is going on against the anti-repair policies of big manufacturing companies, the least you can do is talk to your local representatives. Meet them in person, call their office, or mail them to let them know that you care about this thing and see if you can get something going in your home state.
Speak up on social media
When it comes to raising voices on a issue, social media is the one to watch. Everything can be made possible with a trending hashtag. So why not tweet in? Speak up on social media to let the manufacturers know that you won’t buy their products unless they give you the right to repair it and make your opinion count.
Inspire others to take an action
Let’s take a real example of someone who owned a €7,00 3D printer. He was using it regularly for business purposes and it was working fine until something happened with its chamber. The UV LEDs won’t turn on and he wanted to get it fixed. The important bit is that the printing device was manufactured by a company in the US. And when the man contacted the company, they asked him to ship the machine to the US without considering that it’s a heavy piece of equipment and the shipping cost will be astronomical.
Anyhow, he could not do what the manufacturing company asked him to. So, he decided to open the printer up and have a look himself. Turned out, it was a broken transistor that was causing all the trouble. He rang up the company again and, this time, asked to share the schematic. Guess what? They said no! Then, he asked them to at least tell him what transistor it was and received the same answer.
Left with no other options, the man tried to figure it out on his own by reading the code off of the transistor. He found something he thought was a close match, put it in and ,lucky for him, it worked!
Now, what should he do after going through this horrible treatment from the manufacturing company? Spread the word? Exactly!
He made a video on how the ABC company treated him when he needed their help in fixing his printer and how he fixed it anyway. His story saved other users €7,00 by helping them understand how to fix the printing thing themselves. It also made other people who were considering to buy that same printer to rethink the idea of doing business with a company with such evil practices. And that’s how you do it to start a change!
We stand with right to repair!
Right to repair is not a political thing. It’s about the genuine control that all consumers should have so they can treat their stuff however they want. They can tinker with their devices and machines and try to fix them or get a cheap repair service from a third-party.
Talking about the third-party repairs, so many repair businesses are closing because of the anti-repair policies of manufacturers. And that is not fair! In these difficult times, we need to build each other’s businesses up and not crash them down. And that’s why we support this movement.
We can’t ask you to do the same. But we do suggest that you read up on it, become informed, pick a side, and then take some action.
