Nearly half of reviewed products lacked accessible repair manuals, and 44% had no spare parts available, according to a new report from US PIRG.
Some one-third of Americans live in a state with a Right to Repair law that requires manufacturers to provide fair access to repair materials, including spare parts and service manuals. US PIRG Education Fund’s new report, Leaders and Laggards II, finds that, despite these requirements, many manufacturers do not provide the things people need to fix their stuff.
The new scorecard grades 25 products across five categories for how easily and thoroughly consumers can access repair documentation and spare parts. Of those products, 40% received a D or an F, 28% received Bs or Cs, and 32% received As. “When we tried to get the repair materials the law requires manufacturers to provide, we could not access a repair manual for 48%, and 44% had no spare parts available,” reads a media release from US PIRG.
Other findings of the report include:
- No dishwasher earned a grade above a C.
- Laptops all received As or Bs, reflecting the improvement in repair programs for laptops across the board.
- Even though consumer electronics companies are doing well with repair material availability for smartphones and laptops, tablet repair materials lag behind.
- MSI, Atari, and Sony all fail to provide any repair materials for the game consoles US PIRG reviewed.
“The premise of Right to Repair is simple: It’s our stuff, and we should be allowed to fix it—not just in theory, in the real world,” says Nathan Proctor, senior director of US PIRG Education Fund’s Right to Repair Campaign, and the report’s co-author, in a release. “It’s time for manufacturers to better comply with the growing number of state repair laws, and for attorneys general in impacted states to step in when companies fail to.”
Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of Repair.org, a coalition working on Right to Repair, adds in a release, “The report makes it clear that we need more enforcement to ensure that people can fix our electronics and appliances.”
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