EU brings in 'right to repair' rules for appliances

Re:EU brings in 'right to repair' rules for appliances by magicalhippo on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @06:52AM (#21123979)

Indeed. We recently replaced our 5 year old fridge. The compressor was running very frequent and hard, and it produced a lot of condensation, to the point that the evaporation bucket on the back overflowed.

I'm guessing it could have been repaired (gas leak?), but the absolute minimum for a tech to come out and try to fix it would have been 150-200 EUR (driving + 1 hour labor), plus parts/gas.

Part of the problem with repairs is that you often don't know what the final price will be. Sure you might get a quote based on a most likely scenario, but if that isn't the problem you just wasted all that money. And due to cost of labor, spending a lot of time troubleshooting isn't viable either.

We just got a new fridge instead, 400 EUR delivered at the door.

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Re:EU brings in 'right to repair' rules for appliances by magduf on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @10:34AM (#21125723)

It sounds like someone needs to make a business getting broken appliances from rich western nations, then shipping them to underdeveloped nations where they can be repaired cheaply, then resold locally.

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Re:EU brings in 'right to repair' rules for appliances by eitland on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @11:52AM (#21126766)

Around here that happens with cars: old Toyotas are (were, I'm not receiving updates from that market anymore?) bought to be shipped off to Africa and competition seemed crazy (multiple buyers calling immediately if you posted certain models for sale, some going as far as being threatening IIRC.)

Source: two close friends of mine sold their HiAces.

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