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The Morning After: Samsung’s secret war on repair

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The Morning After: Samsung’s secret war on repair

Manufacturers may hate independent repair stores, but Samsung and Apple appeared to accept the direction the political wind was blowing in. Sadly, . Details of the contract the Korean giant asks repair stores to sign include some pretty user-unfriendly rules.

That includes sending your details and device identification to HQ, including all of the details of your repair issue. And, if your phone is found to be using an aftermarket, or non-Samsung part, the store has to instantly disassemble it and raise the alarm. That’s quite problematic, and also probably in violation of US laws around the right to use third-party parts for repair.

The repair gurus at iFixit around the same time. iFixit said there were irreconcilable differences between the pair’s philosophies, like the high price of replacement parts and the mostly-unrepairable nature of Samsung’s phones.

— Dan Cooper

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