Post #4586789 · Elektrine

@joepie91@fedi.slightly.tech

2026-08-31 13:48 UTC

I kinda missed this but apparently the EU Right to Repair stuff adds a year onto your warranty when a device is repaired under warranty?? that might sound trivial but that's actually an *extremely* significant change that has very real implications for some of the shadier (but common) cost-cutting practices in the industry, because it means manufacturers can no longer just design exactly to warranty spec now I'm just left wondering if that repeats on every repair or not

Replies (1)

@joepie91@fedi.slightly.tech 2026-08-31 13:54

the reason this matters is that 'planned obsolescence' is a real thing, even if it's in a different form than people usually think: it's not some massive conspiracy, it's "just" manufacturers spending exactly enough on parts and labour to make it Probably Survive The Warranty, and accepting that some percentage of it won't that gamble suddenly gets a *lot* more expensive when your design that's specced for 2 years lifespan breaks at 1.9 years and then you have to repair it *and* that same 2-year-lifespan design now has to survive for *3 years*, because chances are you'll need to repair it *again* because some other component broke a bit later which means that to be safe, manufacturers now need to spec it for *more* than the 'warranty period', and also design against cascading failures, to make sure that it makes it through, and because the 'warranty period' isn't actually fixed in EU law but based on 'reasonable expectations', this makes it likely that those reasonable expectations slowly shift towards longer product lifespans because everybody is constantly targeting slightly-above-average

Open ##4586787