Barriers to repair list

Help & feedback
1

Interesting question from @Rosalie_Heens about providing more information when a device has been marked as end of life in the Fixometer:

For the obstacles to repair: If you don’t find what causes the problem, is that the same as “No repair info available”? If not, could you add this as an obstacle? It often happens in our Repair Café’s that repairs don’t find what exactly is causing the problem.

For reference, the options currently on the list of barriers to repair are:

  • Spare parts not available
  • Spare parts too expensive
  • No way to open the product
  • Repair information not available
  • Lack of equipment

^ These (‘select all that apply’) options help us identify structural barriers to repair (such as anti-repair practices by manufacturers).

But while being unable to diagnose the problem with a device may not be a structural issue, would it be a useful thing to record?

Or if a repairer is unable to find the source of the problem, should the device be marked as ‘repairable’ until proven otherwise?

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2

I am thinking of moments with poorly-documented appliances where you get an error code but have no way of looking it up, or finding the remedy. So, often, being unable to diagnose comes down to “Repair information not available”. (But not always…)

3

… makes a good acronym (“RINO”): how about catchy approximations to acronyms for the rest of them?

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4

Couldn’t ‘Insufficient repair skills’ be a plausible reason that a repair didn’t happen? And possibly ‘insufficient time to repair’.

5

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that makes sense. I guess this would cover a lot of cases.

Other cases might come under ‘not enough time’ as you suggested Ian - this is actually already an option in the ‘repairable’ submenu (as is ‘professional help needed’)

Those options probably cover 90% of cases, would you all agree?

The last 10% would be devices where the issue can’t be diagnosed due to insufficient repair skills and it can’t be determined whether it’s end of life or repairable. Or should the default be ‘repairable: profesional help needed’?