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'Right to repair' taken up by the ACCC in farmers' fight to fix their own tractors:
The 'right to repair' movement has finally bent the ear of Australia's competition and consumer watchdog, the ACCC, in its pleas to be able to fix their own farm equipment.
[...] Farmers have emerged as an unlikely force in the global right to repair movement.
The movement eschews the disposable culture of consumer electronics in favour of letting independent repairers and home tinkerers fix broken smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Proponents want access to the code that makes modern machines hum, putting them at loggerheads with tech giants including Apple who own the proprietary software.
In the United States, farmers have risked voiding their warranties by hacking their own John Deere tractors with torrented software so they can carry out their own repairs.
[...] In its first deep dive into the modern agricultural machinery market, the ACCC published its discussion paper on the matter in late February and is seeking accounts from those who buy and use farm machinery, or repair it for a living.
"Broadacre croppers with large tractors, harvesters, seeders … and particularly tractors seem to be an area of some contention," Mr Keogh said.
"We have heard from dealers who say that they have no issues with providing service, yet we hear from independent service providers that they can't get access to the [software] diagnostic tools they need.
"In some cases they can't get access to the [manufacturers'] parts they need.
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Wednesday April 22 2020, @07:19PM (2 children)
Not confusing at all. You have crops ripe for harvest in the field. You can make the manufacturer repair the harvester in 4 weeks while your crops rot in the field or you can risk the warranty, fix it NOW, and harvest your crops while they are still worth something. The value of bringing the crop in dwarfs the cost of the DIY repair. From there it's grade school arithmetic.
Farmers deal with a lot of natural hard deadlines like monsoons, hard freeze, etc. Meet the deadline or have no income FOR THE YEAR, no do-overs. They don't have time to wait for some guy with an appointment book "squeeze them in".
It's a much higher stakes version of the consumer "warranty" experience of just shop it to Korea and they'll get right on that warranty repair.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2020, @07:31PM
There is also the differing lengths of warranties. Sure the engine and gearbox might get 5 years, but the steering only gets 3, and when it needs fixing after 4 years you either pay premium prices or void the engine and gearbox warranties.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 23 2020, @03:02PM
There is a parallel here, between farmers and the military. You use what you have, and abuse it if you have to, because the job has to be done NOW. Whatever is at hand, you adapt it to your needs, because you can't adapt your needs to whatever is at hand. And, yes, survival is at stake, in both cases.