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Apple and John Deere Shareholder Resolutions Demand They Explain Their Bad Repair Policies - iFixit:
Apple and John Deere, primary antagonists of the Right to Repair movement, may soon have to explain their domineering repair programs to one of their most demanding audiences: their shareholders.
U.S. PIRG, working with its affiliated socially responsible mutual fund company, Green Century Funds, has filed shareholder resolutions with both Apple and John Deere, asking them to account for “anti-competitive repair policies." Both resolutions admonish the companies for fighting independent repair and ignoring the broad political shift toward Right to Repair laws.
Touch ID stops working if you replace the fingerprint sensor on your iPhone. This used to brick iPhones; now it’s just the sad reality of iPhone repair.
Green Century’s Apple resolution says that the company “risks losing its reputation as a climate leader if it does not cease its anti-repair practices.” Noting that internet-connected devices will account for 14% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, Green Century’s resolution demands the company reverse course to “mitigate regulatory and reputational risks and bolster the company's ambitious climate commitments.”
[...] The John Deere resolution calls out the company’s broken promise to make crucial repair software available to farmers. "Company representatives are quick to point out that less than 2% of all repairs require a software update," Green Capital Funds notes. "However, Deere does not disclose what percentage of the repair sales the 2% represents."
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Thursday September 16 2021, @10:14PM (2 children)
Hey, farmer here. In the middle of harvest, actually. Currently have a down day due to rain, so I'm here to catch up on the soylentnews.
Quick rule of thumb for you: If the problem to be fixed involves a wrench and a welder, the farmer is already doing it himself, and the dealer technician never gets a phone call.
If, on the other hand, the problem involves a piece of technology that literally did not exist for the farm twenty or thirty years ago, (think automation, PLC's, computer control, sensors and wires and electronics, etc), then yeah, a wrench and a welder aren't going to fix it.
I'll grant you that modern equipment is a bit more complicated than Old Man Farmer is prepared to deal with. Young Man Farmer (ie, me) has a better time, and the dealer doesn't get a call unless there's a piece of black box technology I suspect is the culprit. Even then, I'll go pick it up and swap it myself unless I'm not absolutely sure enough to bet the multi-thousand dollar cost on it. If that's the case I'll call their head field mechanic and run it by him first, maybe get him out to have a look himself.
On the other hand yet again, Old Man Farmer is operating a powerful piece of modern agricultural equipment that, in addition to literally steering itself, includes a cab to keep the weather and dust off him, HVAC to keep him comfortable, an air-ride seat, a plethora of sensors and other automation to keep everything ticking away within optimal parameters, as well as warning him and shutting itself off when something is going wrong BEFORE it gets a chance to tear itself to pieces ... well, yeah. There's a cost involved in all that modern luxury. When the sealed black-box computery-module piles up, you call the dealer. Whether it's a cheap car built 2013, or the combine harvester built 2012.
In other words, and not to pick on you specifically, I see this meme pop up over and over (right to repair, modern ag equipment can't be fixed without the dealer, etc and so on), and it's ABUNDANTLY clear that most of the people with something to say on the subject have never, ever, gotten close to the equipment in question, or had any experience operating it or it's forebears.
I mean, I'm a linux user too. Imagine microsoft opening up windows to the level of control most linux distros offer the user. Now imagine how long before Joe Average completely stuffs up his desktop machine, requiring technical intervention. There's a reason moderately complicated computerstuff requires a competent repairman with the proper tools and equipment, and a reason a lot of it is locked down / black box / inner workings entirely hidden.
Farmers love to bitch and complain. I'd be thrilled if the dealer didn't charge so much for parts and service. Especially parts that I can get elsewhere for a third the price, and then install myself. Which really is most of them, in all honestly (the installing myself part, not necessarily the finding elsewhere part), contrary to the narrative being presented on the internet.
This idea that every little breakdown in the tractor or combine or seeder or whatever requires a mechanic or tech from the dealership to fix, is absolute rubbish, and always has been. Stop repeating it. The vast majority of failures do not.
...that was a bit of a rant. sorry.
I should add that we're mostly a Case IH shop here, the only John Deere's we have are three front-wheel assist tractors with front-end loaders. Maybe JD has been fucking people over to the degree everyone claims, and knowing the basics of how this equipment has to work to do the job it does, I really can't see how. I've got cousins who run all-JD, and they don't seem to think so, either.
- D
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @12:45AM
Farmer here too, actually. Not in the middle of harvest (not quite that kind of farm) but I've seen family members with the same kind of farming situation going back quite a while.
Anyway, there are quite a few concrete examples of things that have been pains in the rear for John Deere farmers that have come up. Case is actually one of the good guys (relatively speaking) on this front so I'm not surprised that it hasn't hit you. It hasn't hit me either because I was on the brink of buying John Deere when I stumbled across the problem in my research and started to dive in. (They're not the only sinner on this front, but they've been fairly well-publicised.) One example that has come up is sensors - anything that feeds back into the bus that runs the engine, whether it's hydraulic, or emissions or whatever, can break, and sensors frequently do. I've seen it on my own road vehicles as well as critters up to earthmoving machinery, and I'm sure you have too. It's not a tough fix (OK, granted, on a Jetta it was a pain to reach the damn oxygen sensor) but John Deere has pretty much tied it to authorised repairs only. That is a wrench fix - in fact, replacing the whole damn hydraulic pump is, or should be a wrench fix on most tractors, give or take some details on how the hose management is set up, but I'll count a philips-head screwdriver under wrench fixing here, too. But not on new John Deeres any more. Old ones, sure. New, not so much, because (and they admit this when you talk to a salesman, although they don't like it) you have to basically use a magic computer that only repairmen have, to re-register the bits and bobs with the engine management computer. That's the problem. I don't think anybody is claiming that you have to have a repairman change the teeth on a digging bucket.
Now I'm the first to agree that a lot of old equipment was damn dangerous, and I've nearly had a tractor roll over on me as well (fortunately I have a good seat-of-the-pants and quick driving reflexes) but that doesn't mean that a modern design can't be accessible or maintainable, and whiz-bang black boxes that turn into games of mother-may-I with the OEM aren't my idea of reliability.
Now I totally agree with you that, as you put it :
"This idea that every little breakdown in the tractor or combine or seeder or whatever requires a mechanic or tech from the dealership to fix, is absolute rubbish, and always has been." but that's not what I said, and not what I'm complaining about, and not why the whole situation bothered me enough to look for a different manufacturer. John Deere would love to sell me logging fixtures for their machines, and the machines to run the tools, but after a cold-eyed look at what might end up with me stuck in the woods with nothing happening while a logging truck idles I had to take a hard pass on it.
The thing about specialty farmers looking elsewhere is quiet serious, by the way. BCS and Grillo can hardly keep up with demand. Actually, scratch that, last I heard they can't keep up with demand. In my neck of the woods, small tractors that can slip in and out of tight quarters are a big deal, to the point that many serious operators have small fleets of basically amped-up lawn tractors and ATVs. John Deere's a big player there, but if those farmers can't get their head wrench to do it all, they'll be looking elsewhere. This isn't just me - I'm hearing the same thing at the Farm Bureau meetings too.
So, to clarify: the basic complaint is that John Deere is the only power on earth that can get things rolling again. The complaint is that even if you can get an aftermarket equivalent part and replace it yourself as per maintenance manual to the last detail, if it touches the electronic management it turns into a problem. Hydraulic fluid? No problem. Fuel injection management? Problem. And that's not cool.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @02:08AM
The question is more like, when something breaks, and you know that you can't fix it, do you have the option of calling a local tech who will work for $50/hr? Or, do you have to call the John Deere tech out for $125/hr?