今天一个难能可贵的摩托车在街上is a Harley-Davidson… that’s bone stock. And while many H-D riders get an aftermarket exhaust system, different seat and armpit-drying ape hangers installed by the dealership, many others turn to independent bike shops or modify their bikes at home. Until now, some modifications performed by non-Harley affiliated shops or by owners themselves could have put the warranty of a new bike at risk. It’s all there in the warranty fine print, which everyone reads, right? But that all just changed in a big way.
According to adecision and actions by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission(aka the FTC) following alengthy report in Mayon OEMs building in warranty-voiding language in their warranties if consumers tampered with products ranging from motorcycles to smartphones, companies must now re-jigger their warranty language to allow consumers to get their gear worked on and repaired to a large degree—and they also have to tell consumers about those changes in the warranty wording, and not just change the verbiage on the sly. In short, the FTC has essentially sided with buyers and users of products in the long-running “Right To Repair” fight, largely led by computer and smartphone repair businessiFixit, whichhas been tracking developmentsaround the Right To Repair battle.
The FTC also said thatsome companies – including Harley-Davidson——保证我们rding that wasn’t legal and they have to make good with customers. “Consumers deserve choices when it comes to repairing their products, and independent dealers deserve a chance to compete,” Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “These orders require Harley and Westinghouse to fix their warranties, come clean with consumers, and ensure fair competition with independent providers. Other companies that squelch consumers’ right to repair should take notice.” And yes, compensation could be involved.
And while it seems like we’re picking on Harley-Davidson,the truth is that many companies that make a wide range of products have been clamping down on mods and repairs over the years, so much so that the “Right To Repair” movement bubbled up following some harsh warranty restrictions by companies like Apple, Microsoft and others.
The rationale put forward by the companies to try and keep prying fingers out of their machines and devices was that consumers weren’t tech or mech savvy enough to safely fix or modify modern high-tech devices, especially when it came to things with batteries that might catch fire. But the FTC said that fear was overblown and consumers should have the right to fix or mod their gear within reason as it would often extend the life of a product, cutting down on waste and so on.
Of course, it also cuts down on consumers buying a new thing to replace the fixable old thing, which some people call “planned obsolescence.” Take it from a guy who put two non-Apple replacement batteries in his coveted iPhone SE over five years because Apple wouldn’t make a little phone anymore: It’s not brain surgery. Same goes for many motorcycle mechanics working on any brand of bike—or car, or appliance or any number of consumer goods.It’s not like fixing things is some new trend.
A key codicil of the FTC’s decision includes maintaining warranty coverage when third-party parts are used in a repair, such as my cheap iPhone replacement batteries. “Illegal repair restrictions can significantly raise costs for consumers, stifle innovation, close off business opportunity for independent repair shops, create unnecessary electronic waste, delay timely repairs, and undermine resiliency—harms that can have an outsized impact on low-income communities in particular,” the FTC said in its press releasefocusing on the Harley-Davidson issue.
We understand why companies want to block repair and modification of their products; there’s always going to be shops and people that muck up the work and turn to warranty coverage. But on balance, it seems common sense to allow people to make changes to a motorcycle, car, computer or other machine within reason once they’ve paid good money for it. Consumers got a break this time to be sure, but before you tear into that shiny new purchase, be sure to read the fine print in the warranty.
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