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Insurance Giant Allstate Buys Independent Phone Repair Company, Joins Right To Repair Movement (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Allstate, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, just made a curious purchase. Through its subsidiary SquareTrade, the insurance giant bought iCracked, one of the largest independent smartphone repair companies in the country. The acquisition means that Allstate has become one of the most powerful proponents of right to repair legislation in the United States. According to Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, which is pushing for the legislation, the company has already loaned a lobbyist to the effort in New Hampshire.
This is potentially big news for the right to repair movement, which is trying to get laws passed in 15 states this year that would make it easier for independent repair professionals to get repair tools and parts for consumer electronics. Thus far, it's been largely a grassroots effort from organizations like Repair.org and iFixit. Companies such as Apple, John Deere, Facebook, Microsoft, and trade organizations that represent huge tech companies have used their considerable political power to lobby against these bills. But Allstate's purchase of iCracked is a potential gamechanger. iCracked is a giant chain that does a lot of third party repairs. A change in the laws would benefit it, and now Allstate, as much as the average consumer. "iCracked has been a major supporter of right to repair, and we really appreciate their valuable contribution to the fight for freedom," Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, told Motherboard in an email. "I'm optimistic that this partnership will elevate the visibility of the work that we're doing together."
"SquareTrade continues to work with manufacturers as well as the independent repair community," Jason Siciliano, VP and Global Creative Director of SquareTrade told me in an email. "As this issue evolves, we will maintain good relationships and continue to listen to the key players on all sides of the debate and will work towards sensible solutions whether they are led by the industry or regulators."
This is potentially big news for the right to repair movement, which is trying to get laws passed in 15 states this year that would make it easier for independent repair professionals to get repair tools and parts for consumer electronics. Thus far, it's been largely a grassroots effort from organizations like Repair.org and iFixit. Companies such as Apple, John Deere, Facebook, Microsoft, and trade organizations that represent huge tech companies have used their considerable political power to lobby against these bills. But Allstate's purchase of iCracked is a potential gamechanger. iCracked is a giant chain that does a lot of third party repairs. A change in the laws would benefit it, and now Allstate, as much as the average consumer. "iCracked has been a major supporter of right to repair, and we really appreciate their valuable contribution to the fight for freedom," Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, told Motherboard in an email. "I'm optimistic that this partnership will elevate the visibility of the work that we're doing together."
"SquareTrade continues to work with manufacturers as well as the independent repair community," Jason Siciliano, VP and Global Creative Director of SquareTrade told me in an email. "As this issue evolves, we will maintain good relationships and continue to listen to the key players on all sides of the debate and will work towards sensible solutions whether they are led by the industry or regulators."
...Allstate got tired of buying people entire new phones when they cracked a screen...
Allstate is regularly on the hook for the costs of auto repair. The right to repair would lower those costs significantly.
Whether it's by warranty claims or insurance claims, it's cheaper for Allstate to repair a customer's phone than replace it outright. How is this move anything but a good thing for consumers?
They might... but I think its mainly a backdoor to auto or other heavier equipment repair. With makers like tesla not providing any repair info and other manufacturers pushing that route, the writing is on the wall. Much easier to get the public stoked about gadgets and gain some good will.
Only 2 shops in an area being able to replace/reset blown airbags in a new vehicle causing Allstate to total the car isn't much of a motivator since the claimants still get paid.
You can be sure that Allstate has a crapton of lawyers on salary and they almost certainly have a plan for getting the Right to Repair through or they wouldn't have made this play. I see this as the biggest win yet for RTR!
No, nobody forces phone repair companies to fix the phones of people who can't pay for free. And so far nobody prevents competing phone repair companies from forming. Economics may be safe, for now.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Yes, but instead of Allstate paying $800 for a new phone which comes out of the warranty profit, they'll pay maybe $100 which will cover in-house repair and shipping.
would make it easier for independent repair professionals to get repair tools and parts for consumer electronics
(My bold)
That's not enough, although it's a start. These parts need to be available to consumers too.
News at 11
They are supporting themselves and as it happens they are supporting tens (or even hundreds) of millions of other people. I don't care if that is a deliberate side effect or not - the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is big, unexpected, and very welcome news.
Who cares what Allstate saves or charges? If their lobbying helps in enshrining the right to repair in law, everybody gets better and cheaper access to the materials necessary to repair the products.
Right to Repair bills typically do things like prevent companies from restricting access to repair documentation and replacement parts to "authorized" repair centres, allowing consumers and independent repair shops to get the information and parts needed to repair products.
They probably replace a lot of phones through theft insurance bundled with other products like renter's insurance, home owner's insurance, auto insurance.
Theft from my vehicle is covered under my auto insurance, and I've known people who had laptops and phones stolen out of a car that they claimed on renter's insurance.
Right now, if the phone is recovered from the police with minor damage, it is still a total loss. If there was a Right to Repair, then most of those would in fact be fixable. Also, even if they already replaced it before the old one was recovered, they could refurb that and use it to replace somebody else's later.
It puts Allstate on the same team as the people who didn't but their extended warranty, and just want to fix it themselves.
Those are the people that it helps.
Millions of people ... without anyone pointing a gun at their head, purchase devices that are not repairable.
Most would not know whether something they are buying is respairable or not. You need to be an expert to know. An independent repairer would know this, and I as an amateur, but fairly expert repairer of things, might be able to find out, but most people would only find out when they ask a repair shop if it can be repaired. Eg I once bought a Ryobi garden power tool (never again), and it was only when the ignition coil failed that I discovered that Ryobi spares are unobtainable. So it went to landfill for the sake of a $10* coil: and this is when we are being told to save the planet.
Anyway, there is little or no choice in the matter these days. Many or most things are deliberately made unrepairable, or the makers will not supply spares, just to boost their sales of new stuff.
* Cost to maker, and the planet.
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