iFixit: Samsung has no desire for repairs
The repair specialist iFixit is ending its collaboration with Samsung. The company is torpedoing many efforts to make devices more repair-friendly.
(Image: c't)
Samsung apparently has little interest in improving the repair-friendliness of its smartphones, tablets and notebooks to make repairs easier for users. iFixit has ended its cooperation with Samsung after two years because the company is said to be too stubborn.
"As we tried to build this ecosystem, we kept running into roadblocks that made us doubt Samsung's commitment to making repairs more accessible," iFixit wrote in the announcement. "We tried to make it work. My goodness, we tried. But with such different priorities, we're no longer able to continue."
Samsung against repairs
On the one hand, Samsung is said not to have accepted iFixit's suggestions for improving its smartphones, such as reducing the use of glue. Secondly, Samsung is said to have torpedoed the supply of official spare parts.
For example, Samsung did not want to sell individual batteries for Galaxy smartphones to iFixit, but only glued display and battery units. If you only wanted to replace a weak battery, you had to pay iFixit an unnecessary amount of money for an additional display. For the last two Galaxy generations S23 and S24, iFixit no longer received any spare parts from Samsung.
Samsung is also said to have massively restricted the sale of spare parts to just seven per customer every three months. This is hardly a problem for end users who order directly from iFixit. However, iFixit also supplies repair stores with spare parts, which was not possible to a sufficient extent with Samsung devices.
Gag contracts
404 Media makes even more serious accusations against Samsung. According to this, repair stores have to sign a questionable contract in order to receive official spare parts. The contract is said to oblige the stores to send extensive data on all repairs to Samsung, including the full names, addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of all customers, plus details of the repair carried out and, in the case of smartphones, the unique IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity).
If this does not go far enough, Samsung is said to have obliged the stores to completely dismantle devices instead of repairing them if they find replica spare parts from third-party manufacturers and to inform Samsung of this. It is unclear whether this only affects the US market or also Europe and whether iFixit also had to sign this agreement.
iFixit now offers spare parts from third-party manufacturers for Samsung devices again. This will also improve the supply situation for repair stores. Meanwhile, Samsung continues to work with repair specialist Encompass – at least in North America. Encompass' website was (temporarily?) unavailable from Hanover due to an IP block.
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(mma)
