(Several points... some readers may wish to skip down...)


Its much cheaper, to have 1 or 2 repair depots fully equipped to send
items
to, then provide hundreds of repair depots with spare parts, and
documentation.

Right... I see nothing wrong with that. Do things the most efficient way.

As long as 90% of consumers decide on purchases strictly by how
much it costs when initially purchased, then manufacturers simply cannot
support a network of repair depots, along with the documentation to
support
those depots.

I don't see how you can fault consumers for wanting a lower price. What
should they be wanting?

Well, manufacturers are realizing that a large percentage of the
population
are repurchasing items long before they die. In other words, the average
cellphone, camera, computer, TV, is being replaced long before it dies,
strictly because its not the current "IN" model, and its usually replaced
by
whatever is on sale that week, LONG before repair comes into the picture.

If this were "planned obsolescence" or just fashion, I'd be against it. But
it's mostly genuinely rapid technological progress. HDTV is coming in.
Cell phones are moving to different bands (my next one will be
international). Digital cameras are getting tremendously better year by
year.

Considering a hour or two of US technician labour costs
more than the manufacturing of the entire item overseas,

(or even in the US, with robotic assembly)

then the technician
is as dead as a Dodo, as far as most manufacturers are concerned.

As well, believe it or not, lawyers also come into the equation as well.
In
our current litigious society, supplying a untrained customer with a
schematic for a item, that they subsequently open, and fry themselves to
death with, is also a problem.

Now *that* is sad.

I am very much in favor of technological literacy, i.e., people should know
what goes on in the machines that they rely on. I'm in favor of
do-it-yourself repair when it's not unduly dangerous.

I actually have first hand experience with this. Believe it or not, a
customer recently came to be begging for a easily-replaceable on off
switch
for a kitchen appliance. Although it was against company policy, I took
pity
on this guy that said that he could not afford to bring the unit it to be
repaired, and besides, he assured me that he knew much about electronics
(considering that all you had to do was replace 2 wires, it seemed like a
safe bet), so I sold him the switch. The next time I saw the guy was in
court. Somehow he screwed it up, shorted something out, the unit caught
fire, and burned a large chunk of his kitchen.
Long story short, our company was forced to pay a large chunk of money to
fight a court case. Needless to say, from now on, NOBODY short of the Pope
gets part, part listings, or manuals for ANY of our products ...PERIOD!.
Kim

Did your company win or lose the case? It sound like that dolt would have
managed to burn his house down with or without the switch!