When Kobo announced their new ereaders back in April, one of the selling points was the fact that they made them user repairable so customers could buy replacement parts if something breaks.
They put up a Kobo Repair Hub on the iFixit website with repair guides and lists of parts that you can buy for each model. However, none of the parts are actually available to purchase.
It’s been three months now and there’s still not a single replacement part in stock.
Granted, there’s probably not a lot of people looking for replacement parts so soon after the new devices were released, but I’m sure there are some new Kobos out there with broken screens and cracked plastic covers.
Imagine how annoying it would be if you had a broken Kobo right now, and you couldn’t buy replacement parts for it even though Kobo advertises it as being user repairable. Things like cracked screens and cases aren’t covered by the warranty so in those cases you don’t have a choice to do an exchange.
It’s weird how Kobo made a big deal out of their devices being repairable, and yet you still can’t actually repair them even if you wanted to at this point. Companies can say their devices are user repairable all they want, but if you can’t buy the replacement parts then what good does it do?
It brings up some other questions as well. Like, how long is Kobo going to offer replacement parts for each model? Are they still going to be available 10 years from now? How about 15 years from now?
Selling devices that are user repairable sounds good in theory, but it only works if you can actually buy the replacement parts somewhere. So far Kobo hasn’t lived up to that side of the deal.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Kobo isn’t in a rush to provide the parts because the new devices are still covered by the warranty.
Cracked screens and cases aren’t covered by the warranty.
That’s true.
User repairable implies that there are parts. No parts to me means it’s not user repairable and it’s a lie and user repairable shouldn’t be anywhere on the item page.
If I would’ve bought one of these things I’d be feeling hoodwinked that from day one there were no parts available. We are clumsy people sometimes and sometimes the best cared for things still break.