Right to repair


 
Jason, that is interesting and I have a perhaps different take on it. I have an old Genesis grill that I know for a fact had all US made parts. Fast forward to today where many of the parts for that grill have been discontinued. The only things I can still get for my grill are now made in China. That means Weber at some point made the decision to outsource certain parts which of course meant setting up tooling in China to make these parts. Is it a coincidence that you can now buy aftermarket burner tubes with 5 or 10 different brand names on them? I highly doubt it. The reality of it is that these aftermarket parts are made in the same factory as the Weber branded ones. There is no way Weber, or any other company for that matter, can control the backdooring of these products and for them to act like these parts are inferior to their own would at the very least be disingenuous.
 
Observationally......

Never send anything China that you cannot afford to completely walk away from. That's everything from manufacturing data and plans, to everything that you might carry on a trip there. For years, I've been told that anybody travelling there should go with sacrificial electronics, and more or less, plan to burn them when they get home. Oh, and to try to never leave them alone.
 
I listen to Steve Lehto a lot on the tube. This segment is not quite his usual wild and wacky news like "Government fines couple for parking in their own driveway" kind of thing.
 
Steve Hoch said:
Jason, that is interesting and I have a perhaps different take on it. I have an old Genesis grill that I know for a fact had all US made parts. Fast forward to today where many of the parts for that grill have been discontinued. The only things I can still get for my grill are now made in China. That means Weber at some point made the decision to outsource certain parts which of course meant setting up tooling in China to make these parts. Is it a coincidence that you can now buy aftermarket burner tubes with 5 or 10 different brand names on them? I highly doubt it. The reality of it is that these aftermarket parts are made in the same factory as the Weber branded ones. There is no way Weber, or any other company for that matter, can control the backdooring of these products and for them to act like these parts are inferior to their own would at the very least be disingenuous.
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I'm not sure I understand where you're going with that. Since it's all made in China anyways why not be able to go to your local whatever store and buy a glow plug instead of having to wait for Weber to send you one. The right to repair has become kind of a big deal in automotive and tractor recently. I don't know if you follow or are aware but look into the John Deere debacle.
Anyhow, the bottom line is that Weber was violating the right to repair act and has been told to correct it. I personally don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
 
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Scott Smith said:
I listen to Steve Lehto a lot on the tube. This segment is not quite his usual wild and wacky news like "Government fines couple for parking in their own driveway" kind of thing.
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I listen to him quite a bit also. His specially is automotive mostly. But it's very interesting to hear a lawyer's take on various subjects. And I usually like the take that he gives. He does deviate from his typical stuff from time to time. This time it just happened to be relevant to Weber.
 
I agree with you, and I am aware of the John Deere controversy. My only point was (in the case of Weber at least) that there was a time when the only replacement parts you could buy were the Weber ones. It wasn't until they started having parts made overseas that you started to see an influx of aftermarket parts.
 
Jason in CA said:
I'm not sure I understand where you're going with that. Since it's all made in China anyways why not be able to go to your local whatever store and buy a glow plug instead of having to wait for Weber to send you one. The right to repair has become kind of a big deal in automotive and tractor recently. I don't know if you follow or are aware but look into the John Deere debacle.
Anyhow, the bottom line is that Weber was violating the right to repair act and has been told to correct it. I personally don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
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I think y'all are sayin' the same thing.

Weber needs to own the reality. A lot of companies have done this at one point or another with the warranty, but until parts start to be manufactured in the US again (if ever), we are stuck with China or (better) Korea or Bangladesh or India even, or maybe the Philippines or some other place where people want to work hard to improve their lives (ain't sayin that works where they are..I don't know. I'm just sayin there aren't so many of those folks in the US anymore, cuz here we are). Some of those formerly third-world countries may end up being the good manufacturers, depending on how our politicians choose to handle things, or not.

I'm just guessing (though I'm usually pretty good at this sort of guessing)...my 2012 Weber Genesis E310 would now cost $2800.00--maybe $3100.00 if it were made with all US parts. PLUS shipping. Ain't many people gonna pay that, since for a bit more they can get one of the high-end fancy pants grills built into an outdoor kitchen.

I don't know how many parts of my 2012 Weber were made in the US, but this grill is STILL a tank compared to the Wallyworld grills I'd owned before. NOW, all parts I see (even from Weber) originate in China. Not sure that's a good get. So I should be able to choose my part.

Seems like the FTC agrees....I should be able to choose my part without them voiding my warranty.
 
Steve Hoch said:
I agree with you, and I am aware of the John Deere controversy. My only point was (in the case of Weber at least) that there was a time when the only replacement parts you could buy were the Weber ones. It wasn't until they started having parts made overseas that you started to see an influx of aftermarket parts.
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Okay. I think I understand now. So I think we're on a same page. The aftermarket is good. On the right to repair act this is also Good. Just think of how many of the old Weber Genesis barbecues would not be repairable if it wasn't for aftermarket now. Weber stops supporting a lot of their parks long ago. My other point that I never bothered to make was that it would be good to go into any local whatever and buy a part probably made as you say in the same factory for last money. And not have to rely on Weber alone to ship it to you. As I said, I think we are in agreement.
 
Cassondra said:
I think y'all are sayin' the same thing.

Weber needs to own the reality. A lot of companies have done this at one point or another with the warranty, but until parts start to be manufactured in the US again (if ever), we are stuck with China or (better) Korea or Bangladesh or India even, or maybe the Philippines or some other place where people want to work hard to improve their lives (ain't sayin that works where they are..I don't know. I'm just sayin there aren't so many of those folks in the US anymore, cuz here we are). Some of those formerly third-world countries may end up being the good manufacturers, depending on how our politicians choose to handle things, or not.

I'm just guessing (though I'm usually pretty good at this sort of guessing)...my 2012 Weber Genesis E310 would now cost $2800.00--maybe $3100.00 if it were made with all US parts. PLUS shipping. Ain't many people gonna pay that, since for a bit more they can get one of the high-end fancy pants grills built into an outdoor kitchen.

I don't know how many parts of my 2012 Weber were made in the US, but this grill is STILL a tank compared to the Wallyworld grills I'd owned before. NOW, all parts I see (even from Weber) originate in China. Not sure that's a good get. So I should be able to choose my part.

Seems like the FTC agrees....I should be able to choose my part without them voiding my warranty.
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Yeah, well said. I'm not as eloquent as many other posters. I post my thoughts randomly and hope my point gets across. But I think you said what I was also saying 🤣🤟😎
 
Jason in CA said:
Okay. I think I understand now. So I think we're on a same page. The aftermarket is good. On the right to repair act this is also Good. Just think of how many of the old Weber Genesis barbecues would not be repairable if it wasn't for aftermarket now. Weber stops supporting a lot of their parks long ago. My other point that I never bothered to make was that it would be good to go into any local whatever and buy a part probably made as you say in the same factory for last money. And not have to rely on Weber alone to ship it to you. As I said, I think we are in agreement.
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Yep, we are in total agreement on this.
 
Jason in CA said:
Yeah, well said. I'm not as eloquent as many other posters. I post my thoughts randomly and hope my point gets across. But I think you said what I was also saying 🤣🤟😎
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I think eloquence is overrated.

I don't know how to put cute grills in my sigline. That's eloquence. :cry:
 
Not meaning to spam this thread, but...I think this decision by FTC is AMAZING for Weber owners for one main reason. If Danhoo decides to start manufacturing grates. Or igniters. Or something else related to Weber grills, and he is manufacturing the BEST grates or whatever, that are out there (like the RC guy I don't know about once did but cannot now do because of materials availability or something)....anyway..

If Danhoo decided to do that, and his parts are better than the chinese made weber parts, we should be able to freaking BUY Those!!!!

Yes. WE should. And Weber should not void our warranty because we made the best choice for our grills.
 
Jason in CA said:
Yeah, well said. I'm not as eloquent as many other posters. I post my thoughts randomly and hope my point gets across. But I think you said what I was also saying 🤣🤟😎
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I don’t think anyone here’s up for a professorship, so you’re in good company. There’s a ton of mutual respect on this forum.
 
Cassondra said:
I think eloquence is overrated.

I don't know how to put cute grills in my sigline. That's eloquence. :cry:
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When you finish your grill and it looks brand new again, take a nice picture of it and change your picture to that. That's what I did, if I can figure it out then anybody can🤪
 
Here's my analogy: A manufacturer sells a car battery with a certain warranty. A buyer buys that battery. Unfortunately, he had previously installed some sort of replacement part in his car that causes a mysterious parasitic drain on the system. Before long that battery is kaput and being replaced under warranty, over and over again.

All those batteries come back testing kaput, but they weren't really bad. The customer's car was really the bigger issue. Yet, the battery manufacturer is liable under their warranty and keeps replacing the batteries.

Now imagine the battery company is Weber, or John Deere. They know that their product is a quality product and they want to stand behind it with a solid warranty. However, we're no longer talking batteries, but entire grills and entire tractors. They can't afford to replace their product every time somebody else's part messes it up.

I can see both sides of this one. You allow right to repair, and you potentially stick Weber and John Deere with problems that aren't even theirs. You take away right to repair, and the companies have that monopoly on parts and service.
 
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