Earlier this week, Samsung and e-commerce direct-to-consumer repair firm iFixit ended their business partnership after two years.
The Verge first reported on the matter on Thursday (May 23), with iFixit co-founder and CEO Kyle Wiens telling the news site that it was Samsung's fault.
He blamed the South Korean tech firm, claiming it was not "interested in enabling repair at scale" despite having good deals with Google, Motorola, and HMD.
Wiens also believed that parting ways with Samsung should not affect iFixit customers, as they would continue to repair the brand's devices at the literal expense of not being Samsung's partner on genuine parts, a similar practice they did with Apple's iPhones.
Making Samsung Phone Repairs More Expensive
One of Wiens's main accusations regarding the split related to Samsung's expensive after-sales products and spare parts-such as battery packs-which he perceived as the main reason consumers are having second thoughts about buying a Samsung phone.
Crucially, the spare battery packs Samsung ships to iFixit were pre-glued to an entire phone screen, making consumers pay north of $160 even if they only meant to replace a worn-out battery pack, while iFixit's iPhone and Pixel batteries only cost around $50.
Weins claimed that Samsung's practice was exclusive to iFixit and does not reflect on other vendors.
The expensive battery packs also meant that local repair shops did not benefit from the Samsung-iFixit partnership since the contract artificially limited iFixit to sell no more than seven parts per customer within a three-month period. Wiens stressed that this practice frustrated his company as it was not "moving at the volumes needed" to move what he called the "environmental needle."
Moreover, unlike other vendors, iFixit simply has not been able to get official parts for newer Samsung devices. The last time the firm added genuine parts for new Samsung phones was for the Galaxy S22.
Samsung's head of mobile customer care, Mario Renato de Castro, told The Verge in a statement that the company was "proud" of the partnership's work but declined to comment further.
The Verge: Samsung Asks Vendors to Snitch on Customers
The Verge added that another reason for the Samsung-iFixit split was that Samsung required iFixit to share its customers' email addresses and parts purchase history and sign a waiver before buying the product. Wiens said that they do not require such information from its other partners.
404 Media also confirmed that the tech giant was contractually obligating repair shops to report on their customers' purchases.
The fallout of Samsung and iFixit was just one of the major issues the tech giant is facing.
VCPost earlier reported that the company's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors have yet to pass Nvidia's testing for use in its artificial intelligence (AI) processors because of heat and power consumption issues. It also reported rumors that it would be limiting the launch of its Galaxy Z Fold 6 to a single model in the upcoming summer 2024 version of Galaxy Unpacked.
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