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Hot take: Paywalled diagnostic tools are killing small shops
Had a laptop with a weird power issue. The factory scan program demanded a yearly subscription. How can we compete when info is locked behind a fee?
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the_elizabeth7mo ago
Hold up, a YEARLY fee just to run a scan on one laptop? That's wild. It's like they want you to pay a full subscription for a one time repair. I heard some brands even lock basic battery reset steps behind those paywalls now. How are you supposed to fix the thing if you can't even talk to it?
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the_patricia7mo ago
Yeah that yearly fee for a one time fix is straight robbery. It's the same scam as the tractors. They own your stuff after you buy it.
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jordan_carr767mo ago
Read an article about John Deere tractors doing the same thing. Farmers can't even reset a warning light without the dealer software. Now it's spreading to everything. Laptops, phones, even some car modules need a cloud login to diagnose. Feels like they're turning basic repair into a rental service.
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