or completely fried.
you depend on.
You own it.
You should be able to fix it.
Tired of being told to replace your phone or laptop every time it breaks or is “outdated”? So are we. FiXCO has been fighting for your Right to Repair since 2017, and Bellingham’s last independent phone and computer repair shop is still fighting for it today.
What is the
Right to Repair?
It's the idea that we, as the people who bought the thing, should be able to repair, modify or alter the technology we supposedly own.
It matters because many manufacturers make that difficult or impossible. They restrict access to parts, tools and information, or design a device to be unrepairable in the first place. That limits your choice, and it fills landfills with electronics that had years of life left.
It is about taking back our freedoms from the companies who have monopolised almost every part of our lives.
It started with a cup of coffee.
FiXCO did not just support this movement. We helped start it, right here in Bellingham.
October 2017
Mitch, FiXCO’s founder, asked his legislative representative Jeff Morris to meet for coffee so he could pitch him on the Right to Repair.
One conversation later
After 45 minutes, Jeff agreed to introduce Washington State’s first Right to Repair bill, and had it back to Mitch within a month.
Early 2018
It went into committee for the first time and became the first Right to Repair bill in the nation to pass committee. That meeting lit the match in the back yard of the tech industry.
Today
After years of work from a small army of people around the country, we are finally moving mountains.
“Why not just buy a new one?”
Because replacing a device is not always an option, and it is rarely the better one.
It is not always affordable
Buying new might be an option for some people. For plenty of others it simply is not, and a repair keeps a working device in your hands.
We dig these out of the ground
Most devices are thrown away before they reach half of their usable life. Billions of them, worldwide, back on top of the ground.
It is not just electronics
Appliances, cars, tractors, mountain bikes, home gadgets. Monopolised control of repair and planned obsolescence show up everywhere.
Everyone agrees on this one
Right to Repair is one of the few issues with real bipartisan support. It affects every class, politics, gender and profession, because we all depend on these devices.
Awareness is the key.
Contact your representatives and tell them you support the Right to Repair. Support the organisations doing the work. Repair what you own, and encourage the people around you to do the same.
Put it to work. Fix something.
The most direct way to support repair is to repair. Walk in Monday through Saturday or start online.
Start a repair →