XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, uk.media   
   XPost: alt.privacy   
   From: nospamatall@iol.ie   
      
   Trevjon said the following on 22/02/2006 07:03 pm:   
   rds the wider subject, of "throw away" electronics, I'm afraid much   
   > of this boils down to old fashioned economics.   If the labour charge for   
   > the engineer is £70 per hour, but the item can be replaced for £35, then   
   > it's really a bit of a "no brainer" as to which option to choose.   
      
   A lot of it is deliberate on the part of the manufacturer. Used to be a   
   repair shop could keep a stock of components and use them. Now you get a   
   standard capacitor or such like, but it has a special shape bit of   
   plastic and the standard part won't fit, so you have to order it   
   specially from the manufacturer and it costs about 10 times as much   
   (plus phone call and postage).   
      
   That's why many things just aren't worth repairing. Plus the   
   manufacturers will stop supplying parts after a relatively short time.   
   Andy   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)