• iFixit has announced that it is ending its collaborative efforts with Samsung.
• The company says that, “Samsung’s approach to repairability does not align with our mission.”
• Starting next month, iFixit will no longer be Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor.

Almost two years ago Samsung announced an intriguing partnership with iFixit to make official repairs kits available for the South Korean company’s flagship products available in selected regions across the globe.

Now, however, that collaboration has come to an end, with iFixit detailing precisely why, and it does not place Samsung in a flattering light.

“We aimed to set the gold standard for repair documentation and empower local independent repair businesses with the tools and parts they needed to thrive, all while keeping Galaxy devices running. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to deliver on that promise,” wrote iFixit operations and logistics supervisor, Scott Head, in a blog post.

“As we tried to build this ecosystem we consistently faced obstacles that made us doubt Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible. We couldn’t get parts to local repair shops at prices and quantities that made business sense. The part prices were so costly that many consumers opted to replace their devices rather than repair them. And the design of Samsung’s Galaxy devices remained frustratingly glued together, forcing us to sell batteries and screens in pre-glued bundles that increased the cost,” he added.

All of the above has pushed iFixit into ending its relationship with Samsung, with it set to take effect from the beginning of next month, Head confirmed.

“Despite a huge amount of effort, Samsung’s approach to repairability does not align with our mission,” he continued.

Moving forward, Head outlined some of the steps that will be taken now that the repair-focused relationship between the two is coming to an end.

• “iFixit will no longer be Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor.
• Also starting next month, we will no longer have a quantity limit of seven Samsung parts per repair shop per quarter.
• No existing information will be removed from iFixit, but we will not collaborate directly with Samsung to develop new manuals.”

While this announcement does not directly effect South African consumers, as the repair kits were never launched locally in any official capacity, it does not reflect well on Samsung, given its recent eulogising of sustainability and the use of recycled materials for some aspects of its device manufacturer.

Along with the iFixit announcement, more repair-related news has come to the fore, as a report from 404 Media alleges that independent repair stores must send your name, contact information, device identifier, and the nature of your complaint to Samsung, should you take a device there to be fixed.

Added to this, the repair store must disassemble your device and notify Samsung should any non-Samsung parts be found in it, according to a contract agreement spotted by the publication.

“Company shall immediately disassemble all products that are created or assembled out of, comprised of, or that contain any Service Parts not purchased from Samsung,” a section of it reads.

While it remains to be seen if the report is indeed true, if it is, any right to privacy that a consumer would assume when heading to an independent repair store is all but gone.

“This is exactly the kind of onerous, one-sided ‘agreement’ that necessitates the right-to-repair,” noted Kit Walsh of the Electronic Freedom Foundation per Engadget. “In addition to the provision you mentioned about dismantling devices with third-party components, these create additional disincentives to getting devices repaired, which can harm both device security and the environment as repairable devices wind up in landfills,” they added.

At the time of writing, Samsung has not officially commented on the iFixit split, or the report on repair stores.