Right to Repair — more testimony

Thank you, Committee Chair Amy Walen and the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee

I am Patricia Boiko, testifying on behalf of Quaker Voice on Washington Public Policy in support of House Bill 1392 because as Quakers, a faith-based group, we have a testimony of simplicity. As a senior citizen, I need a human being to show my electronic device to for repair.

In our Quaker worship group, we now worship in person with a computer present for people to join online. At times, I am in charge of setting up and hosting our worship online. Before one of these meetings, the pc I use suddenly stopped working. I had to mail in my entire computer back to Microsoft. It took three Sundays to fix.

Meanwhile, I could use my phone, which also broke. The local phone store person suggested I buy a new for over a thousand dollars. It wasn’t so much that cost but the realization that I had just learned how to use my old phone that caused me to have a look of shock on my face. He felt sorry me and gave me the number of a repair shop who explained the problem and fixed it in one day.

I was blown away when I read this:  If Americans would extend the life of their cellphones by one year, f it would be the climate-saving equivalent of taking 636,000 cars off the road.

We at Quaker Voice hope you see HB 1392 through your committee and onward into law. Please give those independent repair shops the ability to fix our electronics so senior citizens can continue to use the technology they have finally learned to use and we can simply save the environment.

Thank you for your time, and for the opportunity to testify.