Danvers Repairers Meet With Committee Chairman On Right To Repair Act

Published in the November 2009 eNewsletter from the Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition, massrighttorepair.com

(L-R) Eric Gaudette, Rep. Theodore Speliotis (D-Danvers), Danny O'Keefe, Mike Gallant, Dick Bolduc

Mike Gallant and his wife, Lisa, have been running Mike’s Garage for 23 years, one of the many trusted local mom and pop auto repair shops that dot the neighborhoods of Danvers, a picturesque suburban community Northeast of Boston, Massachusetts.  Formerly known as Salem Village, the site of the notorious witch trials in 1692, last week Danvers repairers took the opportunity to voice their present day trials and tribulations associated with Right to Repair problems directly to their state Representative, Ted Speliotis, who also happens to be the House Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, the group charged with evaluating the Right to Repair legislation.

Mike and Lisa invited Chairman Speliotis for coffee at their garage, and were joined by veteran local repairers Dick Bolduc from adjoining Al’s Auto, Danny O’Keefe from Danvers Auto, and Eric Gaudette representing Pete’s Garage.  Each repairer described to Rep. Speliotis case after specific case of trying to diagnose and make repairs on certain models, but ultimately resorting to sending some long-time customers back to the dealer to either complete the repair or reflash the vehicle computer to turn off warning lights.

“I just sent a customer away who’s been coming to me for almost 20 years, and I felt terrible, because I know it’s going to cost a lot more at the dealership than at my place,” said Mike Gallant.

“I had a customer bring in a Volvo S80 with a check engine light,” tells Eric Gaudette, of Pete’s Garage. “We diagnosed the problem, bought the original equipment part from the dealer and installed it properly, now the car wouldn’t start, nothing would work.  It turns out I needed to take it to the dealer myself to have the system reflashed—and get this – it had to be done by satellite to Sweden on a hook-up only the dealer has access to,” said Gaudette.

The repairers showed the lawmaker an array of high-tech scanning tools and other costly diagnostic machines that they’ve purchased which help them navigate the complex waters of today’s computer-run vehicles.  “If I want to invest in a different original equipment scanning tool for and subscribe to the corresponding website for each manufacturer for the year, it would cost each of us between $50,000 and $80,000 every year, which isn’t realistic for small independent shops if it still means, as a non-dealer, I can’t get  access to 100% of the information to repair that model car,” said Gaudette.

Some independent repairers have even been told by certain dealers not to bother with the extra expense of purchasing the manufacturers scanning tool, because they still won’t have access to the same information that the dealer can obtain using the same tool.

The repairers compared it to a consumer buying a laptop or a new flat screen television at a local electronics  retailer, only to find out you can’t repair it or make it  work properly unless you bring it back directly to the manufacturer of that device.

Danny O’Keefe of Danvers Auto shared a story with the Representative and his staff about replacing a simple ignition switch, and after installing the genuine Honda parts, the car would not start and had to go to the dealership to have the ignition coded through their computer.  “All this cost me, and especially the customer, time and money,” said O’Keefe.

Opponents of Right to Repair have dismissed the issue as “a solution in search of a problem”, which is exactly why Mike and Lisa Gallant invited the Chairman and his fellow repairers—to show that not only are the problems real for them and their customers, it’s happening day in and day out right in Chaiman Speliotis’ back yard with his constituents.

“What was most interesting to me was that these repairers treat one another not as competitors, but as friends and respected business associates, and they often rely on one another by sharing snippets of automotive information that is not readily available from local dealers or the auto manufacturers,” said Art Kinsman, Spokesman for the Right to Repair Coalition.