Australian consumers’ ability to get their phones, laptops, TVs and other household products repaired is in the spotlight, as the Productivity Commission holds hearings as part of its right-to-repair inquiry.

Increasingly, people are finding devices, electrical appliances and household goods don’t last as long as they would like, and need to be either fixed by the manufacturer or completely replaced – often at a high cost when out of warranty.

Independent operators have also reported being increasingly shut out of the repair market, with manufacturers putting up both physical and price barriers.

The commission’s draft report, released last month, has proposed a number of solutions, such as the creation of a durability index to tell shoppers how long they can expect devices to last beyond warranty, and the establishment of a consumer body like Choice to collect issues with certain devices to make a “super complaint” to take legal action against manufacturers.

Tell us in the comments below about your experience trying to get a broken product fixed. What went wrong with your devices or appliances, and what problems did you run into when trying to get the product repaired?