Fix Right
Check whether your broken gadget is covered by a right-to-repair law, and get the parts-and-documentation request ready to send.
FixRight
Check whether your broken gadget is covered by a right-to-repair law, and get the parts-and-documentation request ready to send.
Date: 2026-09-03 Form factor: web app Status: Prototype
What it is
FixRight takes what you bought, where, when, and for how much, and tells you whether a state right-to-repair law requires the manufacturer to sell you parts, hand over service documentation, and provide diagnostic tools. If it does, FixRight drafts the request letter, citing the exact statute, so you don't have to figure out which of eight different state laws applies or write the thing yourself.
Who it serves
Anyone whose laptop, phone, or small appliance broke after the warranty ran out and got the standard brush-off from support: no parts, no manual, buy a new one. It's also useful to independent repair shops, who hit this wall constantly and currently write these requests from scratch, state by state, with no shared reference for which law covers which product.
Why it could be profitable
Freemium: one free check and one free letter per visit, no account required. A paid tier ($4–6/month) adds saved devices, reminders to follow up if the manufacturer doesn't respond, and a directory of independent repair shops with referral fees from the shops that pay to be listed. The state-law ruleset itself is also a plausible B2B sale — extended-warranty companies and repair chains need to know this stuff cold and currently pay compliance consultants for it.
The demand side is real but young. Texas's HB 2963 took effect September 1, 2026, making it the eighth state with an electronics right-to-repair law in force and the first Republican-led one to pass it — a signal this has stopped being a niche progressive cause. PIRG estimated in January 2026 that over a quarter of Americans are now covered by some version of this law. And Techdirt reported on August 28, 2026 that enforcement of these laws is close to nonexistent, which is exactly the gap a self-serve letter tool is built for: nobody's coming to make manufacturers comply, so consumers have to ask directly. What's unproven is whether enough people actually write the letter once they know their rights, versus just giving up and buying new. That's the open question a real launch would need to test.
Form factor & scope
Single-page web app. This prototype covers three things: a purchase checker that runs your inputs against the eight in-force state laws, a comparison table of those laws, and a sample repair-shop directory that stands in for the referral piece. A real version would need a live, maintained statute database — this one ships with a snapshot as of September 3, 2026.
How to run it
- Open
index.htmlin any modern browser. - On the "Check My Purchase" tab, fill in a product category, purchase state, price, and date (or pick one of the preset examples) and see the coverage result and draft letter update live.
- Switch to "State Law Tracker" to compare all eight laws side by side, and to "Repair Directory" to see the referral-listing concept.
What's in this prototype
- Purchase checker that evaluates category exemptions, price thresholds, and effective dates against eight state right-to-repair statutes
- Auto-generated demand letter, filled in from the checker inputs and citing the applicable law, with a one-click copy button
- Side-by-side state law comparison table (effective date, price threshold, what the law requires, exemptions)
- Sample repair-shop directory demonstrating the referral-listing concept
- Sample data for 12 purchases and 10 repair shops so every view loads populated
Roadmap
- Real statute database with a maintenance process, since these laws change every legislative session
- Model/serial lookup so users don't have to manually enter product category and price
- Deadline tracking and automatic follow-up reminders when a manufacturer doesn't respond
- Optional certified-mail or email delivery for the letter (paid tier)
- Expand past electronics into other right-to-repair categories as more states pass them (mobility devices, agricultural equipment)
Sources
- Texas Is Fixin' to Fix Repair: Right to Repair Signed Into Law — HB 2963 provisions, $50 wholesale threshold, exemptions, September 1, 2026 effective date
- 'Right To Repair' State Laws Continue To Surge, But Enforcement Remains Nonexistent — eight states in force as of Texas, enforcement gap
- Navigating the 'Right to Repair' Landscape in 2026 — state-by-state basics used for the law dataset
- More than one-quarter of Americans covered by Right to Repair come Jan 1 — population-coverage estimate
- Connecticut Right to Repair law comes into force — Connecticut provisions and thresholds
Requirements
FixRight — Requirements
Goals
- Let a user determine, in under a minute, whether their electronics purchase is covered by a right-to-repair law
- Produce a usable draft letter that cites the correct statute without requiring the user to know which law applies
- Make the multi-state patchwork legible at a glance, not just answerable one purchase at a time
- Demonstrate a plausible referral-revenue surface (repair-shop directory) alongside the free utility
Primary user
A consumer whose device broke outside warranty and who has already been told "no parts available" by manufacturer support, plus independent repair shop owners who write these requests on behalf of customers and want a faster starting point than drafting from scratch each time.
Functional requirements
- FR1: The checker form must collect product category, purchase state, purchase price, and purchase date.
- FR2: The system must evaluate the purchase against a dataset of state right-to-repair laws and return a covered/not-covered verdict.
- FR3: A not-covered verdict must state the specific reason (state not covered, category exempted, price below threshold, purchase date before the law's applicability date).
- FR4: A covered verdict must display the statute name, citation, and what the law requires (parts, tools, documentation, diagnostic software).
- FR5: The system must generate a demand letter pre-filled with the user's inputs and the applicable statute, editable as plain text.
- FR6: The letter panel must offer a one-click copy action.
- FR7: The State Law Tracker view must list all eight in-force states with effective date, minimum price threshold (if any), and exemption categories, sortable or at minimum clearly scannable.
- FR8: The Repair Directory view must list sample repair shops with name, location, specialty, and a visual marker distinguishing referral-partner listings from non-partner listings.
- FR9: All views must load from
sample-data.jsonrather than hardcoded markup. - FR10: The checker must offer at least three preset example purchases so a first-time user can see a result without typing.
- FR11: Category exemptions (for example, video game consoles or motor vehicles) must be enforced per state, since exemption lists differ across the eight laws.
- FR12: The UI must clearly label the law dataset as a snapshot dated September 3, 2026, and note that this is not legal advice.
User stories
- As a consumer, I want to enter what I bought and where, so that I know immediately whether I have a legal claim to parts and documentation.
- As a consumer, I want a ready-to-send letter, so that I don't have to figure out the right legal language myself.
- As a repair shop owner, I want to compare all eight state laws at once, so that I can advise customers correctly regardless of where they bought the item.
- As a first-time visitor, I want preset examples, so that I can see how the tool works before entering my own information.
- As a user whose purchase isn't covered, I want to know exactly why, so that I understand whether a different state, date, or price would have changed the outcome.
- As a user, I want to copy my generated letter in one click, so that I can paste it straight into an email to the manufacturer.
Non-functional requirements
- Runs fully client-side; no account, login, or personal data leaves the browser
- Readable on a phone-width viewport without horizontal scrolling
- All interactive controls reachable and operable by keyboard
- No purchase or letter data persists beyond the browser session (prototype has no backend)
- Page usable within a second or two of load on a typical broadband connection, given the dataset is small and local
Out of scope (for the prototype)
- Live, continuously updated statute database (this ships a fixed snapshot)
- Model or serial-number lookup to auto-fill product details
- Actual email or certified-mail delivery of the letter
- Payment processing for the paid tier described in the README
- Coverage for states with introduced-but-not-yet-enacted bills
Open questions
- Do enough people actually send the letter once they know their rights, or does most value get captured just by the free "am I covered" check?
- Should the letter generator eventually route through a lawyer-reviewed template per state, given these statutes change most legislative sessions?
- Would repair shops pay for directory placement, or does that only work once the checker has real traffic?
