Our TV has broken. Rather than just sending it to landfill and getting a new one. I'd like to give to a company who would refurbish and sell it, and buy a refurbished one from them at the same time.
I don't want to buy a second hand telly privately, I would want it to be tested and certified as refurbished.
Also I don't want to scrap the old one, and don't need the replacement to be 'new' it's such an unsustainable way of living.
Is anyone aware of companies offering this kind of service yet in Switzerland? It's coming everywhere, but I can't find one here yet.
Probably depends on make and model. And of course the actual defect.
It may not be economic to repair in Switzerland, though.
Apple will repair their hardware as long as it's not declared "vintage", which happens a couple of years after they stop selling it. Until then, they will provide parts to authorized repair shops or repair it themselves.
They usually provide OS-upgrades for about 5-6 years for a new device, at least for iPhones and iPads.
Again, the cost of the repair may not be economic.
However, the selection is not that big as in other countries - probably due to the fact that the Swiss market isn't that price-sensitive to begin with and they mainly want to sell new kit here...
Sell the broken tv on Ricardo with a starting price of 1 CHF.
Buy a used tv on Ricardo / Tutti / Facebook / any other platform. It's not worth to ask for testing and certification as TVs are cheap and it would only increase the price.
I was recently in a similar situation - the backlight on the LED TV stopped working, everything else was fine, it just made it unwatchable as the image was so dim.
I researched the price to have it repaired, and decided that was ridiculously expensive (can't recall the price now, but you can imagine).
I bought a newer model from somebody on Ricardo for 35 francs.
I advertised my older one, with a clear description of the defect, for 10 francs on Tutti. The buyer said he could easily repair it, as he does a lot of work with electronics and the replacement parts are still easily available.
Everybody happy, and nothing tossed to landfill or bought new.
For a while it's had a white spor in the center of the screen... Which I think has got better, but the team (immediate family) think I've got used to.
Screen fault or not its a good smart TV.
On the day of it 'breaking' the screen started flashing (approx. 1 sec on/off) , with rapidly increasing frequency (to approx. 0.25 sec on/off) that took the TV from 1s to 0.24 s in about 5 mins.
While it would need a new screen (though it might be possibly fixed) our suspicion is the new fault is related to the power supply (might be wrong though, no real diagnostics have been undertaken), which feels like an easy fix.
Why not take advantage of the opportunity this breakdown has presented to wean yourself away from the TV. It is anyway miserable to watch nowadays, especially the news.
With huge energy price rises in the pipeline and potentially massive disruptions to the flow of manufactured goods obviously including electronics, being able to sit and watch TV could soon be an unaffordable luxury.
But you have presented a quaint picture of a concept to keep old TV sets going. It is a reminder of the auto mobile situation in Cuba where, because of import difficulties, and with amazing ingenuity, ancient old cars are somehow kept running.
Incidentally, old TVs, well at least in Switzerland, do not end up in a land fill site.