Let me preface this by saying that this is not meant to be an intervention against the people who work at Fairphone who have always been competent and friendly, but a protest against Fairphone’s repair policies and costs.
I purchased a Fairphone 4 and unlocked the bootloader to install Iodé OS causing the phone to brick. I contacted Fairphone support who arranged for the phone to be reinstalled and repaired under warranty.
Upon return of the phone I tried to reinstall iodé OS following the procedure however I realized an error: I also unlocked the critical bootloader.
Realizing the error I restored the Fairphone stockrom downloaded from the Fairphone site and only after performing the stockrom restore did I re-lock the bootloaders (standard and critical). The bootloaders became corrupted again. I contact fairphone support again asking for a new repair and of course I offered to pay for the repair because I recognize that it was my mistake
I receive the quote from cordon yesterday and it is €649: as much as a new fairphone. I point out to fairphone support that it is an absurd price and that in the past the same repair was done for 29.90 (there are many threads on this forum that prove it) but fairphone support said they could not intervene and that the price is that
it is my opinion that it is an unfair practice that encourages the consumer to buy a new Fairphone rather than repair it (why should I have a phone repaired out of warranty when for the same price I can buy one under warranty? ) and that betrays the values Fairphone claims to be inspired by (0 waste, respect for the environment, openness to other OS)
A big disappointment for me and I am thinking of saying goodbye to Fairphone
I understand your disappointment and I’m wondering what support provided as reason that it would this time cost more? And I’m sure when you contact Fairphone again to ask for explanation and insist in the repair instead of a new phone, they will train Cordon and own support staff again and repair it again (unless for whatever reason repair is not possible). Maybe the person at Cordon and support is new and was not aware. Either way tell them not the forum, because even if the forum user might be happy to know, we cannot change anything here as we are also user like you.
Since support doubled down on something obviously ridiculous, if everything is as described, it seems only fair indeed.
I guess most of us have sometimes gotten pre-worded text blocks from some company or other, but there has to be a way for somebody to really look into this and sort this out.
I reiterate my disappointment: the fairphone support refused to repair the phone at the previous prices and I was forced to request the return of the phone without repair.
For those interested there will soon be parts of the fairphone 4 on sale
So you did contact them again after posting here? Did they provide any reason for this decision? Would you share it here and also share your ticket number? I would second AnotherElk here @formerFP.Com.Manager , it would be really good to look into this. Is this phone really unreparable this time?
I sadly cannot intervene in this case.
You can let the phone be sent back to you and repair it according to the forum.
Please let me know if you need assistance.
Have a lovely day!
Best wishes from Amsterdam,
and this is the last mail from cordon
Dear Sir,
As **** wrote to you on 5th of July, you can let the phone be sent back to you and repair it >according to the forum.
There is nothing I can do about the quote you received.
This quote is totally absurd, it costs a new fairphone and it doesn’t
make sense. On the Fairphone forum I read that this repair has a cost
of 30 € I contacted the fairphone support for clarification
Il giorno mar, 05/07/2022 alle 08.48 +0200, info@cordongroup.com ha
scritto:
Dear Customer,
You have entrusted us with your FAIRPHONE FP4 for repair and we thank
you for your trust.
This device may not benefit from the ?mode? manufacturer’s warranty
for the following reason: Product not guaranteed by the Manufacturer.
You will therefore find enclosed our repair quote.
This quote has a limited validity period.
Sincerely,
Anyway I paid to get the phone back unrepaired. Since you can find online quotes for the same repair at different costs (and coincidentally always at the price of a new phone) depending on the phone purchased, I am preparing a report to the guarantor to verify the legitimacy of this behavior.
thanks for sharing! There is absolutely no explanation given and I would def. not accept this and would question this further (aggressively and still nice), at least they must provide a proper justification for this. To me it still seems there are people involved who are not properly trained and FP would do itself a favour to get rid of those ridiculous quotes! FP has bug causing those bricks, so they cannot let themselfes off the hook. Sure its not a warranty case as you flash on your own risk, however I can neither see the need for a new phone.
Considering that they charge different prices for the same repair depending on the phone purchased, and that a bug in the phone is at the root of the problem, I am preparing a report to the consumer protection authority.
I’m really sorry this has happened to you @efesto85… I’ve not had my FP4 for long, but to be clear the problem you’ve faced upon relocking the bootloader after flashing the stock FPOS through fastboot is a common issue that Fairphone is responsible for (even if it is not part of their services under warranty).
Here is the message #175 on another thread where a number of users have faced similar issues, bricking their phones and getting it repaired by Fairphone either for 30e (if considered out of warranty) or for free by @pjaap:
Update on my side:
After I contacted Fairphone support the device was send to Cordon for a repair.
This company replied immediately after getting the device that repair cost is 649€ (lol)
After a few more weeks (Fairphone support was not answering) I called Fairphone and they intervened at Cordon and one day later the device was fixed for free and now I have it back.
So please don’t get trolled by Cordon and call Fairphone directly. This is much faster than my text mail. I had a very nice chat on the phone
So definitely do not give up and reach out to Fairphone directly, because Cordon seems to be the problem!
I explained in detail each steps I did to the Fairphone support and each step should be covered by the warranty. The bricking of the phone happend the moment I relocked the booloader with the official Fairphone image using the official Fairphone guide. Maybe they could reproduce my steps. I don’t know.
But calling is definitively the way to go. My online support ticket was untouched for weeks.
Yesterday while I was at work I was contacted by Fairphone support, they apologised for everything and my device will be repaired. For me the matter is resolved
Thank you all for following my topic I hope the bug involving the bootloader will be fixed as soon as possible because it eliminates a strong point of fairphone
Great to hear that your problem was resolved!
I hope Fairphone has also taken steps to fix this systematic issue that has affected quite a few people already. It would be disappointing if everybody would have to keep fighting personally for the “right thing” to happen in all those cases.
I asked the support to explain me these differences of treatment: why some users (including me) had to pay 29€ while for others it was free? And this problem that affects many Fairphoners is due to a bug that Fairphone did not quite solve !
The support answered me to say… nothing. I called again and they admitted that they had not answered my question and that they would do it. So I am waiting for the final word.
And this is the final word!
On July 19, 2022 09:24, I got this message from the support
First of all I want to acknowledge that indeed your case should have been treated in warranty. The issue your device presented was mistaken by something else and, therefore you were charged for its repair. Shortly after, the issue was identified as Fairphone’s responsibility and more recent affected customers received in warranty repairs.
Of course you will be reimbursed for the charged costs. For that I want to offer you one of the two options below:
we reimburse you 29€ directly to your bank account. For that we’ll need a copy of Cordon’s invoice and your bank details.
or I’ll send you a €40 voucher to be used in our online store.
Let me know which option suits you better and I’ll help you further with it.
I chose the refund and on August 18 the money was in my account.
In the end, it wasn’t that difficult: I just had to wait since March 13, 2022 23:51, not even five months!
Good luck and lots of patience!
