Hi @hazelnot, did you try to call Fairphone? Sometimes this helps if things seem complicated. I think it should be possible to convince them that it is sufficient to tell them the IMEI number of the phone. They have a stolen phone list. They could check if the IMEI of your phone is on that list. If it is not, there is no reason not to help you.
An other option is to ask a Fairphone Angel to help you.
Your proof of warranty is your proof of purchase thats a real standard approach and I guess law will facilitate this approach. Any registration would be in addition and always connected to a person and I doubt there is any company having any kind of unregistering button? And even if, it would be up to the seller to do so, just like handing over the invoice. Should you have a FP4 and you have registered for extended warranty, you received an E-Mail as proof.
And to register any kind of warranty you still will always need the invoice.
The list isn’t inclusive of all stolen phones, it just includes some and I doubt the UK police will pass that on to Fairphone.
It is the person who has control of the phone to show they have legitimate control if they want support.
Regarding repairs outside warranty There is no contract to repair a phone outside a valid warranty so why would Fairphone commit to repairing any and every phone they have ever made ??
In the UK there is legislation that covers six years to bring a claim against a faulty product, but from the previous owner. Should they not provide an original receipt then the only recourse is to take them to task.
If you something in a bush don’t expect the seller to be there when you have a problem.
I haven’t called them, but I have emailed them and they seemed unwilling to help at all unless I could give them the original invoice from the original owner, which as I and multiple other people have stated is not standard practice when buying used products. It’s a smartphone, not a piece of art or a luxury good. Nobody transfers documents of provenience and pedigree when it comes to electronics, unless it’s some sort of retro new in box type thing. I will try to call them on Monday though, see if that will be of any help. If not I guess my only choice is to buy a new phone, which will definitely not be a Fairphone thanks to these circumstances.
I never said anything about keeping my views secret, but asking someone to provide personally identifiable information of a third party is a clear invasion of that party’s privacy, no matter how you look at it. And stating that it’s your responsibility to “keep the subject alive” is ridiculous.
Maybe it’s different where you live, but at least in Spain, Romania, and presumably most countries in the EU and the world in general it is not common practice to transfer stuff like receipts and invoices when reselling something. Because this is not something that is or should be anyone’s business. Nobody buys a second-hand product thinking they’ll be able to return it or complain about it to the company and be asked for a receipt. Because most people never assume that they will need it for any other reason.
So yes, the title of the thread is accurate for likely over 90% of situations in which someone buys a used phone, no matter the ridiculous expectations you and the company might have in order to provide a basic service to customers.
Fairphone is a company registered in the Netherlands, operating under Dutch and EU law. I’d like to ask you to look into EU warranty law to find out why warranty is a given, and a legal right conferred to EU citizens under Directive 1999/44/EC.
Essentially no other company in history has made such demands of customers simply asking for a service as basic as this. Fairphone is an outlier here, and unlike in most other cases, this time it’s a bad thing.
You would not be disclosing anything to Fairphone, only confirming what they already know, after all they supplied the receipt.
The warranty is offered under conditions, there is no ‘right to repair’ that is unconditional and the vendor sets the conditions, which even if you were within the 2 year warranty period for an FP3, they consider you haven’t met.
So without a warranty you can only ask them to consider a paid repair, they have no obligation to repair. If they so no you can further discuss with them the reasons, but here you only get user opinions, which presumably is why you started this topic.
Did you ever check your invoice? Mine came as pdf attached to an email and it confirms that I bought one “F4FPHN-2GS-EU1”. There’s not even a serial or IMEI on that “proof of purchase”.
Given that document I could present every FP4 with the same specs for warranty or repair.
When I sell the Fairphone I’d obviously have to give away a copy of the invoice to the buyer- the third part. And as written the ‘proof of purchase’ doesn’t contain information to identify the phone itself but only via the first owner.
Regarding the extended warranty: It’s confirmed by email, this time with IMEI. For the sake of sustainability I’d expect a simple option to announce an owner change to Fairphone. They got me 3 times to register myself- shop, fairphone itself and warranty, but the only access I have is the order information from the shop (no identification of the phone).
Yes, it should be done that way.
Requiring proof of purchase for a repair on a year-old phone is crazy.
Heck, I got my mom an FP4 and I was going to get one too.
@hazelnot please keep us posted if you get your phone repaired.
After this thread I tend to a SHIFTphone 8
Modular design, waterproof with IP certification, protection class IP67 or better. Custom ROM community support.
really!!I
Never heard of anyone asking for proof of ownership before repairs were allowed…
That has to be the most asinine excuse I have ever heard.
If that is the policy this Fairphone 3 I bought on Amazon will be my last one.
The entire discussion is based on pure speculation. Non one here knows a) what was said/written between FP and the OP (not indicating OP is lying, maybe there is just some kind of misunderstanding).
b)the theft theory brought up is somones personal opinion/speculation, no one here works for Fairphone.
Overall, irrespective of what FP said: I would look for local repair, because my feeling about Cordon is, they dont repair (like soldering etc) they just change modules. From the report of the OP I guess in this case it might be the core module, which I guess almost is the price of a new phone.
As already stated above somewhere, check other Repair shops or Repair Cafés.
We are only talking about phones here not other consumer items, as phones are so easily stolen being small, rather valuable in terms of finances and of course hold personal information. They are quite unique items.
Now given that most phones are bought from shops and are taken back for repairs then that seems reasonable, even shop will ask questions, name etc. and can check against their sales.
Some brands like Samsung and Apple have dedicated shops, have you tried getting a second hand phone repaired at Apple etc. again they will ask questions and have records.
Now Fairphone doesn’t have a shop so there is no walk and talk option so it makes sense, although time consuming to supply electronic answers to their questions.
So consequently any support can be laborious and stressful.
There are companies which manufacture more expensive bicycle components like Rohloff - and as far I know they also ask for proof of legal ownership before they accept any repair requests to make their internal gear hubs (like the Rohloff Speedhub 500/14) unattractive for thieves. However this hub alone costs more than 1100 EUR. If this price is already “luxury” or just a bit more expensive depends on what you are used to. A Fairphone 4 is also not that cheap with at least 570 EUR for the cheaper model.
Yeah why would the company called Fairphone repair their phones if we’re willing to pay them for said repairs…
They issue is " every phone they have ever made" no company will do that unless you pay them ‘millions’ things go out of stock and parts are not readily available.
And the Fairphone is above sustaining an improvement in the day to day existence of the people who work mining and manufacturing in unhealthy and dangerous environments and jobs.
Having a malfunctioning second hand phone, is way off beat, and to demand such is not just unreasonable but demanding some imagined rights.
Way off the interactions I work on.
Still whereas some dreams are impossible some are actually unhealthy.
But no doubt most people dream of being free but some dream of controlling others
But FP themselves claim the parts are available?
Yeah, expecting a company to repair a phone when their website states
First, we recommend troubleshooting your issue to make sure that your issue is caused by a hardware defect. In case you need to replace some hardware, you can buy spare parts via our online shop. If you are not sure about what to repair, you can visit a local repair shop for a diagnosis, or contact our Customer Support to send it to our repair center.
Is indeed very scandalous.
There are limits to how many spare parts are manufactured, so repairs, at a reasonable cost are limited. It would be financially unsustainable to try to keep repairing any and every phone.
However your quote relates to the FP3 and as far as I know all the parts are available, and repairs are still considered as possible warranty (free) repairs, given time and use caveats.
Regarding the last part, yes a phone can be sent for a paid repair, if they have the parts and they are sure the phone belongs to the sender.
I see no scandal ???
Fairphone themselves encourage buying a used phone as it’s good for the environment. The company’s mission statement is not only about fair trade and fair compensation, but also about reducing e-waste. Repairing a broken phone fits perfectly in that mission statement, so I don’t understand why it’s so outlandish that you claim that OP is demanding “some imagined rights”.
This policy of not repairing doesn’t help anyone, and contributes to e-waste, which is against their mission statement.
Finally, can you please drop the passive aggressive act?
Whereas I understand your opinion I disagree but will not give reasons as you seem not to want me to discuss them. I understand my ideas may not be common but they are real enough to me.
But I stick by my summary, there are no ‘rights’ and privileges are conditional.
But thanks for the feedback
There is another user with a similar issue
It feels like people keep getting drawn into this thread on the basis of the speculation in it, so it seems like yvmuell’s point above bears repeating, again: there is no policy being explained here, beyond the mention of communications that the initial poster had.
Amoun and others do not represent Fairphone, and are not stating Fairphone policy. Almost all discussion of policy here is speculation.
It’s pretty incredible how someone with the title “angel” goes around and passively aggressively attacks people for expecting a company to repair their phone against payment when their website states they can in fact repair said phone. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen amoun fighting with fang and claw to defend Fairphone either.
Fairphone needs no defence this forum is for user opinions, maybe you have not heard of the Devil’s Advocate.
Arguments encourage those that engage to expand their thinking.
But to help clarify. The angel does not refer to activity on the forum it’s just local help, it’s not a title, there is no entitlement, and because I have a number of Fairphones in the family I support people who may have problems, with the phone, so I can learn quicker.
I can not offer support to people who have problems with the Fairphone as a business, that’s Fairphone’s employee tasks, but I can, and do, sometimes, comment on posts that seems to demand this and that from other people, be they end users or employees of Fairphone
Here is just user views, no claws or fangs and no recommendation to buy any Fairphone, and definitely not a second hand one on ebay and the likes.
People have expectations, some less than others. Some expect more form others, some from themselves.
On the tag ‘Angel’ I think it does give a bad impression, and I have noted that with the moderators. I would prefer ‘Elf’ like Santa’s helpers, that may also be a bit mischievous, however I spend most of my ‘Fairphone Focus’ here on the forum and feel more like a Gnome, sat at a plastic keyboard.
