Battery Temporarily Out of Stock - Q&A

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original text here on the product page

As of today the battery for the Fairphone 2 is out of stock. As this will come as an unpleasant surprise to many, we want to answer some questions how this happened. This forum message is the first way of informing, the website of Fairphone will be updated soon.

When will batteries be for sale on the Fairphone website?

We expect to have more batteries in stock on our website by the end of April, and will do our best to resolve the situation and keep you informed.

What led up to this situation?

The sub-supplier who made the battery cell used in our original battery for the Fairphone 2 stopped producing it. Last July, we kicked off a project with a new manufacturer to produce a new battery to support the Fairphone 2 for a longer term. We placed a purchase order with this new manufacturer, and they committed to delivering in time to avoid any shortage. We also reserved several extra months worth of supply as a buffer.

On the 23rd of January, the manufacturer informed us they had made a mistake in scheduling that will delay the delivery of our order. We then made the decision to reserve remaining stock to meet existing commitments to reseller partners and for in-warranty repairs.

What are you doing to fix this situation?

We are in close contact with the manufacturer in order to meet (or even improve on) the new delivery date. They notified us of the delay which has caused this situation, and remain committed to delivering.

The development cycle for a new battery, with a new cell, can take many months. It includes significant testing, qualification and certification work. We planned enough time to cover for iterations and delays. For example, they produced multiple rounds of samples, which were evaluated by multiple parties to ensure the quality and safety of the final product.

Our plan is to continue working with them, but closely monitor the situation. We are confident that despite the delay they will deliver good batteries.

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This is good to know! I’ve been thinking about getting a new battery, my current one has been playing up. I’m on LineageOS and have been for a while but I’m sure my issues with sudden battery drain and other faults happened on FPOOS and FPOS as well.

Hope my battery can last till late April :sweat:

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I hope resellers will introduce a “one per customer” policy for the battery as soon as possible.

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I love that kind of information policy, being as transparent and open as possible.

Will the battery have the same technical data as the “old” one?

The first time I read it, like the new battery will be more powerful; when rereading; I guess, it just means to have batteries in stock for a longer period of time (to omit the situation that happened to the FP1).

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Indeed, the battery will have the same tech specs. Longer term is meant to be read in relation to the availability of the product.

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Thanks for letting us know. But this …

… sounds like “the dog ate my homework” (regarding the manufacturer, not Fairphone). Of course I have no insight in this, but a company suddenly realizing they forgot to manufacture something they have been working on for months? I hope your contract with them has this covered. In many industries a 3 month delay will result in serious penalties.

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Tonight my phone started rapidly discharging and currently won’t turn on even when plugged in to mains. I am following the prompts in the batteryguide to try to solve this, but am not hopeful to be honest. I’ve had problems with it holding charge for a while, having posted about it previously here on the forum.

I was going to get a new battery before today, but now obviously desperately need one. But the shop is saying there is no more stock until end of April!?! Thats ridiculous - I can’t go 3 months without my phone! Are there any other batteries I can buy elsewhere that will fit?

Thanks

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Check out the list of #resellers. Some of them probably still have a stock of batteries.

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Ok thanks I’ve emailed the only one in GB there is - but think they won’t be bothered to sell me one battery.

Anywhere else you can suggest I try?

Thanks

Richard

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Check the list again. There are shops that deliver worldwide.

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Sadly the ones I found that had batteries in stock won’t deliver outside of their country :frowning:

If anyone else has leads please do share - I’m desperate!

Thanks

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Well … out of the list e.g. https://www.vireo.de/fairphone/zubehoer/8628/fairphone-2-akku currently has stock and delivers worldwide … you can try to e-mail them in English, address is at the top right of the page.

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Same goes for the German online-shop memolife.de.
Delivery to UK is 19.95 Eur.

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Thanks for your reply - much appreciated. I tried to order and they listed every other country to deliver to except England / UK! I have emailed them for help

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Thanks too for your reply. I have had problems with site too - it won’t add my order to the cart. Again I have emailed them for help

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Really :slight_smile: ? They list it as Great Britain …

de-UK
de-UK720Ă—1174 529 KB

But you’re right, it is a problem if you can refer to your country in so many different ways, I have seen it listed on German sites as “Vereinigtes Königreich” (United Kingdom) as well, which would be as difficult to find for English-speakers I guess …

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Thanks for taking the time to help with this. I have now ordered successfully.

I was using Google Translate which seemingly wasn’t recognising the “ß”

Your help is much appreciated :):grin:

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I totally agree. Also I could follow on single Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns that asian manufacturers tend to prefer/process large scale orders before limited orders. No matter what was agreed/signed on. There is always an excuse actually leaving (small) customers behind. Looks like money these days even turns out to be dull. :frowning:

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The problem is as we could experience with covers in the past already…as soon as something is out of stock prices start to rise into ridiculous hights…and these were “only” covers…now what will happen if most important components as batteries are out…

@Douwe

For a good reason I have ordered a second battery with my phone. Anyway they won´t last too long. So please FP team, please make sure to finally have a truely reliable manufacturer at hand which “was not” involved in S****ungs battery issue. I beliefe this would definitely be a show stopper for FP2 if things go seriously wrong here. Good luck and many thanks for your open words on this.

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Just guessing:
Usually there is a penalty clause in the contracts.
So, if they delay the great order for a global player, they do not only risk losing that valuable customer, but they will have to pay a hefty fine.
If they delay a smaller order, the fine will be less (even if the clause is identical) and the customer they might loose is not as important.

Therefore such a decision can be expected (businesswise). :grimacing:

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