šŸ’ Canadian Fairphoners! šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦

Hey Brett,
Iā€™m located in Toronto and Iā€™m looking to sell my Fairphone 3. BIG WARNING: I bought it in April 2020 and the display is lifting from the phone. (Iā€™ll link to my post on the support forum). Iā€™ve been back and forth with the support team since November, I sent them photos but they have just suggested sending it in to their return center (weā€™re out of service area so itā€™s not covered to send it back. )
Functionality isnā€™t terribly effected, I use a bit of electrical tape to hold it together.
If youā€™re up for a DIY project or okay to have a bit of tape on your phone, Iā€™ll give you a good deal!

pmā€™d! Thanks for getting in touch ACE

Hey Canadian Fairphoners!
Looking to sell my Fairphone 3, If anyone is looking for parts for a DIY project Iā€™ve got the perfect phone for you.
Asking $250CND + shipping.
Here is my post here about the issue, more photos and details by request.

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Hello everyone! Iā€™m near Montreal and I have a few FP2 new spare pieces that I do not need:
-screen (new)
-bottom module (new)
-orange cover (new)
-camera (original one)

Let me know if this may help you!

A cautionary tale.

Maybe youā€™re here in the Forum researching whether or not you should buy a Fairphone. Maybe like myself, you came to the forum to hear from the experiences of other users to make your decision. Maybe, like myself, you are driven by a desire to have a phone thatā€™s more ethical, more sustainable and more repairable. Great!

After much deliberation, I ordered my Fairphone in March 2020 from CLOVE Technologies in the UK (paying rough $800ish with duties and all). I knew there was a risk of being outside the support area but figured it was repairable with a lot of resources and a community of support to repair whatever issues I encountered. I think in this friendly enthusiastic community of Fairphoners, that risk was downplayed. Or maybe I just so badly wanted to believe that a more ethical, sustainable and repairable phone was available outside of Europe, that I didnā€™t properly weigh that risk to the reward.

Skip to October 2020 when my display began lifting away from the body of the phone. It was 3ish weeks before I could successfully submit a support ticket (issues with their system at the time). Another week and a half before I got a response. They requested photos and it was into February before they suggested I return it to the support center for diagnosis**. It was March when they informed me that it was a known manufacturing issue**. Finally, just as I am debating whether itā€™s worth the time and money to send it back, I get caught in the rain and the water damage does in the display. Now, the issue is deemed user damage, though it was no doubt exacerbated by the fact that my phone had been gaping open for near 6 months.

In that time there was no trouble shooting or suggestion of repairing it myself (which I tried to no avail). Support often took weeks to get back to me on simple questions and the best support I received was from @robbert.f to hold it together with electrical tape. (Thank you, you truly are a Fairphone Angel.) I canā€™t help wondering if the support team was deliberately slow so that further damage would occur and it would be deemed user damage outside of warranty.

I wanted to share this cautionary tale and emphasize the risks of being outside the support area, I know this forum is typically a Fairphone lovefest and I wanted to share my story in case it saved anyone the hurt and hassle of what I went through.

If anyone wants Fairphone 3 parts, Iā€™ll send it your way if you cover the cost of shipping. I just want to be rid of the damn thing that gave me 6 months of feeling virtuous and 6 months of pain.

TLDR: Bought phone with known manufacturing defect, outside of the support area received little to no support. Giving away F***ed -up Fairphone to anyone who wants to cover shipping.

yours,
A Former Fairphoner

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The support delay may not be intentional but clearly inept and amounts to the same thing as such delays are very stressful and there seems to be no let up in Fariphoneā€™s amateuristic support.

I am not happy with the responses I get but unlike you, in Canada, from the UK I feel I can throw a stone across the English Channel to get their attention.

Saying that, I like the fact they try ~ and that they make a bit of a mess is all so ā€˜humanā€™. So unimpressed with the support am I that Iā€™m in the process of buying some shares so I can really be a part of the problem :slight_smile:

I hope you find someone in Canada that will appreciate your offerings, spare parts for a phone that almost works is brilliant to another FP3 owner. No point in sending it back to Europe really as we have easy access to parts.

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I just received this email, and learned that chatr does not allow non chatr devices!! Maybe that helps someone else if I post this! I have been reading through this forum for a while and the lack of support from FAIRPHONE to countries outside of EUROPE
and the long waiting times and extra cash I need to put down for shipping what ever else I might need if anything is damaged, seems troubeling for me for now. I hope FAIRPHONE will get a reseller of their product anywhere in canada where I could order my FP and parts from it if needed! Hope somone will read this, I spend so much time reading through the forum and applaus all of to be in this movement! Maybe one day I will be part of it!

Thank you for contacting Chatr Mobileā„¢.
Chatr does allow non Chatr devices (FAIRPHONE) to be used on the Chatr network. These phones will require being unlocked from their original provider and will need to be able to carry a Chatr SIM card. It is important to note that the non-Chatr phones must also be GSM-compatible with 850/1900 MHz frequency. The SIM cards are available for $10 (plus taxes) from select retail locations, and on www.amazon.ca. For customers with a non-Chatr device looking to sign up for one of our data plans, you will need to configure your own phone with the data settings before we can change/set up the plan. Donā€™t forget to check out the great selection of phones that Chatr has to offer as well.

Moe
Chatr Mobileā„¢
Visit us at: www.chatrmobile.com
or call 1-800-485-9745

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Hi, as I read it this e-mail states that it is allowed. The sentence you highlighted means that the phone should not be SIM-locked, which Fairphones arenā€™t. Also GSM 850/1900 MHz is supported: that is just the networkā€™s 2G frequency though, you probably want to know the 3G/4G bands as well if you want to make use of mobile internet.

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First be sure to contact official support@fairphone for future ideas on support as this is only a user forum. Secondly itā€™s unlikely that Fairphone will be expanding outside of Europe anytime soon.

On the

Fairphone is not a network provider only the manufacturer of the phones and the phones are unlocked ready for any sim card.

No problem

https://shop.fairphone.com/en/fairphone-3-plus

Expand Network options

2G (GMS, GPRS, EDGE)

Type - Cat. 33
Frequencies - 850, 900, 1800, 1900 Mhz
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Thanks for your relpy, I will wait till there is a canada location/ online shop. I asked them and they said:

If you purchase a Fairphone 3 and plan to use it abroad, you can [find out if it will work on your destination outside of Europe. However, please note that for now we wonā€™t be able to offer you assistance with connection issues in those circumstances. Repairs and replacements are also not supported outside of Europe.

But now I know about the FP and I will get one once theyā€™ll offer sales, repairs and replacements in Canada. There must be one person whoā€™s into this, I subscribed to their youtube channel and hope theyā€™ll announce it!

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Hi, I would like to discuss with anyone who possibly tried a Fairphone in Canada. The latest network seems not always working but how can I be sure it will work or not?

Thank you very much!

West coaster from BC here! My FP3+ works great on Fido as well.

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Just got my fairphone 3 days ago and it works great :slight_smile: (Burnaby, British Columbia)
In 2 weeks, I will be off to the prairies kind of in the middle of nowhere and lets see how it works. I have full confidence it will do well. Telus user

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My Fairphone 4 was just delivered. Possibly the first one in Canada?

Edit: Virgin Plus Mobile SIM (4G) works great on it. Canā€™t test 5G because Virgin doesnā€™t support that yet.

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Hi there Fairphoners!
My fairphone 3+ in August 2021 in the hands of friends who were stock in Spain for many months and could receive my order where they were staying!
I was very excited, cause to me, this is the dream phone :slight_smile:
There was a couple issues with the microphone and speakerphone at first, but nothing so dramatic!
But then in september 2021, my fairphone dropped in water for a couple of secondsā€¦ fell out of my pocket while working outside cause I wasnā€™t used to have such a big phoneā€¦
I opened it all up right away and dried it very good, it seemed good, only a tiny pinch of red on the water damage marker inside the phone.
But then it started to have real difficulties charging (plugged all night and charging 10% or sometimes not at all) and the microphone is getting worst. People donā€™t really hear me unless I plug my earphones and I canā€™t at all use the speakerphone (which means no videocalls unless I have earphones on)ā€¦
Itā€™s very unfortunate, I contacted the costumer service months ago to try and figure this out. I thought by just changing the bottom module and maybe the speaker module it would be all right (itā€™s kind of the point to be able to change the broken parts ourselves!) but the costumer service told me it had to be repair.
So since they donā€™t send shipping labels outside of Europe Iā€™d have to ship the phone somewhere to get the shiping label from them to have it repair, and then send back to that person and then sent back to me.
Sounds very complicated to me. Itā€™s the down side of having a phone that canā€™t be repair in the same continent as @Ace_S said before.
So I checked to get the bottom module anyway, but it seems itā€™s not available on any platforms (Clove, Vireo, not even on the website of Fairphoneā€¦)
So my question is: do you know a place in Canada (preferably in QuƩbec) that can repair Fairphone?
Do you know I could find a bottom module that works and fits in my Fairphone 3+?

I feel so sorry and fustrated about this situation :frowning:
Thanks for reading and thanks for the help!

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Hi and welcome to the forum.
Yes being outside the Fairphone area is a pain.

Not sure if will help but you may want to try drying more

I opened it all up right away and dried it very good, it seemed good, only a tiny pinch of red on the water damage marker inside the phone.

Did you dismantle the modules? Water or more precisely dampness can get into the modules let alone contaminate and help corrosion of the contacts?

You may like to read up on [water, damage] etc. here on the forum, there are a lot . . .

https://forum.fairphone.com/tag/waterdamage

https://forum.fairphone.com/search?q=red%20square

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Hi again,

I just became the first Fairphone Angel in Canada, woohoo! Iā€™ll be watching this topic extra closely now and hopefully I can help bolster the community in Canada and North America, if not just Ottawa.

But enough about this big nerd (me), what do you want from the local FP community? I know shipping can be a bit of a pain, so I was thinking of arranging some group buys of parts if thereā€™s interest.

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Hi Amoun,
Thanks for your response!
I tried to disamtle the bottom module, but it seems I donā€™t have the right tool to do the extra mini screwsā€¦
And since it had water damage 3 months ago, the water damage forum doesnā€™t really help :frowning:
But thanks for your support!

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It would definitly be good to create a buyerā€™s group (for bottom modules for example :wink: )

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