And wait 6 more months until you have to send another one again.
I think Fairphone is really lucky with it’s tolerant customers. Such an approach wouldn’t work in a less charity-based environment without getting sued.
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They are going to end up un waste anyway, if they throw them away now, they are sure they are recycled
And the shipping is not something Eco friendly at all
I can’t see any reason, except money, to not recycle them.
Hm, my new replacement cover (black translucent) still has no deformed rubber, but slight cracks around most of the corners. (Then again, I can’t say for sure it’s a faulty production, since I dropped my phone like twice from ~30 cm)
The cracks don’t interfere much with anything and seem to not get bigger.
I’ll probably get a slim cover myself soon. (If I don’t end up selling my FP 2 first, since my patience is slowly running out.)
Personally, I’ve reached that breakpoint.
I’m starting to.
Support answer me the same. Losing faith in Fairphone. And I’ve been a strong supporter, specially with software bugs, even when they haven’t solved yet critic | ones.
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I don’t have any problem with my cover but I have never opened the phone…
Anyhow, I feel that once more it is a communication problem. Fairphone should learn to trust their clients/members: they know that we are willing to pay more for a fair phone and they know that most of us can accept some issues if that helps the movement.
So, Fairphone should say: we know that the covers are faulty. Some people may not experience deformations but many will, moreover if they open the phone regularly (which by the way a lot of people do to show how cool the phone is, so it’s the best advertisement Fairphone could get). On the other hand, we have a lot of extra covers we don’t want to waste (please tell us that the production stopped and let us know how many you still have left). So here’s the deal:
- You support Fairphone and accept to recieve an old cover, knowing that it may split if you open the phone often (I could do that)
- You open the phone too often so you can buy a new cover with a discount (and if angry people harass you to get it for free, let them get it so they’ll be happy and don’t spread bad rumors; most of the base will accept a discount I hope)
- Same as 2 but you buy the new cover to help Fairphone on its long journey (and get a thank you and sorry we had an unlucky try but at least it’s not as bad as Samsung’s!)
Well, I guess that’s all for today! Communicate more, ask for the members’ indulgence, try to explain better what the economical problems would look like if you threw away the old cases and gave away new ones!
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That’s exactly my use case. Every people I face who has problems with their phone, I show them how a smartphone/gadgets should be made: modular. Then I tell them about humanity in the manufacturing process. Finally, I tell them about mothly security updates and living without Google with FP Open OS.
But I’m not confident while telling this story where my case is splitted, or broken, and I have to change it once every six months or pay an extra 40€ to avoid receiving a badly-designed case.
That’s what Fairphone is losing: us. The community, the supporters.
P.S.: I’m also a developer porting CyanogenMod to FP2. While you are developing critical parts, you need to disassemble a lot the phone to take the battery out.
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Dear Sylvain, sorry to reply to this post so late. I also have a defective back cover (the warping issue). Before I trigger the replacement, though, I would like to know whether the new back cover would just be from the same batch as the old ones or actually has better glue so that - likely - no warping will occur. Thanks!
They are the exact same as before, they will probably fail within the next 6 months.
I recommend you to order a “slim” one as they don’t use glue.
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The backcover of my FP2 started to brittle at each of its angles, 7 months after the phone was shipped to me.
I have been using phone mainly inside and when I was carrying it outside it was either in my pocket or on a holder inside my car. It didn’t spend hours under the sun, mainly because I live in (rainy) Switzerland!
This being a manufacture issue, it should be sorted out under guaranty coverage! I have written to Fairphone 2 days ago and no answer! Still hoping!
Please give them a call to get a fast reply.
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My cover also has split. As glueing it together doesn’t work, I came up with another trick.
I took a piece of paper and glued the two parts on the paper. Now the paper is holding the two parts together. Of course this will only work at places where there is no button.
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Adding another report. I’ve decided to order one of the new slim cases, instead of trying to get this case replaced. It looks like the new design has resolved the issue of bonding different types of plastic by using separate edge and back parts.
I don’t think this is fair. Having your users to pay ~45€ for fixing a product they could replace with an upgraded design.
As I wrote to the support:
Rubber, flexible design case has failed. It’s not sustainable for the planet to keep producing and shipping them. It is also not respectful with the client to sentence us exclusively to request a new cover every 6 months, average, instead of providing us a path to upgrade to a new slim cover. I’m even inclined to spend a few (more) bucks, but not 30€+ shipping, sorry. I’m not your investor, I have a broken product.
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That was my case as well. I mentioned two options in my email to Fairphone back then when my cover was deformed/cracked/split. Either send a replacement, or give a significant discount on a new slim cover if that is made of better quality.
I think it would be fair to give existing users who have issues with the old case the option to upgrade their case with a slim version with discount. I’m fully supporting Fairphone, that’s why I don’t demand the new slim case for free, but a discount would be fair. My new case is still fine, but it already shows slight deformations at the buttons, so my expectation is that in springtime, it will be the same old again.
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Yes this happened to me…very disappointed as second problem with this phone. Ive only had the phone less than a year and after a few months the main mic broke…waited months for spare part. That’s fixed but as I had to take the case on and off many times becasueof faults associated to mic and charging problem my case split by the volume button. I don’t want to pay for another one as expensive.
At times I get really frustrated with this phone and I have buyers regret. I hate how it freezes when I use it when it is charging. I find it difficult to talk to people as it often hangs up, puts on hold without me doing anything!
Most of the problems you are describing have solutions. Please use the forum search above (the little magnifying glass) and you’ll surely be able to solve most of the issues.
As for the broken cover: This is on warranty and Fairphone will replace the case for free. You have to contact them via support.
PS.: Okay, I see you don’t have a FP1, but a FP2… I get confused with the change of colour of the #fairphone2help and #fairphone-help categories… 
Moving this post and yours.
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I had the same problem all of you with the 2 covers I used. Today while I was watching my transparency cover, I wondered if there was a reason for the deformation to always start from the same point, and I noticed the SD card slot is just next to the volume button. One possibility is therefore that heat escape from the slot when it is empty (which is my case). So I’d like to ask all of you a question :
If you had this problem, did you have a SD card in your slot?
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To make answering @lorraine_Montel easier, here’s a poll:
###When your cover started to deform, did you have a SD card in the SD-card slot?
- Yes
- No
0 voters
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