That is disappointing news, particularly because apparently it is not possible to get a broken regular cover replaced with the slim one:
I have to say that I don’t understand that decision from the view point of sustainability, since this essentially means to produce a piece of plastic waste every six months (that’s how long my two back covers lasted; without being taken off often, btw).
Hi @Douwe,
My FP2 case (blue) cracks as well (I have my phone since june '16). Obviously I’m going to order a replacement under warranty. I was wondering (and perhaps other people too, hence the public post) if it is possible to get the new case, either as replacement under warranty, or with a significant discount?
Do the black cases perform better overtime, or will a new blue case crack just as easy as soon as the first hot days are here?
That is a pity. I can understand the old ones are not redesigned, what I not understand why they are still get sold? It is obviously there are real problems with the material and the technical design of it.
Maybe yes actually,
Would you buy something that , and you know as a certainty, will break in 6 month…for 30€ ???
And, from an enterprise who claim to aim for long lasting devices ? That’s ironic !(and also, close to false advertising, abuse, and planned obscolesence …)
Recycle them, they are going to be trashed in 6 month anyway
Are your serious about sending the same faulty design of the cover, as a warraty repair? Can’t believe if, because I really thought that Fairphone was about fair and sustainable design. Please reply, your values are on stake.
I just opened a ticket in that regard a week ago, and the replacement suggestions were limited to the old covers. That’s the standpoint of Fairphone support:
My (second) message:
Since I am following the forum and Fairphone developments
closely, I have seen that many people report the same problems with
these covers. I was wondering, if it wouldn’t make more sense to start
replacing the old back covers with the new ones?
Given that the old covers obviously have issues in regard
to durability, I think that continuing to ship them is not a very
sustainable approach, as this basically means to produce a lot of
plastic waste. If I get again one of the old covers again I am afraid
that in 6 months I will need another one; on top of the extra waste
every broken back cover leads to, it also consumes additional emissions
from shipping every time.
Thus, wouldn’t it be more in the core interest of
Fairphone’s ideology to replace the poorly designed old covers with the
new covers (of which I hope they will last longer)?
And the (short) support reply was:
Thank you for your e-mail and for your ideas.
Please note that
unfortunately we can not send the new slim back covers for warranty
cases. They will be available for sale in the middle of December.
I have to admit I found this reply quite disappointing for the obvious reasons stated above. For me this essentially means: Pay extra 40€ to make your device more sustainable without the need to throw away a badly designed plastic cover every 6 months.
My second, replaced case started yesterday to be deformed around the volumen buttons and above the camera button. I just feel really disappointed I can not get a durable replacement again. I think it is more smart from them to spend money in a slim case once instead of a traditional case twice (or more) for every user over the time.
Not very fair with the planet, Fairphone. Not very fair for your users neither, because I feel it is because of the sudden temperature drop here in Spain, or because of the the thin bevel ending rubbing against the rubber part of the case everytime I disassemble the device to spread the word of an ethical and modular phone, and both usecases should have been thoroughly tested.
Warranties usually state “to replace a product/piece with another of equal or superior value”. Look at the Samsung phone scandal, they are replacing it for the next Galaxy. I’ve been supporting Fairphone even on hard moments with the faulty OSes and swamped Support (you know me from the forum), but this is just disappointing in every manner.
Please remember that this is the community forum, and the moderators are not necessarily Fairphone employees. I guess you have to voice this opinion on the support channel or any other communication way with the company itself
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.
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.)
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.
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!
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.