Customer Support incredibly SLOW - any opinions?

Over 2 weeks ago, I opened a support ticket to have my FP1U repaired – but even after 2 more emails, the only reply I finally got was asking for the phone’s symptoms, which, however, I already supplied with my initial email… and even upon my latest response, the guy can’t seem to get back to me within 24 hours now, just to initiate the repair. O-M-G.

Had the same problem a year ago when I had the display repaired (which now failed - AGAIN), and I actually had to call their office to get anything going.

I’ve never ever had to deal with a customer service this slow, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Plus, it makes the company look bad – obviously, they must think that they can afford it, with their oh-so-environmental friendly image floating above all.

I guess it’s easiest to call them. That’s a bit more expensive, but you save yourself a lot of trouble and time.

There are still only human beings working at Fairphone and I do think that many other people contact them. So customer support staff are in constant time pressure.

I guess there are not enough human beings in their support staff, then :wink: All other customer support I’ve hat to deal with get back to me within 24 to 72 hours… if Fairphone can’t meet that, they should employ more people. It’s not a good idea to cut costs in a company’s support sector…

Maybe your case is so hard so solve that it takes so long for them to come up with a solution… :wink:

Seriously, it seems that official FP1-repairs are getting harder these days… :frowning:

I take it that replacing a defective display shouldn’t be a big deal for them… or maybe they’re trying to put my case off because I’ve claimed warranty regarding the previous repair… :dizzy_face:

FP1 displays aren’t even listed on the shop anymore so that is a serious problem for them. They simply don’t have them anymore, and maybe they are desperately trying to find one that’s still lying around somewhere.

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At least that could have been a short reply within 24 hours…

Perhaps @Stefan should take the next aircraft and fly to Holland to support them actively! :wink:

Actually I applied for customer support in the summer but then I was offered an internship in a company that is closer to my study program. :wink:

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I called their office yesterday, and the person said they would get back to me by the evening.
Another day has passed – nothing.

What are they trying to do, wait until I forget about the issue, or something?
If they have problems to perform the repair, they should let me know, offer a refund, or whatever. In not doing so, they’re essentially bulls@#*tting me.
Since I will not take this, I’m thinking about taking legal actions.

Dear all,

we know we currently have a customer support backlog! :frowning:
We are in the process of outsourcing our support phone lines to an external provider. This eats up a lot of ressources at the moment since we have to train them so they can give quality support. We plan to be back with increased capacity in 1-2 weeks, when the phone is handled externally.

Does this explain a bit more what’s currently going on?

Best,
Daniel
Social Media Department

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@anon99326380 thanks for the explanation. Are you able to give an idea of how quickly we might expect tickets to be processed in the meantime?

I’ve been waiting a week - not quite as long as the OP - on a support ticket relating to a faulty display which is making it impractical to compose text messages and emails on my phone. It is really frustrating not knowing when it will be resolved given I use the phone for my work, and don’t want to have to buy a cheap phone as a backup with all the environmental waste that would lead to.

Having followed all the advice on the website, I wrote a detailed description of the problem and the steps I had taken, along with a screenshot from the ‘drawing’ checkup tool. The only response I’ve had was to… read the articles on the website and try the drawing tool. Even if the team is hard-pressed bringing on the external provider, it would be nice to get a response saying “we hope to get back to you within x days” and for any substantive response to show that the support team had actually read what I’d taken the time to write out when opening the ticket.

Thanks,
Tom

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@anon99326380
It explains things, but it doesn’t make them any better.
Any company who is serious about customer support would have planned that transition with an extra buffer so as -not- to have any bottleneck in terms of personnel.

You’re just doing your job, but really, I’ve had it with lame excuses.
Comparison: If you’re driving a bus on the motorway and run out of fuel, and you’re just like: “Oh sorry, but, well, I’ve run out of gas”… do you want to blame the gas? Or blame yourself, rather, since you failed to refill at the gas station…?

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BTW who tagged daniel4’s reply with “problem solved” here? The problem will be solved no sooner than I (and other customers as well) can actually send in their phones and get them back in repaired condition and IN A TIMELY MANNER.

I had marked it as solved because it was an official answer by Fairphone staff to your question from the topic title. It makes it easier for others when they can jump to such an official answer right away.

PS.: I’ve now added staff colour (a blue background) to @anon99326380’s post.

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Update:
After 4 weeks, finally someone halfway decent took on my issue. Quite obviously, they’re out of FP1 displays, since they offered me a “3rd grade” used one. That said, they agreed to give me a partial refund for the new display they had already replaced less than a year ago, and which now already had failed.

However, they insisted that they only send me the part, which I would have to replace myself (!!) Given the circumstances, they should definitely have offered me to send in the phone for service, as a gesture of goodwill. Not doing so is quite lame, to say the least. Plus, swapping out the display is a PITA since you virtually have to take apart the whole phone including finicky, fragile parts.

Needless to say, I had to remind them at least once to actually send the part over… =(((

I’m done with FP for good. Gonna sell it for parts now. Any serious offers, PM me

You could help others here by putting your device in the market: https://forum.fairphone.com/c/market

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