this is my Mail to a non existant customer support mail i tried to send. i only find online support tickets. i wanted to share with someone my experience and maybe someone thinks first and buys second. sorry to say that.
Good day,
It’s very likely pointless to write this email, since I’ll surely just get some soulless customer AI pointing me toward my extended warranty… But I have to do it anyway, simply because the disappointment is so great it needs an outlet. In 2024 I bought a Fairphone 5 with the idea of using it for at least 8 years, ideally 10. I used to be a Samsung S10 customer and had been annoyed back then that my Samsung didn’t even last a full day after 5 years and constantly needed charging. The idea of having a modular phone, on top of that with HQ in Europe, was compelling. Unfortunately, it’s simply so bad that I probably won’t even make it 5 years with it.
Where should I start — you surely know all of this yourselves. The most important thing: it’s not reliable.
- When you plug it in, does it charge? Yes-no-? You constantly have to check again, unplug and replug the cable, ah now it works. No, actually it doesn’t. And no, the USB port isn’t dirty.
- The battery. 2.5 years old and it doesn’t last a full day anymore, despite battery protection capping charging at 80% and no intensive daily use. They’re not that cheap that I’d want to buy a new one every 3 years. I expected 5 years, and 5 is standard. Apparently not with the Fairphone.
- The camera. Daytime snapshots are okay. Shots in twilight or darkness are brightened so excessively that they no longer have anything to do with what I actually saw in the moment and wanted to capture with a camera. That’s simply retouched, overprocessed garbage. I expected some compromises compared to Samsung, but these are worlds apart.
- The audio recordings. I don’t even need to try recording a soundtrack at a concert. All that comes out is audio mush.
- And all the little things. When the phone is charging, it becomes totally jittery and buggy. Typing then becomes an absolute ordeal.
- Swiping away the lock screen — no, sometimes it just won’t swipe away and keeps “falling” back.
- When I want to send a document or photo from the gallery via email, I have to go into the outbox to actually get it to send.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot, but all in all the result is truly disappointing, and if I could, I’d demand my money back. The product idea is good, but what’s been made of it is simply too poor in quality. It’s such a shame — that’s why I wanted to write to you. So that you know you need to do something to prevent people like me from clearly and firmly telling everyone who asks whether I’m satisfied with it: no. From advising people against buying it. I get asked often, because it’s an exotic choice and a good idea. Make something better out of it than what it currently is. And by better I don’t mean just slapping a new number after the name and delighting a new generation with poor-quality goods while forgetting about previous customers.
Best regards,
Heiko Krull