In my first support request in September 2024 I got a response after 11 days (7 business days).
But I would be exceedingly disappointed in Fairphone if they cut someone off at the 2-year mark when these parts clearly break frequently.
I tore one of my old ones apart last time, the plastic is moulded onto the metal hinge, there’s no way they could ship just one half of the band.
What they could do though is re-engineer the part to be metal on both sides, or at least a more forgiving plastic.
I’d happily trade recycled-blended plastic for a new-plastic part that breaks leading to multiple scrap parts going to landfill. Plastic recycling was always a con, and lending it respectability by trying to make a long-lived product with rubbish material is just deepening the sustainability problem.
They live on my desk, go on and off my head gently (but pulling open enough to go over my ears). It’s not as if I’m stretching them out particularly wide or twisting them.
The break is in the exact same place as last time, and there is clearly more strain going onto these brackets than the plastic can handle, either because of the particular mix, or because the strain is just too focused to ever work with a pure-plastic part.
It’s worth noting that the lower half of the bracket below the hinge is metal, so clearly that side was expected to deal with stresses.
I appreciate that re-tooling a part isn’t an instant process, but it was stated by support in December 2023 that this manufacturing issue with the plastic had been addressed. And yet here we are over a year later with replaced-parts still breaking.
because @0nn0, @BerserkBamse and @djsf asked about 3d printable version of the plastic piece: After mine broke for the 2nd time I started to design the piece but user pavelb was faster and delivered this wonderful piece (i printed it and it works):
So before ordering the replacement piece: check if you only need the plastic part and maybe you have access to a 3d Printer or to a hackspace, fablab, open workshop in your area…
I love that somebody out there just fixed this problem for all of us! <3
I ordered 2 replacement headband bases myself, and left a note on my support ticket with the order number and asking to be refunded once they work they way through the queue…
Somewhat interestingly, the replacements I received were both manufactured November 2023, so after this issue was first reported (July 2023?) but before the acknowledgement from Fairphone in December 2023 which stated:
[…] the issue was addressed in the manufacturing / material composition process.
So it’s quite possible that this second set will break too… we’ll see. I might ask whether the parts come with an additional warranty period…
It’s cool to see a 3D-print pattern for the weak part though! I was mistaken before, the plastic half is not moulded onto the metal-hinge.
Just want to add my voice to this thread, got the green ones and they worked fine for about 9 months before the right headband base snapped. I then noticed some hairline fractures on the left side.
I ordered two replacement ones and fitted them fine, within a month the right one snapped again.
Still waiting to hear back from support after over a week (though if this thread is to be believed, I may be waiting longer still). The manufacturing date on the replacements is Nov 2023.
Thanks for this. Got a local 3d printing shop to do this for me (got a few spares as well just in case) and it fits perfectly. Now fingers crossed it’s made of stronger stuff than the original part.
Seeing how Fairphone apparantly does read this forum, I’ll add the 2 cents of a potential future customer: I research my purchases, checking exactly for problems like this, and though I am very eager to buy the Fairbuds-XL, I can’t until I see there is a fix for this. It has been two years since the problem was identified and a year and a half ago since they concluded it was a manufacturing issue related to the coating - which does not seem to be true, considering all the recent posts. It does appear to be a design issue, so unless FP is ignoring that, I would hope that they are working hard on a redesign of the headphones / headband. I don’t know how long something like that would take, but I am very curious to find out if they are doing that at all.
As things are now, there is no reason whatsoever for me (or anyone, actually) to buy the Fairbuds-XL. I wish they had some kind of transparant way of letting customers know what they are working on (for example like Supernote has - they have a Trello board indicating which improvements are being worked on, very informative!). Again, I’d love to buy this, but it has to work properly first.
I’ve been waiting two months now for customer to get back to me about the fifth set of broken headband arms in a year. I really like this product but this is a fatal flaw that makes it impossible to recommend until there is a solution for it. I would pay if there was a reliable replacement or a durable third party part (I don’t have a 3D printer so I can’t just make them myself every time I need them).
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