hi @anon38187826 thank for the translation
I just got a reply from the support after 4.5 months.
Standard answer though, but it is what it is.
So 2 months ago I bought a fairphone 5 and a little over a week ago my phone would not recognize there was a sim card in the phone. Looking at their website and this forum I tried all the possible fixes, but nothing works. I have tried 3 working sim cards in the fairphone and none of them work. They all work in other devices.
Trying to get help from fairphone itself is a bit of a joke. Their stupid āLive Chatā is just a really useless ai bot and if you ask to speak to a real person it says there are no live agents available, and if you ask when will a live agent be available it just repeats the same message.
So for the privilege of being able to send them an email I had to have my IMEI, my purchase date, my receipt and a bunch of other detailed information, because without it you are not able to send a message. But I did provide all the details with a copy of my receipt and sent it off explaining the issue and itās now been over a week, and nothing.
I have spent nearly Ā£600 with accessories on a phone that is only 2 months old and it is as useless as a brick to me. I am really starting to feel like I have been scammed at this point. How is it legal to sell a dodgy product and refuse all contact from the consumer?
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Hello @canadian.ric
I will not be commenting on legal stuff you mentioned though of course I accept its validity. You may try checking with some customers organization in that regard.
Your nick refers to Canada, so let me double check whether you have purchased a FP directly from the company? If not, the reseller would be your first contact.
And now to troubleshooting. Either the device or the card is faulty. If the device is faulty, I would imagine changing the top module might help. Is there any FP5 in your vicinity that you could try that? Or a FP Angel?
If the card is faulty (yes I remember you checked several of them, and also mentioned troubleshooting - have you run an internal test as suggested at the website?), then you may consider asking your provider for a new replacement or switching to eSIM
My experience as a anecdotal reference. I renewed my old SIM card prior to the purchase of a FP5 following the official guidance (the card is to be newer than 2 years) and after reading some salty experience stories on the forum. Have not had any issues so far but the card is slowly reaching its limit. I have tried several (four I believe?) eSIMs and all worked.
What I would do? Apart from nagging CS about the issue, I would (1) renew my SIM card, (2) run the internal tests, and if (2) it turned faulty ā (3) purchase a top module out of my pocket and claim the reimbursement from the CS (accepting it might come late or be disputed), (4) consider getting an eSIM as a backup
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First off I just want to thank you for such a well thought out reply. I try to look at things from a rational point of view but sometimes when Iām upset emotions can obscure rational thought.
To clarify yes I am Canadian, but I live in the UK. Funny thing when you try to open a CS ticket and have to answer all the questions ever, one of the them is āWhere did you purchase your phone?ā and in the drop down options it lists Amazon France, Amazon Spain, Amazon Netherlandsā¦ ect, but Amazon UK is not a listed option. And yes I did buy it from the fairphone store on Amazon.
My sim card is brand new, but it never occurred to me to switch it to an e-sim. I will contact my phone company and see if that is an option as a temporary fix.
I did also consider buying a new top module for the sim, but was holding out in hopes of hearing back from fairphone as I think its nonsense that I have to pay out and fix the phone. But since reading that the average response time is 4 to 5 months I donāt think I have any other choice.
I think though as soon as I can fix this phone I will sell it off as this experience has completely put me off the company.
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Hi
Thanks. It is understandably frustrating and upsetting.
Given you purchased it from Amazon, may I suggest contacting them as well? That follows FPās guidance on warranty claims and might work in your favour.
You did not mention the results of the internal test. You can prompt it using the code or directly via the MyFairphone App. The latter can be also used to send direct messages to the support, saving the trouble of inserting at least some of the phone details.
It feels the average response is now 2 months but it is still far too long for the non-working phone. The live chat is said to accelerate the process at least in some cases.
Good luck!
Edited to say that I am not sure whether switching to eSIM is reversible (when keeping the number), please double check.
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My original requsts have been closed as āSolvedā by Fairphone without comment on why or notifications.
Is this something others have been experiencing?
Do I have to wait 2-3 months from the original unsolved request or are FP resetting the clock, so Iāll have to wait another month or so?
As it might boost the internal support statistics @ Fairphone, it makes an even worse experience being a customer and former supporter of the company.
The original problem with my usbc port charging slowly has now escalated to non-charging usbc port.
So for all intent and purpose a dead phone despite empty promises from Fairphone about warranty and longlivety of products etc.
Now knowing that Fairphone is ignoring their existing costumers for the time being, I panicked a little.
After panicking I started thinking about solutions.
The easy ( but expensive) way, is to buy a new or maybe use an old one temporarily. Dismissed for now.
Luckily I have an extra battery for my FP4, so I got an extra 50% there.
Then splitting the old FP 3 to see if I could use that as a charger.
The contacts are the same but the layout completely different. So no room for a FP4 Battery ( Modularity please 
).
After some more despairing and cursing, I Noticed the text on the back of the battery.
So digging around in my collection of older adapters I found one with specs that matches.
Stripping the wires, a bit of soldering and using the plier to make a flat surface that fits the battery and I now have an external charger to charge the spare.
Remember ā+ā is marked with a stripe on most wires.
It actually works Iāll upload one battery while using the other.
This is what I regard as āThe right to repairā 
Its still crude and needs some more work. But I can see that I am not the only one with problems regarding the USBC port and the lack of charging.
So I thought I would share this solution with the rest of you.
Iāll upload improvements, when I come up with them.
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Kindly do so in a seperate topic, to not have it lost in here and its a bit off-topic here.
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Is it true that you can only ālive chatā with a real person if you deny already having an open ticket? (Iāve been waiting for a solution for 3+ months via emails, was finally instructed to wipe my phone and send it in for repair/replacement, and now I just received it back ā with the problem completely unresolved!) At witās end and I now discover that live chat - during these few hours - is only a robot after all? Is that true?
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No, live chat is a complete scam. If you give your ticket number, it just tells you it will notify a human about your ticket, but then nothing happens. Ive been waiting for 11 weeks now for ANY reply other than the initial ticket number.
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What happens if you say you donāt have a ticketnumber?
Need to speak with a human, not a botā¦is this possible?
See above. However as you use e/OS I advise to directly ask you questions to Murena e.g. in their forum.
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Itās true that you have to lie to the robot about having a request, to get to human support.
I just tried both and the only way to get to a human is by answering no to having a ticket.
I think that it is a human answering, when the other end have a name other than āTinā, but I canāt be sure ;-).
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Could we please have some update on the support improvement plans?
I would hate it if suggestion āto lieā to an AI Bot was the only way to get through to a human Agent.
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Completely agree. I didnāt believe it at first, but it was the only way I could get through.
And sadly enough the human support seems overly pressed for time and to be measured by how fast they can close a call.
I had my session cut of twice, and had to start with the chatbot all over again.
Both times a generic email was send to me with exactly the same questions I have answered several times with the bot and troubleshooting guides.
All that is infuriating.
But what really saddens me is, that I have been using FP since 2014 and have been able to count on timely and expedient support, when I needed it.
I have always thought it to be the right choice, especially since FP was acting like they believed what they were preaching. sustainability, community, fairness and the right to repair.
Looking at this thread, and others it seems like the current policy of FairPhone for the last year or so, is to ignore any problem that canāt be solved automatically and hope we forgive them anyway.
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Yep, Iāve been waiting 11 weeks too since late May.
I opted to just buy the replacement part (headband bases for my Fairbuds XL) and left a comment on the support ticket saying that I expect to be refunded for the part and delivery, given that itās a known warranty issue (thread).
Recently the glass has started to lift away from the casing on my Fairphone4 - another known issue (thread, another) - and Iām probably going to just fix that myself soon too, without even bothering to open a ticket.
Whilst Iām happy to fix my own devices, and in fact the ability to do so was and still is a key draw for FairPhone products, it should not be at my own expense when parts fail under normal use or have design flaws.
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Iād be happy to fix the broken fingerprint reader, but itās not a user serviceable part.
79 DAYS without a reply from support now.
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Look at the positive side. Youāre half-way there!
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To what, buying another phone?
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