Is the Fairphone promise a lie?

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Dear Fairphone Community,

With this provocative question, I am asking you for your experiences and to help me with my decision. I’ve been with Fairphone since the 2nd generation. So, for almost 10 years now. So far, I have been very satisfied with Fairphone - with the device as well as the idea behind the device, and the team. Unfortunately, I am currently experiencing that the longevity promise does not work. Because this requires not only devices that are easy to repair, but also available spare parts (in my case a battery for the Fairphone 4).

There is no information in the shop on when the battery will be available again. The chat function is closed due to structural improvements. And my request by email, asking when the battery will be available again, has so far gone unanswered.
As you can probably understand, a mobile phone without a working battery has lost its usefulness. So, I’m currently faced with the difficult decision of whether to wait for Fairphone’s reawakening or go for a way without Fairphone.

Have you had similar experiences, or am I an isolated case?
Perhaps Fairphone would be well advised to reduce their ambitious fair trade goals slightly and instead not lose focus on the people for whom they build their devices? Otherwise Fairphone could end up being the fairest company in the world with no customers, which would be a great pity.

Best regards,
Andreas

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Hello @Andreas_DE

I agree that current issues with the support undermine the trust in the company.

I would argue that issues with the spare parts availability do so to a lesser extent, especially when the missing part is soon to be expected, but that is a subjective view;-)

I checked several shops online, some list it as out of stock, some say it will be available soon, giving dates like 13 June or 26 June. Murena webshop seems to be having one available at the moment,

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I don’t want to invalidate your post, just focused here on seeking the solution to a practical aspect of it.

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Hi @Meaghan,

How do you know that the battery is soon to be expected? There is no note on this in the shop.
However, I totally agree with your replay. In particular, that we should focus on a solution instead of complaining. I already had the idea of using third-party providers.

Regardless of that, it’s as you say: in my case, Fairphone’s performance is a loss of trust. And that is bad for a company that lives from trust in fair products. The solution could be so simple. Fairphone should simply communicate transparently when the spare parts are expected to be available again. The fact that a spare part is not in stock is not the reason for my complaint. That can happen. How they deal with it makes all the difference when talking about focussing on customers.
I really hope that Fairphone improves here. Because I actually want to continue supporting Fairphone.

Thank you for taking the time to answer me and protect Fairphone’s reputation!

Happy Pentecost!
Andreas

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Hi
I got this information from some resellers, not on the FP website, I believe Reichelt was one of them (but the website is down now so I can’t double check)

You are right, it would be nice to have it on the FP website, a nice and practical solution.

And I wanted to help not protect FP’s reputation, that’s not my job :slight_smile:

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I recently ordered and got a battery with no problem, 2 months ago.

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I recently bought a new battery direct from FP. Postage was expensive but it arrived within the promised 5 days. Unfortunately the battery didn’t work. It was difficult communicating with them but in the end I got a phone number through the chat function, when it worked. They seem to have closed down all customer service centres in the uk and the chat is only available at certain times. However when I did speak to someone they were helpful and replaced my battery.
My advice would be tohang onto to your old battery until any new one has worked for a week and is regularly charging well.

Its not easy for them as most phone shops wot stock them as 'its not worth their while, ’ to quote one shop. This is because they want you to buy a new phone every two years.
Fairphone need to sort out their customer service, or sadly a good sustainable idea will bite the dust
Good luck

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I’m also waiting for news about the FP 4 batteries :frowning: they have batteries for FP3 and 3+ so hopefully it’s not done on purpose. little dissapointed but we can only wait.

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Just talking about the battery/spare part issue. The FP4 battery was unavailable a few times now:
April 22

Dec 23

It became available after a few weeks back then, so hang in there and put yourself on the notification list. I also need a replacement battery, but fortunately mine is still working reasonably well.

Edit: And I think a lot of FP4s are now getting to the age where they need new batteries, so maybe there’s currently also more demand than usual.

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I think FP is listening to us/you. ^^
Now the website states: “Expected back in stock at the end of June.” :slight_smile:

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glad i’m not crazy! i could have sworn that wasn’t there before X)

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Yours is a good point. I asked myself the same question because I’ve been waiting for a long time for a response from support and in the meantime my family is telling me that I’m wasting my time, that I’m deluding myself that fairphone is different, but in reality it’s just marketing… I don’t want to believe it. I want to believe in the fairphone philosophy and think that this is a critical moment for the company that has to deal with an expanding market and what it entails. I want to believe that they will be able to overcome their communication and supply problems.
In the meantime, I think that this forum is a good ally of consumers and of the company itself. I wonder if something similar could be done with spare parts: does it make sense to create a second-hand spare parts market? Does it already exist? Would this be a way to increase waste?
eg. It turns out that my FP4 is no longer repairable, but I recently changed the screen which is perfect. Could I sell it? What would I do with the rest of the phone? Would it become waste? If I check the value of my FP4 to the company, in the recovery program, it is slightly higher than the price of the screen. Maybe it would be better for me to sell the battery and the screen separately and privately, but the rest of the phone would no longer be purchased by the company and I would have to throw it in a landfill. At the same time, if there was a market for spare parts and refurbished FPs, perhaps one could be encouraged to invest in a FP and thus grow the company and its philosophy.

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Selling the battery by itself by post is difficult because of safety reasons.
There is a secondhand market on this forum.
May I ask what is broken on your phone?

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We have a market section here in the forum. And I dont think your phone is for waste, it should be reparable…so even if you would not use it anymore you could wait for repair and sell it afterwards.

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Yes I also think that my phone can be repaired, but in the time waiting for a response from the customer service, I asked myself all the possible questions.
My mistake: I forgot to see the “market” tag in this forum. I got carried away by the philosophical spirit. :slight_smile:

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I have another post

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Thank you for all your answers, ideas, agreement, help and support!

In the meantime, I ordered the battery from a third-party supplier, where it was announced as available within a few days. One week later they wrote me that the delivery date would be delayed. :roll_eyes:

I’ll wait for the delivery now. Then I will keep a critical eye on the direction in which Fairphone develops. If the company doesn’t do a 180° turn and remember who they’re building their devices for, instead of being preoccupied with themselves and selling a nice story, the Fairphone 4 will be my last Fairphone. This would be so sad and a pity. Because the Fairphone idea was once great and would be as important today as it was when Fairphone was founded. Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn at some point along their way.

I would really like Fairphone to get its act together and not go under because of its growth and missed opportunities!

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no you’re right, Fairphone has plenty of ways it could go, communication would be the number 1 priority. the parts that fairphone sells seems to only work for fairphone, so fairphone is probably selling to those suppliers, which is why everyone is out of stock.

If they’re going to stop support 4 years after they stop selling the phone, well i guess we can only keep our phones for 3 more years unless they release the blueprints for the parts, or manufaturing details so people and companies can keep supporting the phones for as long as possible. i was really hoping i’d get a decade out of this phone, but with this trajectory it’s not going to last that much longer than my usual phone lifespan. (i’ve had mine for 2.5 years now)

I was seriously hoping that if they keep a similar form factor, we could just upgrade our phones with newer phone parts, but that has currently not happened at all. not even the batteries are cross compatible.

If you’ve ever heard of SlimeVR their company/community teaches people how to make their trackers from scratch and which parts to buy. they won’t earn a single penny from people who do that, yet they still offer it because it’s their vision to make their product accessible. they also offer “build it yourself” kits so people can save money

there’s no reasone fairphone should keep their fixes as “only what we provide”, yes they will loose money, but money is why there’s a problem in the first place. they might lose money but there’s is still a lot of respect to gain

maybe i’m not looking hard enough, but the fairphone community doesn’t mod their phones past what we’re supplied by fairphone, we should be able to, really,

that just goes to show, people will happily spend 2-3x what they would normally spend on a phone if it meant it was better for the environment and it lasted longer. if money is a priority, they’re doing it wrong, yes they need to pay their staff and workers, but if they make it accessible enough, the community will help eachother for free. the solution shouldn’t have to be “Wait for fairphone” all the time.

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Stopping after 4 years is just not what happens when a part is temporary out of stock.There is support and it will not stop after 4 years.

And

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That’s an interesting thought. Perhaps Fairphone is at the crossroads that many growing start-ups reach at some point? They started with a great new idea and a small community that loved and supported the idea and were willing to make compromises and accept deprivations. In this phase, the community is the top priority because the start-up cannot survive without the community. The financial goals are small. It’s all about surviving. At some point, the start-up grows. The community is becoming larger, more discerning and has more diversified needs. It will be easier to earn money, but harder to look after the existing customers sufficiently. It would be a mistake to rest on the easier and more attractive path of earning money now. Some start-ups have done this and failed. The more challenging path of taking existing customers with them is just as important. Fairphone has to find a good balance in order to survive and grow financially, while at the same time not disappointing and losing existing customers. Otherwise the original great idea will be ruined.
Hopefully Fairphone has recognised this and has already taken countermeasures!

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https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/23266849613714-Fairphone-4-End-of-Sales this is what i was referring to, not the battery. they said they hope to keep software support until 2028. and parts until 2028. maybe this is not their choice and it’s the suppliers being restrictive, idk, but the goal is to get people to produce less waste and keep their phones for as long as possible no? after some research it seems like the FP5 has more longevity in mind than the 4. so hopefully the 6 is even better and is built with the next 10-15 years in mind.

When support stops (hopefully much later than 2028 if we’re lucky) hopefully the modding community also grows, so people much smarter than me can help others when fairphone doesn’t. it would take a lot of pressure off fairphone so it’s not a bad thing

I’m not going to pretend i know how every component in a phone works or how to alter cuircuit boards to support more/upgraded things. maybe that pdf is useful for that idk. but it’s nice people have access to it.