Leaving a movement

As this in a way is a thread about customer satisfaction/customer treatment, I would like to add my experience with regard to a broken cover.
Perfect: Support answered super fast (same day) giving clear instructions.
Perfect: After sending in my picture, I was asked to select an available cover from the store (same day as well).
Not so perfect: The colour I chose (coral red) was not available (although it could be selected in the shop).
Frustrating: When pointing to the availability in the shop I received the following answer:
“You are right in a sense that we do have coral red slim covers offered in the webshop but our stock is diminishing and therefore we are not offering them under warranty.”

But … "We are very sorry for the situation we are in now.
I assure you that we do not wish to treat you like a second class customer."

Not sure what situation they are in, as he did not elaborate on that point.
In my opinion a likely conclusion is a possible shortage of money.
But why not be open and raise some money. I for sure would have supported fairphone, because I still believe in the cause.
Clearly there - at least for me - is a lack in communication and openness.

Sooo sad.

Yes, the various ROMs are making a good progress, especially LineageOS. Since more than
half a year I owned a FP2, I was talking about this. 2 people porting a ROM is not enough.
FP should support them. Developing FPOS is a waste of time. LineageOS is the better
system, and you cannot negate that. Why not making it the official OS. They should talk
to the people behind LineageOS, and I don’t think, they would decline.
But I sold my device and don’t have to worry about this any more.

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Interesting point.
See comment above (10th of August 2016):

For me this was and is an important feature of my FP1, but I seem to be a minority. Have been fortunate so far - no technical problems at all but can’t understand why we can’t get Software updates any more (at least that).

I need also to say “goodbye” to the Fairphone-community. I had FP2 for 14 Month with SailfishOS.
@mal did a gr8 job - i’m really very thankful for his engagement in Porting SailfishOS to the Fairphone 2. It was one of the best SailfishOS Ports, which i have seen and used. Atm. i don’t have my FP2 anymore, and i doubt i will buy it again for a couple of reasons:
1.) High price for 2017. In Summer 2016 this price for this Hardware was high - but it was understandable. In 2017 same price for the same HW is way to much for me. I understand, Fairphone is a small company and earn only 9 $ per device, BUT: Mobile Phone Market is a “Bloodbath” And Fairphone decided to swim in this bloodbath like a small fish. Thats very brave, but if they want to survive they need react. They need attract customers on another line. Be creative…
2.) One of this “Attractions” could be official SailfishOS Support, which was semi-promised at the beginning, but was fallen later without an official comment. Only one small tweet from a Fairphone employee, that they will not deliver SailfishOS Support.

For now i will stay with my Jolla Devices: Jolla 1, Jolla C and Jolla Tablet. And waiting for official Sony Xperia X Release.

By the way, i bought new Sony Xperia X F5121 for about 200,- EUR, which is 38% of the price of the FP2.
And i got the device 3 days after payment, not 3 month after payment. This is also an very important argument.

Fairphone is a great movement, and i was really, really ready to support it. But i want to see, that i get something back for my support as a customer. And this was not the case, unfortunately.

Maybe i will come back, when there is Fairphone 3 and official SailfishOS Support.

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Hart to compare prices, though you are right that the FP2 has fallen behind regarding specs and prices. I hope you do not get disappointed with the Xperia X support from Jolla. Honestly, I will only believe this, when I see it.

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Well, i have seen alredy SailfishOS on Xperia X on the Phone of a c-beta Member. So i’m pretty sure it will come out. :wink:

Sorry, I fully understand everyone who does not buy a fairphone because it is to expensive for to low specs. I absolutely agree, that the phone should to be on storage rather than taking months to be delivered.

Just let them know the secret to get on the market with a newly developed modular phone as fair as possible, not taking money from big banks at a competetive price. I guess, they would be really thankful.
Your priority lies with SailfishOS, which is absolutely fine by me and I love it, that Fairphone is at least aiming to be open to all kinds of OSs. I just fail to see, that focusing on the small market of Sailfish and other operating systems would lead to that kind of demand that would enable them to produce so much more phones, that they in effect could lower the prices.

Communications has been a weak point for quite a while, and it really would be appreciated to get more information why some decisions are made. On the other hand, I would suspect that lots of decisions have to be made in a business like this of which not all can be shared with the community; be it an agreement to maintain silence with another company or a decision, that is based on a lenghty and complicated discussion/development that might be hard to put on paper.
Anyway, in my opinion it really would be helpful to even get that kind of basic information.

Btw: In Germany at least there is some development to be seen, as a big online shop offers the new FP2 Slimline at 444,- Euros (excl. VAT) available from September; delivery time max. 9 weeks.

#EDIT: SORRY CORRECTION NECESSARY
Somehow I landed on the b2b page. Therefore the price is excluding VAT.
The b2c shop gives a price of 529.00 Euro as well So sorry for having raised hopes. I was just so surprised myself, that I wanted to share it. At least this shop might help to spread the message.

Still, let’s wait and see, what time will bring.
Just don’t ever compare Fairphone to the likes of Samsung, Huawei, Apple etc., as those are multinational business producing and selling all kinds of stuff. That’s like comparing the little owner-managed bookshop around the corner to amazon. The bookshop in Germany still has a chance, because prices for books, magazines and newspapers are fixed.

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Edit: We mixed up the price without VAT.

The reduced price is quite interesting and could be a good sign for rumored updates to the current FP2 specs or camera.

Also, it’s much better price.

Thought so too at first.

Just realised, that I had been landed on the b2b-shop site and the given price was the net price excluding VAT.
Adding this you end up at 529.00 Euro as well.
Edited my posting.

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I’m aware from many of your previous posts that software availability is one of your major concerns regarding the choice of a smartphone, which is perfectly fine. Yet I do think that the majority of Fairphone customers choose the phone for its ethical approach to work towards a fairer hardware chain.

But anyhow, I wanted to sincerely thank you for your efforts and great contributions to raise awareness for and support the distribution of the Sailfish port. While the devs have done an awesome job on porting Sailfish, I very much appreciated your support to other Fairphone users to get Sailfish running on their devices.

In this regard it is sad to hear that you decided to part from your device. Yet, I wanted to thank you for your great contributions particularly in this forum. It is people like you who make the Fairphone community a great one.
Thanks for all your efforts!

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Thank you for the warm words! I try to support the Fairphone SailfishOS Community in the future, but without own device its nearly impossible. @Douwe send me 2 times FP2 community device for 1-2 weeks, and it was very helpfull.
If it will be the case in the future - i don’t know, but i will always try to support the FP2-Users in their SailfishOS / and other technical- questions. But as i said, its difficult without own device. And for a new FP2 there are no money there (Most important part) and its difficult to get (even if you have money) :wink:

Anyway, i will be there on this forum…

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Sorry, but after 8 months of hassle I’m out.

The concept is great, the phone not bad, but still not completed and have to improved more if it wants to replace professional devices.

All the best to the leaders.

Eric

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That’s going to be a rant. A rant’s never nice. It shouldn’t be, though. But I’m disappointed. That thing costs 530 EUR and does not withstand a normal use throughout a year.

Case broken, primary microphone dead. The issues with the semi-transparent cases where know by FP-project for a while. But instead contacting the buyers of that stuff, FP-project waits till the things fall apart. The new “slim” cases suck, because you can’t take them of fast. But that’s necessary. I will reason why below. The case become hot. Would be better to have one made of titan or at least aluminum. But as you have to use screws to open such a case, you won’t be fast. So better hot than slow.

Same goes for the bottom module. We have 2 FP2 in our family. We had been proud to be part of a project using conflict-free resources, changeable parts, all that stuff. Point is, the stuff needed to be changeable, because the quality is poor. Nobody would buy a phone at that price with that much issues the FP2 has after 2 years on the market. Read the forum. Devastating. Crashes, black screens, white screens with some users experiencing them weeks after they bought the phone, changing of the display sometimes yields the same issue, defect modules, the lot. Anything that can go wrong in quality control has gone wrong. For a price of 530 EUR.

More than that. Contacting FP2 because of a spare bottom module yields… nothing. For 3 weeks. I bought one on my own now. Cheaper than buying a new phone. But honestly, that sucks. Again, the phone costs about 530 EUR. It’s ok to build solid, stable and… to be able to deliver spare parts when needed. It’s not OK to deliver poor quality. It’s not OK to bundle poor quality with sucking service.

When I thought of buying the phone in the first place, I had worries because FP2 was rewriting Android by it’s own. Saw some phones, thought it’s OK. But it isn’t. I experience constant reboots, I experience constantly black screen when calling someone, so the battery must be taken out to kill a call. That’s shit. Calling a mailbox is just not possible under that circumstances-

Fun fact: The Black screen issues seemed to be solved with the change to Android 6. But then, after an update the issues has been experienced again. Nice work, folks!

The battery endurance sucks. I don’t know why, but the endurance sucks even more with every new update on Android 6.

At this point: Never again. Thanks. I’m out. I have some friends who are interested in buying a FP2. I tell them what issues that thing has and hope they’re smart.

Why don’t you produce the cases in a way, that they work?

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I hope you do understand @Lidwien and almost everyone else on this forum is not a fairphone-employee?

Further, I don’t get it. Your phone is clearly broken. But why do you not want to change it under warranty? Because your broken phone was expensive and didn’t work? For me, that would be a very good reason to contact support and demand a new phone with a new case (btw, slim cases can be taken off rather easy)…

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Yes I do. Doesn’t change anything. Not the user is the Problem.

As for the rest: Why would I want to change the phone? With little luck and much certainty the new phone has even more bugs. At this point I rather stay with my phone and pray it doesn’t get worse.

“Changing the slim case is simple”: I never said otherwise. But it takes more time to open the slim case than to open the normal one, especially when you’re male and have short nails.

Or it could be as trouble-free as it gets, like my phone and very probably the phones of a majority of owners not visible in this forum (or elsewhere on the internet) because they are not in need of solutions or fixes.

Not being interested in the obvious probable solution is a mindset I don’t get.

Get a one-piece silicon bumper for the Fairphone 2 then :wink: .

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My mindset is simple: Either it works or it’s rubbish. I don’t demand the device to be soldier-proof. But I demand the device to withstand EDC-use. Especially when the thing hasn’t been carried unwrapped or in a trouser pocket. And especially when the thing hasn’t seen any weather condition but sunshine.

I’m waiting for a simple bottom unit replacement for nearly 4 weeks now. No support, no module, nothing. Look into the forums and you will see, how long it takes to deliver a new FP under warranty. Look, what these users got. So, my experience simply is the same as the one of them.

This is just no valid argument, as you don’t see the ones with broken devices who just reading to find a solution. My wife’s phone was broken, a friend’s phone, too. Both didn’t comment in the forum but waited all the time quiet to get the replacement spare part, they needed. So quiet doesn’t always mean good. I bought a new bottom module now by my own and hope I get it before my vacation in early november. I’m not that hopeful, though.

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Sadly I have to agree with people complaining about quality here.
At first I was very proud of spending my savings in my first smartphone ever, a Fairphone. I told everyone about its ethical, its fairness, its (expected) quality.
It was only one year ago, and I can barely count the problems I’ve had since I first received it. I am currently facing a huge one preventing me to even use the phone and I am waiting for an answer from the support.
My phone is still under warranty, but I read on these forums that they don’t really care about that and always find excuses to make you pay for the repair (despite the material quality being the problem).

I stopped advising people to get a FP and at this point, I honestly regret buying one. I completely agree with your marketed ideas of open-ness, fairness, etc… You had me on your side from the beginning. And now, because of all the troubles I’ve had and since I realized you are not what you pretend to be (toward your clients, mainly), you don’t have my support anymore.
Instead of increasing my enthusiasm for your company, you lost me. Before buying a phone, I advised people to do so. Now that I’ve had one, I will most likely advise them against such decision. It’s a complete loss, both for you and for our ideals (because you proved me we cannot design a proper ethical smartphone yet).

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Aside from single complaints, I can’t seem to remember, that there was a general lack of taking responsibility by Fairphone.
Just take a look at this thread:

There you will find quite a few customers who got an exchange of their display up to 3 or 4 times (for free).

I fully understand your disappointment and anger and I know, why you are not advertising the FP anymore. I equally share your complaints about support-response-time; although rather from my readings in the forum than own experience.

To be honest, while in my opinion this seems a bit unfair:

… while I guess, that you are quite right with this:

Still it is a start; and nothing else was ever promised (or at least I never did expect more). And you should be proud, that you are a vital part of the “movement”, proving, that things can turn around; albeit slowly. Without you and your support, FP2 never would have been possible.
And just maybe it’s a small consolation for all the troubles you are facing with your phone, that it’s modularity is nothing less than a revolution when it comes to smartphones.

I just hope, that support will get back to you soon enough and solve your problems. And maybe later on, when things turn out fine, you will be reconceiled with the company and do no longer have a feeling of betrayal.

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