Now, eventually, the bottom module under warranty arrived. Jelle from FP-support told me there had been an error in their system, so the first order of a bottom module did not go through the whole system. Jelle also told me, support has lately been overwhelmed by request.
I hope, then, support structure has been changed and lessons have been learned. I hope, too, that next time it won’t be necessary to open a second ticket to get the support to work in the first ticket. Last, I hope there’s been a big of a step in quality and quality control on the FP-end of the production chain.
I do perfectly understand that. I do understand, that FP doesn’t has the economic weight to influence anything in the way, FP likes. I do understand, others do have quality issues, too. The latter one is, as I said in a reply on another comment, no valid argument. There’s no way, one can argue: “The others do make mistakes, so let’s make some ourselves, because we have the obvious right to do them.” The first, I do appreciate. It’s a point of view, I understand and I would fully follow that head, if the phone happend to be a luxury good, I wouldn’t need to work well. And that’s what I am saying: Be honest in marketing your products. Just say, there are issues, you couldn’t come by though producing the thing for two years. There’s a risk, you are willing to take for having a quite concience regarding Materials etc. We do have at the time issues with our support, too. We’re working to solve the issues.
But that honesty is just missing. And the whole “movement” thing just looks like propaganda to me.
Sorry to disagree.
Never did I imply. that kind of statement:
I was just saying, that a small company making mistakes should not be compared to large companies, that make mistakes as well; because regularly someone is switching his/her fairphone for another brand, as all the others are so much more reliable.
Furthermore: Fairphone is not producing phones consecutive for two years not adressing quality issues. They have produced and sold a first batch. Quality issues like with the back cover or the display are being adressed when producing new parts. They can not change what’s already produced (no one can).
Now they have produced and are selling the second batch (I hope I haven’t missed something here and stand possibly corrected). If and to what amount they have been able to fix problems remains to be seen.
This is my last entry, because I have no Fairphone any more. How?
The idea of a fair phone: great!
The resulting hardware: very good.
The operating system: usable, but nothing more! I saw better …
The update/development-team: they made my phone nearly unusable.
The support - bad!
Read the whole story here:http://hartmut.homelinux.org/Meinung/Fairphone-Support.html
It’s in german.
Spielmops
PS: dear company-team, if you ever happen to have a support-team as good as the hardware, then let me know …
Hey @Spielmops, sorry to hear you feel this way and that you no longer have a Fairphone.
I want to thank you for your high engagement in this community and for the many contributions you made to the forum, helping a lot of people with their questions.
Please know that I hope that Fairphone will be able to convince you again in the future and that you will return one day.
Until then I wish you all the best and am happy you’ve been hanging out with us all this time.
Douwe
I read your summary on your website. I understand your frustration, but as a user, I cannot confirm any of your problems and I am quite happy with the FP2 on Android 6. I think the software team is doing great work. I also needed the support two times since I have the phone and they we always fast and helpful. So experiences differ.
In defense of the support team, I have to say that none of your mails before the lawyers latter contains a clear request for a refund, I always read this or that. I writing this, because I sincerely believe the letter of your lawyer worked so well not because it was from a lawyer, but because it offered clear communication.
Of course, it really seems the support team was lazy because the answers really often are not related to your questions.
I have came to a similar conclusion as a owner of a FP 1, sadly I feel very disappointed and let down with the company. I did not keep its promises.
Verónica
Sorry to say that I am abandoning my Fairphone2. I’ve had a Fairphone since 1 came out, but in addition to being noble, a mobile has to be good. This one developed a habit of arbitrarily rebooding itself, but the killer was the battery life. The final jolt was when the battery died when I was finding my way around a strange city just as it grew dark. So I could not use the phone, but had to rely on the old-fashioned kindness of strangers method to find where I was going. Which got me there, but the inability to do it without finding hekpful people on the street at that hour was unnerving, to say the least. The phone is simply too glitchy, and I am afraid I am (sorrowfully) out of here and back to commercial phones.
I moved your post here as it is related to this topic. It’s always sad to see someone leave the community. I hope that at least you keep us fellow community members in good memory.
Finally giving up and leaving too.
I’ve tried to be patient for a long time now. But, in the end it was just too much hassle.
I was really enthusiastic about the project Fairphone. I even got my wife onboard and bought a handset for her too. After a few months it just got more and more difficult to use the phones. We both had random reboots. Microphones not working. I missed half of the calls that I got, the phone just stayed silent. I have already sent back three phones because of random reboots and other issues. So I don’t believe that I was just unlucky. Now my wife is back in the Apple fold with an iPhone and I’m trying my luck with a Cat. We should get refurbished phones from Fairphone soon. I don’t have the conscience to sell them because I cannot sell a phone that most likely will fail. So I guess we’ll use them for playing music and internet radio here at home. I wish Fairphone all the best and maybe one day I’ll be back.
I bought the FP1 in 2013 and only bought the FP2 because I couldn’t use some applications with my FP1.
Since support for FP1 is over and FP2 is… a disaster…
So after 5 years of being a proud owner of a Fairphone I’m throwing a towel and I’m buying a phone that might actually work…
My FP2 suffered different comes and goes for repair, has been hard reset several times… bought new camera, several cases and still don’t have a functional phone: camera won’t focus and pictures are terrible, overheating and battery drain (YES I HAVE tried everything), imposibility to use some apps because localisation doesn’t work, shutting down and restarts on it’s own, new case cracks by itself after 2 weeks etc etc etc.
It is simply not doing its job. I used to say that I so much believe in it’s cause that it doesn’t matter… but well, sometimes it does… like when I have to use my old samsung for some applications to work (and they do even if phone is pretty old now)… Can’t be carrying two smartphones…
I’m sorry, so sorry but my disappointment has reached its limits… 5 years… I was so proud to have this phone, so proud to show it and explain everything and it breaks my heart going back but… I can’t do it anymore. I don’t even want to convince people to buy it… I’m sure I’m going to make enemies out of them…
After owning a Fairphone 2 for almost two and a half years, I finally gave up on it last week. 182 fatal crashes (random reboots) in the last year (and many more before), several hardware defects and a battery that drains faster than you can find the next outlet, was just too much to cope with any longer.
I just couldn’t stop myself from buying a new, commercial phone and to be honest, I haven’t been that happy with my phone for quite a long time… (I’ve been using it heavily all day long and the battery is still at 41%. Awesome!)
I loved the idea of Fairphone and still do. I don’t regret having bought a Fairphone although it regularly demanded a great deal of patience. I wish I could have used it longer.
You guys are doing so many things right!
I sincerely hope you keep up the good work and keep spreading the idea of fairer electronics to the world!
I’ll keep checking the website every now and then to see which way the movement will continue. Maybe I will become a Fairphoner again some time in the future.
My FP2 got stolen, while I was sleeping in a tent. Fun fact, I have very light sleep, at least in normal times.
I bought a second one. What changed my mind? Nothing. Really. I do think, nothing changed. The FP2 is still cranky, there’s a quality control issue and it’s way over-priced compared to other phones with the same tech-specs on the market. Especially when you see, there’s been no real developement in the last two year on the FP2-side an much developement on the rest of the phone-market.The hype, I think, is still bullshit, the movement idea is propaganda. But what I wanted, was a phone, with a OS of my choice. And I wanted to be able to change dead parts of the phone by myself. And, last, conflict free materials. At least some. That’s all. I could have done cheaper. But at least, I did know what I would get.
So… I don’t know, whether it was smart to buy another… We’ll see
Bye. I am fed up with Fairphone 2. I have bought it with planned obsolescence from the beginning, because it has always been broken down. It’s a pity because I trusted on ethical economy but this has been clearly a mistake. It has not to do with a single problem. Firstly the issue were the automatic restarts. Secondly it has been that the main micro has not worked. The only option that I had was to buy online a screwdriver (that no one told me about before that moment that was necessary) and I was redundant and had no money. Now I work but I do not have a definitive postal address.
I will not create any campaign against Fairphone because it hurts to me so much to admit that my choice was not correct that it could cause me a big state of sadness, but I will not make any campaign to promote Fairphone purchases either.
I hope that you launch a Fairphone 3 with a bomb-proof warranty to reconsider sometime my position. Meanwhile this is the worst cellphone I have ever bought.
After innumerable headaches, 2 fairphones, random restarts, proximity sensor NEVER working properly, phone cutting off calls, abysmal support, touch screen failing when trying to answer calls, alarms not going off, getting no reception when everyone else does. I could go on and on and on and on…
This has been the worst thing I’ve ever bought and by far the worst phone with the shortest life. Not very eco-friendly after all. If the solution as I’ve been told in the forums was to keep sending my phone back that would’ve taken forever as support is clearly not able to cope, I wonder why… Besides, sending the phone back meant buying another phone in the meantime, again very fair and eco-friendly. It’s shocking to see the number of issues in the forums with all kinds of ridiculous workarounds. There are almost 60k views in the forums just for the random reboot issues yet some people keep saying that all the issues are incidental and isolated! Reality check might be in order.
I’ve never wanted to like something so much and been so ABSOLUTELY DISAPPOINTED in every possible way.
…Shit happens…also with Apple, Google, etc…
If you are still looking for a modular Smartphone, check https://www.shiftphones.com/ !
But your choice, your luck !
Well, apart from how modular the shiftphone is and how easy it will be to disassemble, I - right now - would not really advise anyone to buy a new shiftphone.
Simply because I have no idea how good the phone will be. How well will the connections of the modules hold and stand the stress of time.
I wouldn’t have thougth, that a wee bit large battery frame could result in hundreds of crash-reports.
Nobody would have expected the camera or microphone of the FP2 to fail for obviously quite a lot of people.
Therefore, when pointing someone in the direction of shiftphone, I obviously would do so warning, that this will be a new product, by a small company, with a really new design. While they sure will do their best to make it a perfect phone, there’s always a higher risk, that unforeseen problems occur.
If one is not willing to take that kind of risk, better look for another phone (maybe a second-hand one).
In a way that would be the best bet - a second hand device has a proven track record (Even the big players get it wrong often enough!), you can figure out how easy/expensive repairs are, and still have lower impact on the environment. Just watch out you’re not buying stolen or mistreated devices. If you need a warranty, consider buying from a commercial dealer in second hand devices - some of the larger ones offer two year warranties on the second hand gear they sell.
