Leaving a movement

[Stefan]

@BertG

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.

Honestly, you could use the same sentence for FP2 too.

[BertG]

@Stefan

Honestly, you could use the same sentence for FP2 too.

You got me.
That’s where I came from.
I thought, that’s obvious.

More elaborate:
If someone is “leaving a movement”, because of troubles with the phone, I would hardly advertise another experimental phone as a solution.

[Sven_De_Potter]

Hi, dear Fairphone,
This might be goodbye, for I can no longer deal with the issues, glitches, … I experience daily.
This may sound a little over-dramatical, but - hey - it’s autumn. Leaves are falling, there is colourful drama everywehere.
I was an early adopter. Ever since FP launched its project, I became a fond admirer, an enthusiast, telling people that there would be - finally - a fair smartphone, community supported, crowd-funded, etc. My first FP came - I was used to iPhone - and after some getting used to-time, I became a FP-lover. My first FP was stolen. I ordered an FP2. And then the things started to go south. My smartphone just does not do what it promises. I have posted different issues - from malfunctioning SD-cards to low battery in 1 hour, rebooting whenever it felt like it, a bad camera (not focussing), app that take a lot of power, slowness, … whatever. I worked around some issues, just to find them re-ocurring whenever apps were updated or the OS became more performant. And frankly, I’ve had it. I ordered a new photocamera (front and back), had to replace to mic (I like that), but the phone just does not get any better. To the contrary: latency, whenever I try to take a picture, I manage to get the exact moment after the moment I shoot (yes, I installed another camera-app, as suggested), phone rebooting, battery running low (yes, I tried everythig that was suggested on the forum), still no SD-card (someone posted a very technical work-around, I am - unfortunately - not a civil engineer), … and every day my phone’s performance seems to worsen. Like it is sick, terminal. I have pondered upon this, and told myself: you cannot abandon Fairphone - but now, I don’t know any longer. I need a reliable phone, one that does what it has to do, that lives up to its expectation. FP just does not do the trick anymore, I find this - in all honesty- very sad. I’m very much in favour of organisations that try to make or turn the world into a better place; I think I’d rather support FP’s R&D-department than buy another one.
Cheers,
Sven

[Ingo]

Sorry to hear about those experiences, Sven.

What did/do you intend to do with your Fairphone?

[Alberto_Gregori]

Hi Sven, I share your opinion and thoughts. I had the same disappointing experience with my FP, plus 3 covers and 3 bottom modules (now I would actually need a 4th, after just a couple of months). The battery and screen are not stable since day one and no effective solution was ever proposed by the developer, just from other users here on the forum.
I was and still support the idea, but its realization is so poor that I honestly think it is doing more harm than good. I am changing my FP2 after a bit more than 2 years and I regret ever buying it

[BertG]

I really feel for you @Alberto_Gregori and @Sven_De_Potter and fully understand loosing faith and your decision to turn your back on FP.
Obviously that’s something, that should not happen, ever.

I - luckily - have experienced minor problems only; especially reboot issues, that were solved by a tiny bit of plastic adhesive added to the battery frame.
Therefore it’s a bit easier to say, that FP is not a phone like all the others.
As I see it, it’s kind of “experimental” in many ways.

• First of all, it is a small european company managing all the business and not a big business with a certain kind of control over the factories.
• Equally important is the fact, that the FP2 is the first modular phone. That makes 100,000 phones sold kind of an extended market test for any of the large phone companies, that are big enough to dare this kind of experiment. (Remember that “Ara” by Google was abandoned.)
• Finally: It’s still a small team in the Netherlands that is working to solve all the problems and meet all the needs of the consumers as well as those of the business.

My conclusion would be, that the FP2 is an important product and hopefully a first step to changing the market.
I would not advise anyone who is dependent of a working smartphone to go for a Fairphone right now, as I see to big of a chance to end up with an experience like yours. Not that the majority of phones are running into that kind of troubles, just a few to many.
That the phone is not in general troublesome - in my opinion - is demonstrated by the fact, that a big reseller like memo/memolife in Germany is offering this phone since the beginning. I have some doubts that they still would sell the FP2 if lots of customers had returned their phones or complained. Customer reviews are very positive as well.

Maybe the next FP might be the one for you, as Fairphone will have learned from the experience with the FP2 for sure. Still, I would not pre-order or buy one of the first batch, if you want to play it safe. Just wait some time to find out, what experience other users are reporting.

[Patrick1]

Partially I agree with you.

@BertG

I would not pre-order or buy one of the first batch

Here I can clearly express my very positive experience with my No. 9601.
I never had a “need to be fixed/replaced” case, but only the unreliable 8MP camera which did not always focus properly. As I for my expectations and needs mainly bought a mobile phone and no mobile camera this was not a big issue for me.
Anyway I though it should work more reliable although it would not deliver high-class images, so I replaced it on warranty and passed on the old module to fairphoneangels. By that time I wasn’t aware of the internal foam by the lens being the main cause for the focusing problem, otherwise I also could have fixed it without replacement.

So my overall experience with my first ever smartphone actually is quite satisfying.
Yes, I would again buy another next model, probably also of the first batch. I somehow have the impression my first batch quality seems slightly higher than later/now. #?? (considering the full product…hardware&software - the 12MP camera raises too often connection issues and the bottom modules seem to be a bit more fragile, my old Lollipop generally performs much better than todays Android 7. I can switch off each sim card and the phone by software. Will a higher security level have a positive influence on this?)

@AnotherElk

Ein nicht upgedatetes OS mit offenen Sicherheitslücken -

“an outdated OS with open security vulnerabilities”

I have serious doubts.

But who knows, maybe it’s my personal treatment as I usually keep many things for much longer usable than many other people I meet.

@BertG

My conclusion would be, that the FP2 is an important product and hopefully a first step to changing the market.

My words. FP is in business and slowly doing better. I am sure it could learn a lot
meanwhile. With each product iteration more knowledge and advancements can be put in. So reliability and longevity should increase steadily. FP is still too small for “the big leap”.

[Sven_De_Potter]

Hey Bert, thanks for your post. I will use my FP2 until it dies … curious about the FP3, still, and the German Shift-project. Cheers!

[media_rw]

Spielmops

Oct '17

This is my last entry, because I have no Fairphone any more. How?

This link isn’t working any more: now the whole story is here.

[Stefan]

Ich denk, da ist ein Tippfehler. Da steht “September 1015”.

[nicolasahssaine]

Please let me sum up.

I received my FP1, encountered antenna problems, needed to return, then I changed screws, battery. But I went on and decided to pay for a better one.
I received my FP2, and needed to change the back cover after a couple of months because the first one was too weak and broke itself.
Then, I encountered many autoboots but did remain cool and read all comments and advice on forum.
I did change the cam module one year ago (feel free to check).
I still have an autobooting FP2 with second back cover broken (as weak as the previous), and weak battery length and weaker performances than the rest of the mrket at the same price, and still I defend myself and the project for it is human and respectful.
Then, I decide to switch back to my FP1 because of continuous autoboot, and need to find on my own a new battery because your long term company doesn’t sell them anymore.
Then, I need to upgrade my apps and can’t stay on my FP1 because your long term company doesn’t support previous version anymore.

Then, I go back to FP2, do all the updates, checks and adjustments.

In the end I call the user service and you tell me : no, it is because of water, we see it on the picture.

You are kidding me, or I definitely lost my time and hope.

Bye bye

[BertG]

@nicolasahssaine

because your long term company

First of all, this is a user forum; so it’s not “our” company.
Just for clarification, in case there’s a misunderstanding.

Concerning your dissapointments and frustrations, I really feel for you.
With regard to regular auto-reboots.
Have you checked the troubleshooting tool
There even is a category “Phone reboots”.
In my case it was the “battery frame” problem.

FP2 random reboots - see #rebootsguide for help

To me this seems most likely to be a case of a “loose” battery. Here’s the troubleshooting “tool” from Fairphone: https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001041206-Troubleshoot-your-Fairphone-2-issue Select “Phone reboots” Then select “There’s something else wrong” Next you will see a video with a test for the battery frame. If your phone reboots when you try this at home, select “Yes” !Attention! take a video of this test, as you will have to send this video in. Then contact …

Since then everything is working absolutely perfect.

As to the Fairphone 1. The story regarding the end of support - as frustrating as this is - has already been explained back then. And you will find a thorough discussion with regard to this topic in this forum. The longest thread might be this one:

Fairphone 1 maintenance comes to an end

After supporting our Fairphone 1 for three and a half years and the Fairphone 1U for nearly two and a half years, we regret that we are no longer able to offer spare parts. We’re proud of everything we achieved with our first Fairphone 1 owners. Together we sourced conflict-free tin and tantalum from Congo, set up a Worker Welfare Fund with the Fairphone 1 manufacturer and showed a concrete market demand of over 60,000 people who wanted a fairer phone. Unfortunately, we’ve reached the point whe…

In a way, you made the same mistake I did, by not calling support right away, but making up with the faults for way to long.
Have you tried contacting one of the nice fairphoneangels or are’nt there any in your area? They might be helpful in locating the problem. And should they be able to diagnose your phone, maybe that could even help with support?

I wish you all the best.
Btw: I own a FP2 and a FP1 (both first batch) as well and both are serving me fine still and my wife’s FP1 is still at work as well.

[nicolasahssaine]

Hi,

Just to let you know : this was the end of my last FP customer service e-mail, after having tried to get some help on a diagnosis.

Le mar. 5 févr. 2019 à 22:32, BertG noreply@fairphone.com a écrit :

[casacota]

Well, third Fairphone 2 died in less than 9 months. Full with problems from the very beginning, unreliable, random and very frequent reboots, and being unusable, one after the other. In addition, a very unefficient support, and extremely slow.
I feel I have indirectly produced three times the electronic waste I used to produce since I decided to give Fairphone a try.
Never again Fairphone.

[BertG]

I really feel for you and absolutely get, that you are turning your back on Fairphone.
My phone works really fine; the increasing number of reboots it had, were solved by the fix for the large battery frame (just a tiny bit of self adhesive plastic).
Just to maybe reassure you, that your troubles are not normal.

With regard to producing electronic waste.
I really would love the get some numbers on that for Fairphone and the other companies.
While it seems - judging by the forum -, that Fairphone has a higher dropout rate, I am sure, that the dropout rate with the larger companies is no less, but happening at an earlier stage of production; due to a way more thorough (and expensive) quality control. While nearly all defective motherboards for Samsung or Apple phones will be thrown away by quality control in China or Korea, I would not be surprised, if a higher percentage of defective parts for Fairphones reach the customer.
Of course, that’s all guesswork on my behalf and I don’t expect to ever learn the truth. Companies surely will keep that kind of data secret.

[Patrick1]

@BertG

for Samsung or Apple phones

After Samsung`s S7 issue many of us could witness actions that revealed it does not care too much about electronic waste and their environmental impact.
Also it was proven that Apple (Samsung as well) renders aged devices to operate slower. These companies also take actions to get customers to purchase a new device whatever then happens to the old.

So I think Fairphone is still too small and has sold too less units to come even close to such damage done by the big players.