I’m a bit worried that I just got robbed by Fairphone.
I was really excited to get a new phone, and I aligned with the ideals of Fairphone, so I ordered one off the website on the 26th of March. The phone got stuck at customs because there was an issue with the commercial shipping forms, I called UPS and raised a support ticket, UPS got back to me and said it was on Fairphone’s end and they were trying to get them to fix it. Fairphone never got back to me.
The package was returned to sender, at which point I was able to get a response from a member of staff saying they would reship the package and send me confirmation when they did.
It has been almost a week since they said they would reship the package, I have been completely ghosted, they won’t respond to any emails or tickets and I can’t request a refund.
So I’m down £500 with no phone, did I just get robbed?
Thats actually not a really long time considering weekend and easter holidays. There is nothing like a 24h response time etc. and sending several mails will rather slow down the process instead of speeding it up.
So no I dont think its the time already to seek legal advice.
Well considering they’re marking the package as “Paid and Delivered” and are refusing to let me get a refund or speak to anyone, I’m a little concerned is all. It’d be a lot easier if they hired people instead of making me speak to a water-chugging hallucinating AI chat-bot.
there are people you dont need to talk to the AI chatbot. Either wait for the re-ship confirmation, the mail response, or use hours where actual people are supporting the chat, the hours are named on the homepage. I understand you are worried and can only tell you, its not yet the time to worry as its not even a week. I’m sure this will be sorted out, just not as fast as you expect it. Its Fairphone not e.g. Amazon, so response times etc are def slower, no one works during the weekend.
I am not convinced there are people, within the period since I ordered the phone, I have gotten one response, so maybe there is person rather than people. Guess I will update in a week when I probably still haven’t heard anything.
well there are more than 1 people… Edit: in the past you could see that on the homepage with names and pictures (seems it was removed)
So again: at the moment there is absolutely nothing unnormal (despite the fact that something was not properly completed in the first place for customs) and its all normal for Fairphone, no one ghosts you or robbed you.
I don’t think I can really help you with your issue. But what I can tell you is that, from my experience, Fairphone client service completely s*cks.
It takes them ages to answer any complaint and do not offer real support. One week is plenty enough for them to re-send your phone, especially if the package is marked as Paid and Delivered.
Maybe try and chat with a real person between 10 and 12, otherwise you will only get insane answers from the chatbot.
As for legal advice, Fairphone does not seem to care with the law. Sorry.
Update: after endless pestering I did manage to get a response, apparently there is a ‘slight delay’ in the reshipment, it has now been a week since it got returned to them and two weeks since I made the order.
This is really frustrating, they are able to ship the package initially within one day (albeit with messed up shipping invoices) but the reshipment apparently takes them at least a week? My old phone had died and being without a phone is now impacting my work and day to day life, to the point where I am considering just eating the £500 loss and buying another phone from somewhere else.
If the phone does arrive I will gladly use it but I will never order anything from this company ever again, no matter what.
I am unsure of UK, but when my phone died I bought straight from a reseller. I had urgency so I got in a store. I’d never buy online something I urgently need, and specially not cross border. Those things happen, and quite often and with many companies. And you might say “they do it every time”, yes, but still. Been there, don’t want to risk.
So, whichever path you follow I recommend in the future avoid online (and specially cross border) shipping when you have an urgency.
update: yesterday they responded to me again saying they’d “asked for reshipment” and that it will be shipped within 3 business days, after me pestering them to reshipping the package a few more times, hopefully they fill in the shipping invoice correctly this time and it gets through customs, i’ve asked them to refund the delivery fee, hopefully they at least do that for me, though wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t.
this should not have been the ordeal it was, i don’t really think a holiday backlog is a fair excuse, they were off for two days and the package got returned to sender before any easter days off, so they should have noticed UPS trying to contact them to get the shipping invoices fixed. it’s just incompetence from their staff, i imagine they’re probably extremely understaffed or not trained properly, regardless i blame their management. hope i dont have to order a new battery or anything like that anytime soon.
A company is not for me despite me agreeing with their purpose of a slavery free and environmentally friendly product because i don’t want to be left in the dark.
They’ve missed the approximate shipping window so I’m opening another live chat to see what’s going on, seems that’s the secret to getting things moving is just to always use live chat and link the previous ticket to whichever member of staff you get.
So if anyone has the same issue I have, don’t bother with tickets and things like that, just use the live chat, the wait times to speak to a person aren’t that bad and it usually makes more progress than trying to wait for tickets to be responded to.
Update: It did not get reshipped, My support ticket got no updates about this, but the person on live chat noticed immediately and has apparently escalated it and opened a new support ticket.
This is not about timing, this is about communication, I don’t mind if it takes a long time to fix things, I care that I have not been kept in the loop about what’s going on with my order.
I’m hopeful that escalating the issue to the relevant team will result in me actually getting my order and maybe some reimbursement, at the very least on the shipping fees.
@YearOfYacine, your experience has been awful. I can’t imagine that I would form a positive opinion either, in your case.
I am willing to overcome these hurdles to have a durable, repairable device. However, they should not exist, and I completely sympathise if they’re too kafkaesque for you, especially on a short timeline.
My sole suggestion is to order via Amazon or eBay, in the future, with something like a Curve card that connects to PayPal. Then, you’ve multiple avenues to contact the seller, and organise reshipment. A reseller is frequently easier to contact, too.
They’ve agreed to give me a refund, I hadn’t heard anything back from them escalating and asking the ‘relevant team’ why it hadn’t been reshipped but at least I might get my money back.
I probably could have waited for them to investigate but I saw the writing on the wall, I don’t care if everyone think I’m impatient, I know if I wanted to wait for reshipment I’d likely have to wait multiple months for it, so I might as well just ask for my money back now. Hopefully they actually refund me and I can find some other company that doesn’t use slavery to make phones but also actually ships their phones to people.