Problems with technical support

Help Fairphone 3
3

Yes a trifle argumentative, but that’s fine if it’s has boundaries . . . .

It was over the xmas period and many businesses didn’t restart until 4th Jan and contacting support more than once only serves to add more workload. So No 3 arguments down :slight_smile:

a) Adds to my first point about contacting them more than once with your issue, especially so soon though you may say it was only an addendum so the paragraph would balance if that was the case and a void argument -1

b)
Money from expected sales would already be allocated in any business and even if not then it will take some time to find suitable staff, definitely more than the two weeks you are discussing. So another argument I do not agree with

So that’s five points where I do not support your arguments minus one for good behaviour. So let’s say four.

Simple statement ?

Expectation, ideally you should get some response within a week, but that would only be a recognition of your support query. It may take a month or more depending upon many things ~ I won’t list what I have in mind ~ to get a helpful response.

It’s a real pain buying online from small time OEM’s . Unlike retailers who just buy in and ship out.

Yes I have an issue where I received an automated reply with saying they hope to contact me within 5 days, but hey! I imagine like many others I may have to wait. I certainly don’t expect an answer in weeks from what I can read.

If you believe your decisions are not within your control then luck may be one way of saying how disappointed and hurt you feel at the cards you have been dealt even if you did pay to play the game.

I don’t imagine you are being blocked or that there is some AI that is picking names out of a hat.

I have read many posts of extremely unhappy people who were hoping to buy into some sort of ethical experiment, and are very unhappy about the cost but then who said it will be cheap and the cost is not spread equally.

Like you I have been very unhappy about the quality of the phone and support, especially as I bought one for my daughter. It was her idea (more recently) to get one, so I bought one to see how bad it was :slight_smile: and by paying for hers at least she would not be so upset if it doesn’t live up to her expectations.

I have been monitoring the Fairphone for years but never though it was up to much and if wasn’t for my ‘ethical daughter’ I wouldn’t bought one.

I hope you find some solace in that you are not alone and some solution to some of your problems. I will check out other posts of yours to see if I can be more supportive.

All the best

4

I’m very sorry to read that you’re having such severe problems with your Christmas present! :frowning:
The last information regarding support backlog I’d found here on the forum was about 5 working days for urgent cases. But maybe it’s now a bit more having in mind the number of holidays and possible increased number of incidents (caused by more new phones these weeks). Still, I’d expect some reaction anyway. Did you at least get some automated response and a ticket number?
You might try to consider to call them beginning of next week, following advice at #contactsupport

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Yes, I had a ticket number assigned and an automatic reply but if this meant “receiving support” then we live in a society where we have support every day and everywhere :slight_smile:

Receiving support is when a human being tells you he/she is working on your issue and asks you to give more information or try things.

I had the idea of calling them but I do think that having to manage calls from unhappy customers would only reduce resources allocated to solving problems, that’s why I preferred not to call them.

However I honestly can’t see any other way of having a real feedback. I’ll call next week.

Regards,
Max

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I am sorry so say, but you are not alone with your experience with both the FP3+ and support. When you get an answer from support (you will eventually) dont set your expectations to high. Of you look at the forum you will find many others with similar frustrations.

About the random reboots, for me the latest update a.0066 helped a lot. Check your version and check if you have a update waiting.

7

Oh man don’t count on support, right now support is pretty much the same everywhere around due to the currents events. People are losing their minds and bother support over silliest things creating bottleneck.

Try to reset it, make sure the battery is not loose in the phone. If this does not work then get a used phone and use it while you wait for the response, there’s no need to suffer over some silly silly phone.

8

Hi gyldeno,

I’m at version 8901.3.A.0066.20201119 and no update is waiting.

Thanks for your information. I think this kind of initiatives can only spread and find new supporters through word of mouth (I don’t think we’ll ever see a commercial during the Superbowl) and my first impression is not positive. In this situation I can’t suggest to my friends to buy a Fairphone, which is a shame as the initiative is a very good idea.

Regards,
Max

9

Whereas I agree with @existentionaut largley, about overwhelming request etc. I put in one to ask for help in understanding the battery charging routine ~ not a critical issue. It took 8 days to get a human response that although wasn’t helpful was human :slight_smile:

The response does show how providing info on basic phone statuses are essential even if seemingly unrelated to the query and of course having to be asked just adds more to the support workload.

I am keeping a record of my request on the following topic the link goes to my latest post referred to above.

10

Amoun, in my opinion you mix up two things.

I’ll try with an example as I can probably better explain my ideas.

I’m a Linux user. As you probably know Linux is not a system that works 100% out of the box at every installation. I’ve almost always needed to troubleshoot problems or fine tuning the system to have everything working. Usually I refer to the Linux community, I ask a question on the Ubuntu forum (it’s the distro I’ve been using during the last decade). I know I can have a reply in a few minutes, some days after, or simply It can happen I’ll never have a reply. It’s a free operating system supported by a community of people that are volunteering, you can’t expect anything from them. If they help you, you say “thanks”, if they reply late or don’t reply at all you can’t complain.

When I buy a product the situation is totally different. First of all, in my opinion a phone that reboots unexpectedly ten times a day shouldn’t exit the company. If it does and I report the problem to the technical support they’re supposed to respond in a timely manner. It’s not about a community of people that helps each other, it’s about a company that sold a product having a major problem. It’s their fault not mine, I gave good money they’re supposed to give me a product that respects a minimum quality level. If they don’t they are supposed to make at least an effort to solve the problem timely and if after more than two weeks I still don’t have any reply I’ve got all the rights to be unsatisfied. I’m not asking for the moon, I’m not asking for a perfect phone or a technical support that replies after 5 minutes.

The observation that this is a period where a lot of phones have been sold so they’re submerged by support requests seems not to considered that during the last 2020 years we have been knowing 25th December 2020 would be Christmas and it’s at least a couple of centuries that we known that in this period of the year a lot more people buy things. They had all the information they needed to properly manage this increase in technical support requests. If they didn’t, once more, it’s their fault not mine. I’m the one that should be said “we’re sorry for all the troubles we’re causing” not the one to be treated as an inpatient customer that asks for impossible things (i.e. having a working phone or the required support to have it fixed).

Regards,
Max

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11

I don’t wanna destroy hope, but this is an old question:
Is there really a fairphone-support ?
(as an old FP1+FP2 user I have been puzzling for a long time about this)

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Your first paragraph refers to a large base of users helping each other where there was no sale and no contract with users but a) there are thousands of them and b) they don’t loose anything.

Yes it’s totally different and so a comparison is totally pointless ~ as an argument.

Secondly the phone does not leave the company as you state. There are half a dozen people who run the company and the manufacturers are in China etc. You can’t expect every phone to be tested by the ‘company’ or the manufacturer.

Business costs are better met dealing with bad products rather than ensuring every phone is perfect and this is a small experimental business so the costs are even higher.

There’s also the ‘fact’ that maybe only 1% of users go on the forum to ask for help, how many actually contact the official support may be interesting
.

I wouldn’t run a business like Fairphone as customers expectation would be high and as a small business I doubt they have enough information for their desires let alone all, and no one there is to blame.

Buying any product is a consumer gamble and some will loose out but it not the fault of the buyer either. Sure some people intend to deceive but if Fairphone and/or it’s customers have problems it was in the desire for improvement and someone always pays the price, you, me, Fairphone, miners, factory workers, Orang Utangs etc.

We people are full of our own wants and desires and lowering the expectation that other people live up to mine sets me free, that doesn’t mean it isn’t painful but the pain is mine that’s what I’m buying.

Calling it a Fairphone might mean I have to start footing the bill of human consumption.

But your right in all you say, that from your perspective you are unhappy and didn’t get what you wanted :slight_smile:

let’s hope the Fairphone becomes more that just a little bit better for the miners and factory workers for if it is to work as a business then they will want more customers.

And I agree with your general tone, in that I wouldn’t recommend the Fairphone to anyone except Hmmmmm! ~ Ah! yes the Fairphone developers, but then they have boxes of them and first line support :}

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I totally understand your frustration and can’t blame you for being angry.
Still, I would like to try and shed some different light on a few points you mentioned.

Regarding your idea, that Fairphone could have added to their workforce, to prepare support for a higher demand aroung christmas.
As I see it, that’s a good idea, but still illusional due to two reasons.

  1. Fairphone is no global player having lots of money waiting to be spent on employees. (If Fairphone reached their target of 100 000 phones sold in 2020, they have sold around 320 000 phones in total since 2013. Just look up, how many days it takes Apple or samsung to sell that amount of phones. The numbers I found, makes it less than 15 hours each and every day in 2019, for Apple to sell 320 000 phones.)
  2. Even if Fairphone would have the money to pay more support people. They still have to find them and train them. And I would not expect that to be that easy. Plus: People alone won’t be enough. They need a place / office / equipment for their work. Additional office space might not be that easy to come by in their location and there are thos special requirements due to corana right now. (Which might have caused a bad timed decrease of their workforce as well.)

Regarding the phone troubles:
I totally agree, that a phone should at least work for calling without troubles.
Unfortunately the FP3(+) experienced quite a few problems, that seem to have been caused by the Upgrade to Android 10. I bet, they didn’t expect that; and the phone seems to work fine for the majority. There can be a wide variety of causes for troubles, making it hard to fix them as fast as desireable. E.g. from what I read in this forum, there might be - at least for some bugs - certain network providers in some countries affected.
And - also from what I read - they are really working on it, doing overtime already. While the lack of a response for days or weeks might give the impression, that they don’t care, that is not the case - based on all info I got.

In the end, I would really support your idea to give them a call.
This might feel like jumping the line, but it’s not adding workload, as it - in my opinion - might in fact reduce the workload. Especially when someone has opened more than one ticket (sending multiple mails, generating new ticket numbers all the time), all those tickets can be connected and maybe solved in one call.
Instead of reading and sending mails to and fro, things can be explained and clarified by a few questions and explanations. To me that seems faster and less work.
And I guess / hope, that FP has organized and structured handling of phone calls and mail requests to manage both at the same time.
You can find the contact details on the support page.

I really keep my fingers crossed for you, that your problems will be solved pretty soon. :+1:

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14

Every after sales support has at least 2 working days reply policy so you are way off. I would agree though that maybe fp took more than they can chew. Tech support is super important, and a company can lose cred very fast if it is lacking in that department. For example I know that I will never buy chuwi products again, because their after sales support is non-existent.

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Exisentionaut, I think it’s would be better to quote all the sentence you’re replying to. What I wrote is

“I’m not asking for a perfect phone or a technical support that replies after 5 minutes”.

I’m not “way off”.

Thanks.

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Hi @mpolito1969,

Heartfelt apologies for the experience you’ve had so far. Just a note that we will be releasing a new software update by tomorrow at the latest, which would likely be a fix for the reboot issues you’re encountering. When it goes live, I will post about it in the forum too.

If you still encounter the same issues after tomorrow, please update this thread with your support ticket number and I will follow it up with my colleagues in the Customer Support team.

Apologies once again for the inconvenience, but thanks very much for your patience thus far.

Best,
Rae

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Hi Rae,

Your post warm my heart :slight_smile:

If the update doesn’t come tomorrow it’s not a problem, if it comes next week it’s OK too.

Your reply already covers a lot of what I was waiting for.

Regards,
Max

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Silly me, that makes a lot more sense :smile:

p.s. regarding the update you shouldn’t expect a fix, you might get disappointed all over again…

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Hi Rae,

Unfortunately the update didn’t solve the issue. I updated my phone yesterday night and it rebooted once tonight and twice this morning.

The ticket number is 408107.

I read in the release note the reboots fix was related to some mulfunction related to WiFi, I don’t use WiFi.

Anyway, in my support request I also attached a log taken with logcat just before a reboot. I hope that can shed some light.

Regards,
Max

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Hi Max,

I’m so sorry to hear that. Has anyone from customer support reached out to you via email yet? If not yet, I will follow this up in the morning.

Best,
Rae

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Yes, we’re working on it. Thanks.

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