The Fairness of the Fairphone

Discuss
1

I am starting this topic as I seem at odds with a number of people on the concept of fairness.

There are two purposes it seems for this forum.

  1. The assist people with software and hardware issues, note here there are localised #fairphoneangel who may assist.

  2. Responding to peoples complaints about how badly they have been treated by Fairphone with a ‘c**p’ phone.

The second point becomes more of an issue with many people ~ and the actual Fairness in the way the mineral and factory workers seems trivial.

Sure if the phone doesn’t live up to your expectations there’s no harm in communication with Fairphone, they want to know, they want to improve, they want to run a successful business.

But using this forum complain about Fairphone, slagging them off and generally whinging, clouds over the idea of fairness which I imagine is at the root of the notion to buy in the first place.

Now I get to the point where the support is for a lot of those disenchanted people feeling hard done by and want to voice their emotional disturbance.

I get it, I am emotional disturbed, and it is also true I find others’ actions disturbing, but not as much as my own.

So it’s nice to build a picture, a gang or gaggle of like minded upset individuals, as it’s far easier to hide my own failings whilst I’m trying to hold others responsible for their actions. It’s easy to look outside my own intellect at the environment and see it wasting away, but it’s not.

Each of us has the ability to take full responsibility for everything we do, say, see or feel, let alone the silly phones we buy.

So yes complain as much as you like about Fairphone, but I will not support such irresponsible chatter, but I will respond to those people who clearly want emotional support, if I am able, but I won’t be blaming Fairphone for any unhappiness.

2

I think your basic intentions are quite clear: Consumers who have issues with their Fairphone(s) which are caused by Fairphone themselves shall be told that nothing was more important than a happy factory worker, no matter whether a consumer (who might have worked very hard to be able to buy a Fairphone) can afford to have a malfunctioning phone or not.

Please accept that a consumer has the right to receive and to operate a working device within its warranty period. We could leave this discussion behind if Fairphone had a better quality management. The way you are trying to convince people to buy and to stick to an itchy phone definitely is the wrong one, because it scares those who have had good intentions to get a Fairphone…

3

Thanks for responding here as I can make a real mess of a topic if dualistic words are used, like (Fair, Rights . . . )

Rights are only privileges the powerful have over others by force. That this force continues to expand externally and is called rights is anything but, healthy, good or right.

People that don’t have a voice or are too poor and hungry to raise their heads from the grass they chew have no rights.

Animal rights are not those of the animal but the rights of the humans to use them. Rights what a word. Rights or wrongs: rich or poor, strong or weak, intelligent or dumb.

So yes we the powerful create laws and demand rights over those we see as subordinate to the power, coercion and force of the law. The power over another through purchase, the modern tool of slavery. Once I use my power, my money to employ another I expect what ~ respect ~ no but I can threaten them with the law, to extort attention to my expectations that I classify as rights.

So from a simple grabbing of resources individuals swap and call the exchange good or bad, right of wrong.

It can be neither, just ugly when the suffering it creates is inescapable.

It’s a fair exchange, give me light and I will show you the darkness, give me rights and I will show you the wrongs. Polarities are interdependent.

And this is to be lauded as the future of mankind? Maybe it is but when I leave it’s no Bodhisattva for me. I am only accountable to myself, not to others and not they to I. What rights I have over others is an embarrassment to me.

4

You do not get the point: One of Fairphone’s missions has been to achieve fair wages and good working conditions for miners and factory workers. People who buy a Fairphone are willing to pay even more for “yesterday’s products”, they do rely on these achievements which, of course, are very appreciated. But please keep in mind that they want to be treated equitably, too, just as you stated recently in another thread. Your philosophy of paying a high price for an insufficient product will remain yours alone. I guess it would be fair for you, too, if people payed € 400 for a cardbox without any warranty, as long as the workers receive a high wage. Actually I wonder what exactly you are complaining about, since Fairphone obviously have achieved to install good working conditions and to raise the wages…

5

I do get the message are transmitting but it is not a point.

I do what I can to avoid using others, especially those that are less intelligent, like cows. My focus is on my behaviour, not the cows or people no matter how intelligent they appear.

My point is unique and not something anyone else would see or agree with, it is the direction of argument that I am dealing with not the effects.

6

Following a lengthy discussion on Software Update: 3.A.0129.20210805 there seems to be a difficult situation regarding the response to peoples emotions.

Most may wish to avoid such issues which can become a thread to the relevant post and seemingly off topic.

Topics such as the ‘update’ topic has a number of threads relating to flaws discovered and some people want to express how upset they are.

Some want to blame Fairphone and expect a quick fix. When the fix is not resolved to the user’s satisfaction more emotional distress is voiced.

There are others who may not even have an issue but will join the distress thread with what Fairphone and people should do. This can add to the complainant’s sense of injustice…

Fairphone cannot really address how upset a person is and so this forum is their way of enabling people an outlet, which may be a frustration to the slow workings of the machine and the perceived ineptitude of Fairphone.

However an individual’s voice can be addressed even though it is not a Fairphone issue, though prompted via an unfulfilled expectation of the functions of the phone and the lack of or tardy support from Fairphone.

But the point I am trying to make is that such feelings, although maybe assuaged by a ‘software fix’ or a caring response from Fairphone, do not originate with Fairphone. They are part of a person’s culture and personality. Some people complain more than others and voice it here on the forum.

So the question maybe ‘how to respond’ to non technical concerns, ignore or engage.

Engaging can be distressful especially when third parties deem it a side show, but although it may be a side show to some it’s in the public domain for a reason and that is someone wants to be heard. It seems perverse to join a community and then ignore calls for attention if I have the energy to engage.

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7

I try to understand you but I can’t sorry.

Can you agree with this quote of DeepSea? Is this the case?

8

Hi Thanks for your interest

From the quote I gather DeepSea is attempting to, by paraphrasing, understand my philosophy ~ that each of us is responsible for our experiences.

This does not go easily with DeepSeas’ view hence their interpretation is that the responsibility may be another’s and in this case Fairphone’s

Whereas Fairphone runs a business that will only work with a successful responsibility in terms of producing attractive products they are not responsible for how people feel about failures to deliver.

It is to this second tag of expected responsibility that is solely down to the end user. Once a user’s frustration is vented in a public forum the only possible response I have is to be philosophical.

I have empathy for the distraught consumer but no sympathy as it was their decision to buy ’ a phone’ in this scenario…

A disgruntled owner can ask Faiphone for a hardware or software fix with limited expectations. When frustration boils over, due to the unforeseen limit of an individual’s expectation, to a public forum there is no solution.

So what to do? I try to engage as fully as possible with the disappointment without pointing the finger at anyone else. I will not support the notion that Fairphone or anyone should do what I expect and dance to my tune, nor will I encourage or allow such rhetoric to go unchallenged.

So thanks again for your concern and I hope I have made my view a little more understandable.

All the best

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9

I can follow you for a long time however I have the feeling you project some over reacting people here on all users. There are some serious bugs where the communication is ehh at least sub optimal from Fairphone. People are in most cases reasonable if you communicate with them.

Thereby it is a public forum so the most people here have a problem with indeed some emotions. I would say don’t judge the people of downplay the problem because they are to emotional in your opinion. Just to be honoust I don’t care if a problem what I have with my Fairphone is a third party since the partys where I have contact with is the reseller or direct Fairphone not all the others in the supply chain.

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10

Quite the opposite I’m surprised it has come across that I think people are too emotional. The whole concept of ‘too’ is an anathema to me.

People are very emotional and I have no problem with that, but where there is blame, coercion and authoritarian provocation I am likely to challenge the author.

I am not trying to limit emotionally led comments but to engage and support, with what appears to be termed ‘philosophical’ ideas.

Thanks for your help in me understanding how I am/may-be seen in this matter.

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