For reasons unexplained, this topic that started with a blog post of the CEO has been unlisted and closed. It contained some criticism of the company, prompting a few people to suggest that unhappy customers should ‘just leave’.
We are all here because we support Fairphone’s mission. To criticise the way Fairphone is managed as a company should be acceptable; these are people that probably work there less than the average lifetime of a Fairphone. There have been 4 CEOs since Bas the founder left in 2018. We are going to be here much longer than our current ‘tech leader’.
I consider myself a typical committed Fairphone fan, I invested in the first crowdfunding round in 2018, and again in 2023, and I have been using an FP4 since 2023, happily until last Nov and the A15 fiasco. All i ask is to ‘FIX MY FRICKIN PHONE’ (FP4.QREL.15.15.2).
We are Fairphone, and we demand better.
Every decision at FP should be guided by the question of whether it is going to enable customers to keep using their devices longer. If the management decides to roll out bells&whistles, that brick numerous phones around the world, that goes against the Fairphone mission. So my humble opinion is that it is their time to ‘just leave’.
Some people rightfully mention that this is a corporate blog, and it’s directed more at other CEOs and investors, rather than customers. Arguably, it might not have been right to re-post it on the community forum, as it is a completely different audience.
Rightfully, many people got angry with the post, since many of us were awaiting a public statement on recent issues with their products, and the timing of the corporate post just didn’t hit right.
In the end, the conversation started to become very personal and some people started arguing about their personal beliefs and politics, which I assume is not good for the community. We’re here for a reason, “united” around the goal of living a more sustainable life and (personal opinion alert) this is not the place to have discussions on other topics (then again, maybe the blog post shouldn’t have made it here in the first place).
I personally see the unlisting of the topic as the correct thing to do now. However, if this happens without any further communication, I’ll be very disappointed. As mentioned before, the list of topics, we (the community) would like to get a public statement on, is getting longer and longer and this just adds to it. They have some explaining to do.
Once again, I’m not trying to defend Fairphone, I do think they’ve made mistakes, when handling this situation, but unlisting the topic could be the right thing to do if different actions follow.