Unethical business practices

[charlotte1]

Very disappointed by the approach for my first purchase…

On Tuesday, the Fairphone 6 (along with a case and screen protector) was in my cart. After taking some time to finalize my decision, I returned on Wednesday to find a €50 increase on the base price—right as the 6+ was announced.

When I reached out immediately after, support gave me a flat refusal to honor my previous cart price.

Quietly raising prices on items in an active cart right when launching a higher model is a standard tech industry practice, but it’s very jarring coming from a brand that promotes transparency and fairness. Shame for a first interaction, it really makes me want to spend my money on other brands, since this one isn’t any more ethical than the others.

[Meaghan]

Hello and welcome to the community forum

@charlotte1

Quietly raising prices on items in an active cart right when launching a higher model is a standard tech industry practice

Please note there was hardly anything quiet about this price raised, it was instead communicated by FP themselves in a newsletter

FP6 reverting to original price

From the end-of-July Fairphone bulletin, it seems that the FP6 will be going back up in price to 599€ soon. We’re adjusting the price on the Fairphone (Gen. 6) We have always believed that radical honesty is the only way to run a tech company. That is why we are letting you know directly that the Fairphone (Gen. 6) will be reverting to its original recommended retail price in mid-August. We have also been affected by the ongoing global memory chip shortage and have successfully managed to po…

[Martin_Anderseck]

If you go to the supermarket one day, spot a product you want to buy and come back the next day you cannot insist on getting it for yesterday’s price, either. Fairphone’s webshop could have forgotten your cart during the night, too. Would that have been better?
I understand that you’re annoyed by that, but I’d call it bad luck instead of “unethical business practices” and that can always happen.

[AnotherElk]

Nobody has just bad luck these days anymore. There must always be something grand and sinister afoot.

[AnotherElk]

@charlotte1

Shame for a first interaction, it really makes me want to spend my money on other brands, since this one isn’t any more ethical than the others.

It still is. There’s more people involved in this than you personally … Read Fairphone’s latest Impact Report here.

[Lidwien]

Consider yourself lucky. Now you can choose Fairphone 6 or Fairphone 6+.

[wallacewells]

I can see the OP’s point as this is their first post. Not everyone follows the company everyday and it is totally fine for someone to be blindsided by this decision. @charlotte1 us hardcore fans paid 599€ last year and it IS a fair price. I’m guessing the 6+ has to be 649€ at launch to be profitable (ethical or not, it remains a business that has to pay employees) and the differences between the two versions are simply not big enough to justify a 100€ price difference. That said agree with @Lidwien - if average usage (music, social media, email, videos etc) is your daily use profile, the slightly cheaper 6 is more than enough. If you do want to dabble in sooner than later on device AI or play more memory intensive games- and that blue is appealing- the 6+ is yours to grab.
Either way you will still make a great choice.
(PS: depending on where you live, your local operator may not have followed the price change yet ;-))

[abittner]

speaking of unethical. the shipping emails of FP are containing only tracking and obfuscated links (each and ever single link inside the email) by a company called

exponea dot com / bloomreach

so much for selling all my data to just the next best company out there. fair-phone company? unfair practices towards the customer. you got it.

taking care of fair minerals and mining? taking care of fairly treating staff and workers and what not?

treating your customers? no thank you.