Unhappy with my Fairbuds, would like to seek a refund

Help Accessories
1

Intro

I’ve been a FP4 user for about nine months, and am mostly happy with it. I’m pleased that if I damage the screen, I can service it myself; I accidentally smashed two Honor screens in the space of as many years. I am in the UK.

For a long time I made do without a hands-free kit, as I don’t make as many calls as I used to. The lack of audio port is annoying, but I understand why manufacturers are moving away from them.

Fairbuds problems

I recently had a need to replace the screen protector, having smashed that too. While buying a new one, I decided to try the “Fairbuds True Wireless Earbuds White v2”, to fill my hands-free gap. I now feel that I’ve made rather a foolish error. The Fairphone website acknowledges the 14 days I get in the UK as cooling-off period for distance selling. Unfortunately I was away with work and missed the deadline (I received them 7th May, so 21st would have been the fortnight point).

Broadly the buds seem to have so many problems, I fear they are not actually a finished product. I will try a run-down:

  • They don’t seem to stay in my ears.
  • The output sound is reedy and tinny, and would be more suited to a £40 product, not one costing three times as much. I am probably quite fussy here, and maybe I have just overestimated what IEMs can do.
  • The microphone seems to be poor for calls compared to headphones with an in-lead mic.
  • The app barely has any features (for example, I can’t find a way to control the noise cancellation in the app).
  • The battery symbols in the app say ‘N/A’, which I assume is because of some kind of Bluetooth communication error. Music will still play in the buds though, so they’re operational after a fashion. Needed location services
  • The Fairbud firmware version is marked as ‘N/A’ in the app (same possible reason as above). Needed location services
  • If I turn off Bluetooth and then turn it back on, the app still thinks the buds are disconnected, and I have to restart the app to get it to see the new state.
  • The app equaliser rarely works. I think it worked once, but mostly it has no effect on the frequency response output at all. Needed location services
  • The tap/swipe features on the buds themselves take a second to register, and it doesn’t always read the intended operation correctly. Getting the buds to do what one wants can be an intensely infuriating experience.
  • With the tap/swipe features being so poor, I’d rather switch off those features, so at least I can fight with the poor fitting in my ears. But the app does not offer this, so I have to carefully handle the buds without touching the primary exposed surface.

I am aware that the reviews of the app on Google Play are a mixed bag.

What have I not tried?

  • I’ve not done much research on the problems that other people are having, including potential solutions.
  • I’ve not tried whether the various noise reduction modes would help the microphone’s performance (partly because it’s so fiddly to change them).
  • I’ve not uninstalled and reinstalled the app.
  • I’ve only read a couple of posts in this forum.

This is not laziness. There is a point where a product is so inadequate for the price point that it’s not a good use of time to optimistically hope that every category failure can be resolved. This is an early prototype that, as far as I can see, only has repairability going for it.

I plan to get an inline USB C to DAC/audio adapter. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have done that to start with.

Support times

On an unrelated issue I logged a support call on 15th January and received a request for clarifications a month later (!) on 14th February. I found a way to self-resolve, but I wanted to mention this as to why I am raising the issue in the forum. I am aware that FP have posted here to say they know support cases are backing up, and that the service is not at an acceptable level.

Refund

I would like to pursue a refund, perhaps under the cooling-off period with some goodwill attached. I acknowledge my complaint is a bit late. I am hoping that some leniency can be applied and trust that it is clear why giving up with the product is the correct solution in this case.

Failing that, perhaps the lengthy set of problems can permit me a refund under a faulty product reason code. I think it would be a waste of time to try another set though: unfortunately I think a replacement set would be just as poor.

2

Now that I’ve had a cathartic moan, I’ve had a mooch around on the forum, and have solved a problem: the incomplete radio connection between the buds and the phone. It turns out that the buds require location services to be enabled. I usually turn this off for privacy reasons, so it’s rather annoying it’s required for the product to be fully operational. Moreover, the app should be giving me guidance as to the problem, rather than leaving me floundering.

Notwithstanding, I will strike the related issues from my original post.

3

Hi, I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with Fairbuds. Judging from the forum vibe ( I am not an user of those), some people are fully satisfied but there are quite a few complaining and sharing their feelings of a not-yet-finished product. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t purchased them yet (others being more substantial like having a different set of headsets, using the over-the-ear mostly, limited budget, preference for a different colour;-), etc.)

I am replying mostly to point out though that this is the community forum so we have no say in the company policy on refunds. I think the proper way will be to contact the support, raise these issues and (unfortunately) prepare for the wait. I am aware FP is planning to increase their presence on the forum and there are FP staff members visiting the forum but it is still mostly the community space.

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Thanks @Meaghan, much obliged. Yes, I am not making an appeal to the community really, though general fix advice (and sympathy :upside_down_face:) is most welcome. This was mostly for support staff, in the hope that I can circumvent waiting a month to receive a clarification question.

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For the written record, I tried another call with the Fairbuds yesterday, and despite the audio output working OK for music, I think the call recipient could not hear me at all. They are, in other words, unusable for the purpose that I bought them.

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Hi. any way without taking the service?

7

That will not happen. You cant contact support and raise refund, warranty claims etc using the forum. Just to make this clear.

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8

There are two things to that: One is the return period which for things that you wear in your ears is limited to items that have not been unpacked (which makes sense somehow, but especially with things that you need to try out to see if like it, that’s not exactly great, either). You have passed that period anyway, so we come to the second thing: The product seems to be faulty if it doesn’t do what it was advertised to do. That is a valid reason to return the product. And even if the support takes a while (they said it’s going to be better soon…), that’s the way to go for that. That being said: They have the right to mend up to three times, so if they think it’s an issue with your pair of earbuds then they can repair them, replace them etc. But you’ll have to figure that out with the support.

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Thanks; that’s helpful, Martin. Given my recent microphone test, I am minded to qualify them as explicitly faulty, rather than just of debatable quality. I will log a call and sit tight.

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I have bad news.

Fairphone chat is now completely closed “temporarily”

Screenshot_20250604-203600
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The even worse thing is that the mail response time is 2+ month.

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