Unsatisfied with FP3

Discuss The Products
41

I’m unsure if you understand my position, you seem to polarise two factors, the consumer and the producer, I am only the consumer here. I don’t care about the miners, workers or consumers, I care about what I do and being fair to those I employ, in this instance to make a phone. I don’t ask/pay/employ others to buy a phone, so I don’t care what they do with their assets or whom they exploit. I am not condemning anyone for their choice nor blaming anyone for mine.

Maybe this is a real Bye . . . . for now

42

You contradict your own statements:

You do care for the miners, but not for the consumers…

43

My apologies I cannot get you to understand me, nor is that the topic here.

44

That is the topic, because many consumers are not satisfied with the quality of Fairphones. It seems that Fairphone have too much interest in other things, e.g. good working conditions and fair income for miners and factory workers, but their products are “substandard” (to say it nicely)…

45

Many is a vague word and seems used to imply too many. How many id too many, surely that is for Fairphone to judge as they are trying to run a business based on Fairness. If they don’t succeed then who really looses out. Not the western must have a phone consumer that’s for sure. It may be useful to know how many proportional to how many are, and then compare that to how many consumers of other items, services and employment are not satisfied to get a picture of where an individual can help relieve the unhappiness.

I’m saying my dissatisfaction with the phone, is unlikely to be as great as the dissatisfaction of those exploited to produce it and the only recourse I have to that is to buy the Fairphone no matter how ‘Unsatisfying’ it maybe.

Some consumers are not satisfied, due to unrealistic expectations.
I am dissatisfied with the rabbit ears on my case, the camera apps output and the sound quality on speaker phone, but I didn’t expect a lot and the phone does what I want without rebooting etc.

The topic was about the phone functions, not about my philosophy that underlines my response .

Apart from bullet 5 about support I do not have any of the poor experiences mentioned, nor do I see ‘many’ complaints about the other points.

It seems that you may be responding to my post

amoun

12 Aug

The main purpose of the Fairphone is the fair employment not the longevity of the phone, although that is touted as a sense of ‘caring’ for the environment

Many people will be unsatisfied with products they buy but are they even considering how the products are made. This was a comment about Fairphone as a company base on the premise of fairtrade for the sourcing.

The phone and support are other matters that only effect a number of Fairphone users ~ a lot are probably happy ~ most are not using the forum for help.

Each of us exploits, what anyone of us gets from that is irrelevant unless I am made aware of it. Once I am I consider a) the one who exploits and b) the one(s) exploited.

My recourse is to treat others as fair as I can not to expect others to abide by my philosophy. That I appear to care for the workers is a misinterpretation of language as words not as logic. I care for myself and don’t want to disgrace myself further by not opting to buy a phone by a company that cares for the people I exploit. The phone doesn’t even have to work, the company may be a fraud, but intention is clear. Will I be disappointed with the phone, [yes]. Could I do better in buying another phone [no].

Again I expect more form myself than the phone and given my failures the phone is a very small inconvenience, one I invested in, and not a problem at all.

46

Then I just ask myself why you even bought a phone when you do not need it. Every produced consumer device pollutes the environment. Why did you not ask Fairphone to keep their phone and just forward the money to the miners and workers, if that was your real intention?

Not to forget your battery charging issue…

47

I put the battery charging issue down to my charging setup which is not QC3 and didn’t get any meaningful support from Fairphone when trying to get info on what technically happens when 5V is connected. My high and unrealistic expectation.

I bought the phone as an experiment. A daughter wanted a Fair #phone but I was apprehensive that it would be upto her expectations. i.e. would it work well enough, would it look cool enough, the last thing I thought the main problem was support ~ but then I thought the UK would never leave the EU and Trump would never be president ???

Once I’d bought the phone, ostensibly for her, I decided it was a bit iffy and if my daughter really wanted one I’d better have one to help her with any problems. I was also just having FTTP installed to my ‘logcabin’ and never had network connection where I reside and live, so I would benefit from a phone that could use wifi. My other, still working, phone a Samsung Alpha was not capable of wifi calling and I only used it when I went to town etc. and to take pictures. And the Samsung was one of my children’s throw aways.

As I have repeated I don’t care about the miners and workers so would not send them a penny, but if someone does work for me I like to pay them over the odds.

My focus is not on ‘demographically’ identifiable groups of people or the environment, it is purely on my own activities, i.e trying to reduce my consumption not to encourage others to consume the way I do.

There is a clear difference I have, my children don’t quite like. When I say care I mean emotionally and practically. If I didn’t know my children exist I wouldn’t care for them. I care for what I know, the immediate environment I exploit to crop food and wood and the people I meet when I meet them. Of course I have habits and people I meet more often I care for more often, hence children I have grown up with as a parent I am habitual caring for.

So I don’t care for the miners or the cows, though I have been vegan for 47 years and my carbon footprint is about was about 28Kg until I got my pension, I bet it’s gone up a bit since then as I have more money :slight_smile: compared The UK average is 6000Kg (mind you the measuring apps don’t take into account that half of all the 6000Kg is one by government to exploit resources on behalf of the people.)

But if this chat goes on much longer I feel I have to care about you more than the original poster :slight_smile:

48

The standards for these devices are pushed by psycopathic markets. The labour standards for workers at mines and factories are pushed up by solidarity and egalitarian values.

One can try to balance them, but when the reference of “performance” and “upgrade pace” come with the human price imposed by a genocidal and slaving complex of enterprises, I think there’s no fair comparison there.

It can be more practical or less, with a lot of margin to improve, or with misguided priorities. But there’s no other phone to compare to in equal terms.

I’d like to see how huge companies like Apple would do by enforcing fair minerals and fair working conditions. Maybe there’s not enough blood free gold available? Maybe the price would climb up too much? Maybe they would stop earning such huge quantities of money and stop being NASDAQ top-1?

Anyway this won’t matter anymore when oil prices rocket up due to unavoidable scarcity and shipping between continents is not affordable anymore.

2 Likes
49

The Fairphone is a niche product, so I think it is pretty obvious that we cannot compare manufacturing processes with Apple & Co. But the goal should be very clear: Make this device as reliable as an iPhone, or maybe have that approach. (No joke.) In terms of longevity, consumers will not have to buy an “unfair” phone just because of software failures that Fairphone cannot sort out (after years). Also, less Fairphones must be sent in to be repaired/exchanged in warranty due to better quality assurance. These cases should be considered, too, and as long as Fairphone does not, I will not buy a Fairphone again. I need a reliable device I do not have to fiddle with. Who says that a niche product must be of less quality? (Actually it should be the other way round…)

I never recommend to jump on the train to developing/manufacturing the brightest, smartest, biggest, smallest, softest etc. gadget ever seen! Anyone who absolutely needs this, please go somewhere else, because you did not seem to get the idea what Fairphone stands for. BUT: We need solid and reliable devices, and no frustrated users that may give up and buy another one from a big player with a better quality control. It hurts to say that Fairphone does not get the job done in this regard, because buying another phone means more environmental pollution, it means more support for the big players (Apple & Co.), AND it means a bad image for fair products. Reliability is the key to longevity. In this regard, I seem to be a masochist, because I had a total disaster with my first FP2 which died from one second to another (broken core module), and now I have a second (used) one which has similar (other) issues. So I decided for myself: When this device is dead, I will not buy another Fairphone again unless the next FP4 proves to be a stable and reliable device…

2 Likes
50

I agree largely with the first sentence of the first paragraph, but take issue with the authoritarian attitude that ‘Fairphones must’ and ‘cases should’.

But generally I support the notion that the quality and support is so below par that I wouldn’t recommend a Fairphone to anyone.

As far as being a masochist, well I do think I can carry the weight.

Here’s a real example:

I only bought the FP3 as my daughter wanted one and I was concerned that she wouldn’t be happy, so I bought it for her and bought one for myself to help support her with any problems.

Well two days ago after my last post on this issue my daughter told me she has to get a new phone that will do what she wants, this is after 8 months.

My response was . “There’s an FP4 coming out soon can you wait a while and I’ll buy that for you”

Then of course I will have a spare FP3…

And just in case anyone thinks I am rich beyond reason each FP3 cost me 3 and half weeks income. Luckily I grow a lot of food, burn wood, collect rain for drinking, reside in a small wooden cabin/shed and use little electric form solar.

The issue here is of my intent, not what Fairphone promises or can deliver.
Caring is about me doing the best I can in my immediate environment and treating those I use the best I can. The intent is to try not to be an authoritarian over others with regards to what they do or whom they do it to :slight_smile: Hence my dislike of the use words such as ‘should’ ‘must’ ‘need’ ‘have to’

So be my guest and blame others for their lack of responsibility if you wish, blame me if it helps, but as Bob Marley said.

“Whilst you are pointing fingers other’s are judging you”

I just hope there is an FP4 and it a lot better that the previous incarnations of Fairphone’s attempts to market the Fairtrade issue, else in 8 months I’ll be the proud, embarrassed owner of three Fairphones.

But didn’t Hendrix say “Life is but a joke”

51

And how will you and your daughter know that the FP4 does what she wants? Wouldn’t it be better for her to let her use a phone she already knows about, e.g. from reviews and/or friends?

52

I’ve asked her to list all the apps she wants to use that the FP3 can’t handle, so waiting for a reply. Maybe the FP4 will not even appear to suffice, still she can buy her own phone and I’ll still have a spare FP3 and from all the gripes on here there’s a Fair chance I will happy to have some spare parts in 2 or three years, if one lasts than long

All very sad and upsetting, but it is a joke. Some jokes seems to hit below the belt where it’s really felt, but not such an impact of being down the mine or some third world factory. My suffering at the hands of my consumers antics is temporary. My income doesn’t depend upon my suffering.

53

The FP4 is not available, yet, we just do not know how well it is going to perform. What if your daughter sees one of her friends with an unfair phone on which all the apps she wants just run fine? What if she does not want to try the FP4, because she fears that she might run into similar problems again? People tend to buy products close friends with similar needs are satisfied with…

54

Wow! are you really that concerned about my daughter, and as for people ??? so now my daughter is one of your people ~ I let her know, maybe she can develop a mind of her own.

Or are you just having a go at me :slight_smile:

55

Maybe you care a little too much? Just a thought…

1 Like
56

I can’t confirm even one of these issues: No. 1-4 just didn’t occur on my FP3 - and thus I didn’t get the chance to check No. 5. :wink:

3 Likes
58

That would be impossible, what else is there to do?

59

Update on my daughter’s dissatisfaction. It may just be down to the 64Gb of memory being nearly full so apps just don’t work well.

60

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.