What to do with a 3 months old Fairphone, that doesn't work properly?

Hey there,

I got a FP2 for my spouse back in July and she has been having troubles with it from the start. It’s randomly turning off (especially annoying during car navigation), overheating, the rear speaker often is inexplicably quiet during calls, the back case cracked within the first three weeks without a noticeable accident, the quality of the audio (during calls - not even talking about music or videos) isn’t up to expectations, she has troubles with the UX with confusing “Do not Disturb” settings that disable her alarm clock and so forth.

I’ve been through many of the troubleshooting guides, testing various scenarios, updating the phone to the latest OS, etc. but nothing could fix any of the issues mentioned above.

I love the concept of Fairphone - it’s a great project worth supporting. I even invested in the crowdfunding campaign because I believe electronics need better production standards. However, from our experience, the product itself still has a long way to go and it still seems to be more for people who have technical knowledge and the interest to handle it. For us however, we have no interest in spending time trying to repair a new phone, especially one that has that many issues within such a short time span.

Of course the warranty has run out, and we can only send it back for repair that will cost us again. I don’t want to spend any more money or time trying to figure out why a new product isn’t working - honestly we are at the point where we just want to get rid of it.
The question is: what is there to do with a new, old Fairphone, that doesn’t work properly? Just send it back and cut the losses?

Thanks for any input and suggestions.

How so? The warranty is 2 years (1 year for the battery).

contactsupport and see what they can do for you to get your phone into an orderly state. In extreme cases support may exchange the phone for a new one.

That being the case, as an alternative to Fairphone support:
If you happen to have fairphoneangels in your vicinity, perhaps they could take a look . There are possible solutions for most of the troubles you mention.

If it really should come down to this, here’s the Market category …

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Hi,
and I really feel for you.
As to the cracks. Is it a transparent cover? If that’s the case, it will be exchanged by FP for free. There’s a thread to that regard.
Rebooting might be caused by a “loose” battery. To fix this, FP has sent me a small plastic part, that was simple to attach and reboots are gone since then. I had to explain to support quite thoroughly, that I couldn’t have caused this large battery-frame; then I got the part for free as well.Overheating, in my experience, is mostly caused by an app going berserk. In such a case, I turn off the phone and reboot it. Sometimes I have to do it up to three times before the phone is back to normal.

In general, I do agree of course, that the FP is not the easygoing phone like all the others. I guess, there’s a higher rate of faults and errors. But that’s to be expected, as it features a revolutionary modular design and is manufactured in small numbers and batches. Therefore problems can be solved with the next batch at best. The possibility of testing is limited as well by that fact, and by limited funds of course.
I hope for the best for you and your spouse and that you get your phone up and running flawless. Maybe Android 7 will help?

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Thanks for the swift responses!
I hadn’t realised the warranty was for two years - I only recalled something about 14 days from the last time I checked - thanks for the heads up.

I tested the power button and the battery frame, but both don’t seem to be the cause for the problem. Today in the morning the phone was just lying on the desk, unlocked and we watched it turn off, without even touching it.

The back cover is a transparent one, yes. Good to hear it can be exchanged for free.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses - I will get in contact with support and see what they can do about it.

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