Hi Johanna,
I understand your frustration. Please be aware that this a user community forum without official Fairphone involvement.
We have some Fairphone employees here who might we willing and able to prioritize your request. Do you have a ticket number from the official support? This might help @formerFP.Com.Manager and Co to escalate your issue.
Best wishes,
Thomas
Factory assembly of modules may be a bit flakey after all they work for the money not the love of assembling phones.
Of course there’s the fix it yourself emblem but I only expect to have to do that once the warranty expires not as soon as I get the phone, but that’s the way it seems to turn out for some people, support usually asks you do a lot before they will replace a phone.
No harm in trying the reassembly option whilst you wait unless you send the phone back immediately if you are unhappy.
Well, I did try some options. They haven’t worked, and I don’t want to do too much – warranty reasons. I myself would love to send it back and ahve THEM fix it or replace it – but somebody would have to get in touch with me first, wouldn’t they?
Taking the phone apart as it was designed should not void the warranty. they do send parts out for customers to exchange them ??
As for returning, it’s a legal issue. if you send it back they have to do something.
In the UK you have 14 days to say you are not happy and are going to return it, then another 14 days to do so. I’m sure the EU is much the same.
I want to return something bought online.
"You have the right to cancel at any time from the moment you place your online order, and up to 14 days from the day you receive your goods. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘cooling-off period’.
You need to notify the retailer of your wish to cancel your order within this time period – by email, for example.
You then have a further 14 days from the date you notify the retailer of your cancellation to return the goods."
Did you get an automated reply containing a ticket number? Just to be sure that nothing went wrong here…
regarding the reboots… I just read several posts stating that the random reboots are gone after updating to 3.A.0077-20201221 which you can read here.
Which version are you on right now?
Hi @JohannaG,
Sorry to hear that. Just to follow up on @Volker’s question, did you receive a ticket number? If so, could you share it here so I can follow this up with my colleagues in the tech support team.
Thanks,
Rae
Sadly, I also have to share my bad experience with Fairphone support here 
My phone broke on Dec. 23rd and created a ticket after my attempts to get it working failed. In January I provided a couple of answers and further information to the support and the whole conversation ended on Jan. 11th when they said they’ll get back with instructions how to proceed soon. It’s now Feb. 3rd and I haven’t heard back since… I mean, I know they might be busy but a full month without any progress or update or any comments/excuse/whatever at least is really saddening. Simply silence… I’m actually starting to regret my decision to go with Fairphone and even helped convince people to switch over. But with such an experience, can I still recommend it to anyone?!
I went via their FaceBook page. That helped. But still, ist was about 4 weeks until I finally got an answer.
Now they sent me a survey and want my opinion. Not sure if they really want to hear that experience…
Wie lautet Ihre Ticketnummer?
Sure they want; at least they should.
Just keep calm and don’t use swear-words or insults.
But otherwise be honest. How shall they learn, if you don’t tell.
And even if there are dozens of people already answering; they should get to know the full extent of the problem and the consequences it has. I.e. people no longer recommending to buy a fairphone, but maybe warning against it instead.
As sad as it might be. Maybe they will at least reach out to the customers by mail for a start, as stocking up support for sure is nothing to be achieved fast (especially under the current circumstances).
Das wäre der Request mit Nummer 407937, wenn ich das auf der Support-Seite richtig interpretiere. Steht leider nirgends explizit “Ticket”. Wieso?
This way, the forum contact (see the posting above by @formerFP.Com.Manager) can pick up the number and try to get some more information about what’s going on.
Ich dachte, man nennt das eine Ticketnummer.
Vielleicht kann @formerFP.Com.Manager bei Fairphone für Sie nachfragen.
Great, thanks! Much appreciated indeed but frankly, this can’t be the proper way - I mean what about other customers who don’t know about this forum and are as well potentially waiting for responses since weeks? Instead of looking into my ticket/request in particular, I’d appreciate if @formerFP.Com.Manager would talk to certain people in the company to make the support process in general a bit more sustainable for everyone.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m really thankful for your attempts to help but I don’t feel comfortable getting a “special treatment”. Ideally, it should be a smooth and transparent process for each and every support case.
I haven’t had your poor experience of a such an faulty phone phone ~ some audio problems ~ volume ~ clarity and battery charging. My experience of support is like yours ~ long in the tooth.
But even after a month I decided I would not recommend Fairphone and would warn anyone wanting to buy that such problems exist.
I feel for you and hope you find a satisfactory solution soon. Ideally there could be some compensation for such delays.
I totally get what you mean and how you feel; since I share your mindset on this.
Still, the way I see it, this “special treatment” through the forum is just a way to get at least a feedback on the status quo, not necessarily a jumping the line in servicing.
And just possibly some of the users in this forum experiencing extreme delays have been hit by hard luck and their was overlooked, while others were served much faster. I can’t say, that it’s the case, but as it’s a possibility, raising your hand/case in this forum is totally OK with me.
That - of course - doesn’t change the fact, that the process has to be refined (at least) and sped up, in any case.
I absolutely agree. An official (or at least (semi-official) statement from any Fairphone representative, be it either here in the forum or in a blog post, would truly be appreciated to understand what’s going on behind the curtain. I can only talk about my view but transparency might help people to better understand the delays and put them into perspective. As of now, I cannot understand how advice from another department can possibly take more then 3 weeks…
If I may quote the support agent from my request:
I will now need to ask advice from the relevant department to help you further. As soon as we have an update, we will get back to you. You can expect a response from us soon.
Hi, My issues have been taken care of now. Thanks to a helpful person who read my complaint on FairPhone’s Facebook page. Thank you. But please do pass on – I am really bothered it took so long. This is a major reason NOT to recommend FairPhone, and I find that very sad, because I really want the FairPhone Idea to thrive.
I guess we all agree that the support has to improve. Both in speed and in quality.
But in my opinion the reasons for this are also important: The fact that your phone seems to have a hardware defect is sad (and should be solved very quick by the support!), but the majority of users don’t have hardware issues with a new phone.
Most users seem to contact the support because of software issues and bugs. That’s why just employing more support staff can not be the solution. Instead they have to care more about the quality of their software.
Less bugs -> less support tickets -> more time to support people like you with hardware issues.
I got my first Fairphone (FP3+) in October 2020 and there are really a lot of issues with the preinstalled Android 10.
So - in my opinion! - the key to a better user experience and to a faster support is a higher quality of the software. This seems to be the root cause of all the problems mentioned in this forum, including very slow support.