a) What is this?

Because you bought your Fairphone online, according to Directive 97/7/EC (to be replaced by Directive 2011/83/EU as of June 2014), you have 14 calendar days from the delivery date to withdraw from the contract without penalty and without giving any reason.

b) What should you do if you want to return your Fairphone?

If you decide to return your Fairphone for a refund, please be sure to do so within 14 calendar days of receiving your phone.

You need to let us know that you want to return your Fairphone by contacting us through the Ask Support page. In order to do so, we will provide you with a Cool-off form which you need to correctly complete and submit to us. Upon submission, we will communicate you an acknowledgment of receipt and give you instructions on how to proceed with the return. The law gives you 14 days from the date of unequivocally informing us of your decision to return your Fairphone to send it back to us. Please note that you will have to bear the costs for sending it back.

We will make sure to refund you no later than 14 days from the date you have informed us about your decision but only after we received your Fairphone.

We shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of the supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us). We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

However, if the reason you are sending back your Fairphone is because you think there is something wrong with it, you might want to check our Support section first where you can find solutions to many of the most common issues. You can search by keyword or by topic.

c) What if you send us back a damaged Fairphone?

When you send your Fairphone back to us, the technicians at our Service Center will closely inspect it and assess its condition.

You will be liable for the diminished value of the Fairphone resulting from you handling it in another manner than what is necessary to establish its nature, characteristics and functioning (in order to understand this, think about how you would test a phone in a shop before buying it).

In case of damages, we will refund the value of the Fairphone less the value of the damage.

a) What is a defective phone?

As mentioned above, manufacturing defects or lack of conformity with the sale terms must exist at the time of delivery to the first user. The law gives you the right to hold us liable for these things if they become apparent within the statutory period of two years.

b) What should you do with a defective Fairphone?

As soon as you notice a defect with your Fairphone, please notify us immediately. If you continue to use it, you run the risk that additional damage will occur (like accidental drops) and it will become difficult or impossible to verify the cause of the initial defect (manufacturing defect or improper handling). The law also acknowledges this and gives you a maximum period of two months for notifying us after you discovered the defect.

Once we receive the Fairphone, our technical experts will diagnose the cause of the defect. If the diagnosis shows that your Fairphone indeed had a manufacturing defect, we will repair or replace it free of charge (including shipping costs). If neither of these options are possible, we will refund your money. Normal wear and tear are not covered.

We will notify you with the results of this diagnosis and an explanation of the options mentioned above.

c) Manufacturing (or factory defects) versus damage caused by improper handling

We stand behind every Fairphone we make, but you should treat it with care if you want it to last a long time. We do not cover damage or problems due to accidents, unusual or improper usage of your Fairphone. Below are some examples of the types of damage that are not covered, but please keep in mind this is not a comprehensive list.

• Damage caused by external factors such as mechanical stress (a fall, drops or rough handling) or humidity/liquid damage
• Damage caused by wrongly plugging in chargers and cables or misuse of the ports or SIM cards
• Damage caused by repairs made by you or an unauthorized repair shop. Please carefully read our Spare Parts Warranty here
• Damage caused by using your Fairphone outside the European Union, Switzerland and Norway as it is only engineered for these countries – there might be network discrepancies and other unanticipated issues which this device is not made for (please read the technical specifications)
• Damage caused by using your Fairphone with other products that do not comply with the requirements and/or specifications for using with a Fairphone
• Damage caused by breaking or circumventing access limitation protection, beyond the standard root access of your phone, or by the improper usage of the root access
• Damage caused by installing third-party software

d) How to send us your defective Fairphone

Please contact us through the Ask Support page and we’ll guide you through the process. For more information you can also read our FAQ and/or our service price list here.

What happens if you damaged your Fairphone

If the damage is your responsibility (as shown by our technical diagnosis or as confirmed by you), we will be happy to replace your Fairphone or repair the damage, but our standard service rates and fees will apply.

What are the applicable costs and what happens if you decide not to pay them

As mentioned above, when you send your Fairphone to us, our experts will perform a diagnosis in order to assess its overall condition, the defects and the needed repairs (if the case) and if the defects are caused by a manufacturing fault or by your improper handling.

We will notify you about the results of the diagnosis. If the defects are caused by a manufacturing fault, we will cover all the applicable costs, including the costs for repairing it, the shipment fees from you to us and then back to you (but only up to the value of a regular courier service fee) and the diagnosis fee.

If the defects are caused by you, we will offer you the choice to have it repaired by our repair center based on the fees mentioned above. In this case you will have to cover the repair costs, the shipping costs and the diagnosis fee.

You may also decide not to have it repaired by our repair center but keep in mind that you still need to cover the diagnosis fee and the shipment costs.

We may keep the Fairphone until you have paid all applicable costs. We will send you a notification about this. In case you haven’t paid within within three (3) months since we notified you we will send you another notification. In case you haven’t paid within four (4) months of this notification either, we might consider that you implicitly donate the Fairphone to us. We will let you know if we want to make us of this option.

Updating your contact details

You need to timely let us know if your address and other contact details have changed in the meantime, otherwise we will use the old ones (keep in mind that both old and new addresses have to be in Europe) for all correspondence (including notifications) and shipping.

If you paid the applicable costs (repairs, diagnosis, shipping, as the case may be) but did not provide us with an updated shipping address, we will send the Fairphone to your last address in Europe registered in our database. We will apply the same for Fairphones that are repaired by us free of charge because of manufacturing faults.

When should I repair my Fairphone?

We are now selling Fairphone spare parts. You should repair your Fairphone by yourself only when you know for sure that the damage is not due to a manufacturing defect (in other words, only when your Fairphone is out of warranty). If you have doubts about this, please contact us before you purchase the component or start repairing your Fairphone, so we can help and guide you.

This is because there is a high risk of damaging your Fairphone or the component when you repair or replace things by yourself. If this occurs, it will make the warranty invalid for both the component and then entire Fairphone. We will use technical diagnosis to assess this on a case by case basis.

Also, please be aware that sometimes a component may not function properly not because it is defective, but because of other causes like software issues. Therefore, replacing it might not solve your problem. If you have doubts about why a specific part of your Fairphone does not work properly, please contact us following the procedures above.

Please read our Spare Parts Warranty for additional information.

 

Our replacement parts were specifically designed to work with the Fairphone, so please only use them to repair a Fairphone. Because of this, we may ask for your Fairphone’s serial number at the time of purchase or limit the number of components that you can purchase at our discretion.

The warranty is limited to component defects or lack of conformity. It doesn’t cover damage to your Fairphone due to improper installation of components. In addition, it does not cover damage caused by falls, liquid spills and other kinds of accidental damage, before or after they were integrated into the Fairphone.

According to Directive 97/7/EC (to be replaced by Directive 2011/83/EU as of June 2014), you have 14 calendar days from the delivery date to withdraw from the contract without penalty and without giving any reason. This means that you should send us back the Fairphone component and we will refund you within maximum 30 days since we received the component.

Please also keep in mind that the Fairphone components are very complex and sensitive products (for instance, the PCB, the LED flash assembly, the camera module). You might cause damage to them even by removing the seal and taking them out of their original package, so be sure to treat them with extra care. Sometimes damage can be caused by things that you could not even be aware of – like electrostatic discharges, which can happen when and where you least expect it and permanently damage the components. In case the component was damaged because of you (either intentionally or accidentally) we might refuse to take it back or apply additional costs/conditions.

You will be liable for the diminished value of the components that results from you handling them in another manner than what is necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning (in order to understand this, think how you would test them in a shop before buying them).

To initiate a return, please contact customer support here.

As mentioned above, manufacturing defects of components or lack of conformity with the sale terms must be existing at the time when they were delivered to you. The law gives you the right to hold us liable for these things in case they become apparent within the statutory period of two years, but you need to notify us within two months since you discovered them.

When you notify us regarding the discovered defect (please do that as soon as possible, but no later than 2 months since you discovered them), we are going to provide instructions on how/if you need to send us back the component.

Once we receive the component, our technical experts are going to diagnose the cause of the defect. We will notify you about the results of this diagnosis.

If it shows that the component you received had a manufacturing defect, we will repair it or replace it and fix the caused damages, free of charge (including postage & shipping). We will give you back the money when these two options are not possible. Normal wear and tear are not covered.

If the damage is your responsibility (as shown by the technical expertise or as notified by you), we will be happy to repair the component, replace it and fix the damages caused by it but our rates and fees will apply. We will soon publish these fees on our website.

For the applicable procedure, please contact customer support here.

You should repair your Fairphone by yourself only when you know for sure that the damage is not due to a manufacturing defect (in other words, only when your Fairphone is out of warranty). If you have doubts about this, please contact us before you purchase the component or start repairing your Fairphone, so we can help and guide you.

This is because there is a high risk that during a replacement you cause damage to your Fairphone or the component and then you will lose your warranty both for the component and for the Fairphone (we will assess that on a case by case basis based on technical diagnosis).

Also, please be aware that sometimes a component may not function properly not because it is defective, but because of other causes like software issues. Therefore, replacing it might not solve your problem. If you have doubts about why a specific part of your Fairphone does not work properly, please contact us.

The iFixit manuals for repairing your Fairphone were developed by iFixit in collaboration with us. Make sure that you fully understand how they work before you start repairing (for example, have a look at the available iFixit guidance, like the repair guide FAQs here.

The repair manuals are only informative documents meant to guide you through the repair process, so please be aware that in order to obtain the desired result, you will need some technical experience and skills. If you have any doubts and questions regarding the things contained by the manuals, please contact us before you make any repairs.

We currently sell the Fairphone only in Europe. Therefore the above is exclusively applicable for our customers located in Europe.

However if you own a Fairphone and you are located outside Europe, you can still replace/repair your Fairphone. You can do this by providing a European address where we can ship the phone and/or spare parts back to you. From this European address you are responsible to arrange shipment to your current location yourself.

For more information about the practical application of this section of the warranty, read about how Fairphone ships, repairs, and services its products.

* The Terms and Conditions apply to the purchase of Fairphone components so please read them carefully.

{version on 5 March 2015, applicable to consumers natural persons}