I'm pissed off with /e/

I got this in an email which was not posted in the forum:

“Hello All,
I get that some people are frustrated. Indeed, I’d also feel bad if my phone no longer has coverage.
However, it seems like some of you are missing basic things like:

  1. You can always turn to customer service and explain the issues you are facing. I would expect someone to do this, instead of complaining on the forum.
  2. Do you really believe that you are intentionally put in such a situation? Do you really think someone would want to sell a phone you can’t use? These phones were stopped being sold long ago to prevent such issues.
  3. T-Mobile is still working, for those who have coverage. Also, I believe their 2G support will be at least until year-end.
  4. You can always install Google Android, which should make VoLTE work. However, unlike in Europe, US mobile operator’s choose which hardware to let on their network. Even with VoLTE, they might not let you use their network.
  5. Do you think it is fair to use a phone for a year and then ask for your money back? Have you thought about this from the perspective of a seller?
  6. Again, see point 1.”
  1. There is no point in contacting customer service now, you’ve spelled out that they are not going to do anything.

  2. Not long ago enough.

  3. No T-Mobile where I am.

  4. I bought a preloaded phone from /e/ so I wouldn’t have to mess with this process.

  5. You have not thought of this from the perspective of the buyer. Even if I paid less than the over $500 I paid for this phone I would expect to get years of service out of it. Who would knowingly spend $500 on a phone that would be useless in ten months.

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I checked with the support team and have been informed that the user has sent the phone back to the support team. Once received they will evaluate the condition and based on that the price will be refunded to the user.

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What user are you talking about because it’s not me. Will this apply to everyone that want’s to do this? If so where do we send it and should we include any supporting documents.

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You can send the details of your device to helpdesk@e.email and the team will get back to you ASAP. Pl state the issue details and what exactly is the problem you are facing.

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Duly noted.
Not quite there yet, but i’ll certainly keep us updated here.

@An.ri
@HekatheGreat
Not sure if this includes you, but i can only @ mention two others per response, so see above

For sure this will be considered; I reiterated elsewhere that I’ve enjoyed this community, and it has been empowering. Lawyers may say similar to what you have: “we intend to get them for all they’re worth”, to which my response would be “an injunction, some fines, or just satisfying the customer by fulfilling a warranty promise would suffice; the goal is to first get a full account of what happened, maybe then to punish but not to eradicate…there is much value to be preserved…”

Nonetheless, that value is not primarily monetary (for most of us here).

I have a hard time feeling valued as a customer when they excuse themselves from a full account of what went wrong and allow conflicts of interest to creep into their narratives, e.g. “we never said these phones had VoLTE” (specious: no one questioned that they would work as a phone for ~1 year, and that assumption was reasonably based on them being sold as “phone”) or “we believe we are not obliged to compensate you” (Oh yeah, and how did you inform that belief?? i wonder…); indeed such behaviour is more consistent with objectifying their customers as sources of cash above all else, i.e. “nevermind if they contribute to our community; we need their money.” That better not be what we find out.

It would be one (already bad) thing if /e/ murena did not stand for what it stands for, but these are some of the most insidiously profit-motivated behaviours that we’ve come to expect from the likes of google/Facebook/etc.
This should be a detailed conversation about what went wrong that led them to sell phones that would not work for the expected duration and then wait months before finally addressing it with “maybe we’ll give you up to 100$ back, at our discretion” instead of saying up front what was being considered in case it came to that. This conversation should NOT be with a posture defending that behaviour or keeping from us the details that would allow us to judge for ourselves whether WE think they were fair.

If we find out the reason they sold / intended to sell / did not honour warranties for phones they knew would be no good was that they were so badly in need of money that they’d try to fleece their own community (which i would be somewhat surprised and truly offended to find out), then this entire community needs to reconsider how willing they are to open their wallets to a group who claims privacy is priority number 1 but actually wants money more…

I also understand your frustration but I am sorry, I feel it is misdirected.

Many of the things you are drawing in are now the fault of citizens of a country that allows protective practises to thrive with the intention of disallowing free world trade. There are strands of this behaviour in Europe in some industries, but the Samsung prohibition would probably be illegal.

There are democratic processes to follow to try to remedy your perceived loss with the people actually responsible. Oddly lawyers do not so often accept this sort of challenge !

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Well, I contacted the help desk and got this for a reply: " We could exceptionally offer you a trade-in of your phone. The trade-in price will be determined after we test your phone." Sorry, not good enough. I’m not going to send you my phone only to be told I qualify for a $50 or $100 trade in towards a Murena (what the hell is that?) phone.

I’d rather keep the nice Samsung phone and use it as a mini tablet.

These are phones of several vendors (Samsung among them) preinstalled with /e/OS, offered vendors differ depending on different markets and their network requirements … https://esolutions.shop/

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Haha good point! I’m fighting that fight on a different front, but i agree it should at least be mentioned here. Idk that i could add much else, but essentially, we’re all passing the buck one way or another, and who doesn’t want the power to say “the buck stops here”? Until i save up enough money to sway votes i’ll have to do the beat i can trying to take down wall st. (Not sure of that adds to your point, but i hope it stays relevant…)

@impaul Just fyi, I’ll let you know what they offered me; my phone was in pretty damn good condition, so… We’ll see…

This is a portion of the email I got a week ago:
"We could exceptionally offer you a trade-in of your phone. The trade-in price will be determined after we test your phone.

Please fill in the form below. Then we can send you a prepaid label for returning the phone. We will deduct shipping costs, from the final amount:


Trade-in request

Product(s):

Ordered on ( . . / . . / . . . . ) / received on ( . . / . . / . . . . )

Order number:

Invoice number:

IMEI number of the phone:

Name of the consumer(s):

Address of the consumer(s):

Signature of the consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper):"

I told them I didn’t want to trade, I wanted a refund. I got this subsequent email:
" This is to let you know that when returning a phone, you get a refund, and you do not have to buy another phone from us.

Best Regards,"

I gave them the info they wanted in addition to a copy of my purchase receipt. It has now been a week and I haven’t heard a peep from /e/.

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@impaul, so far I’ve been offered a full refund. My phone was in pristine condition, and i was as polite as i could be without letting go of what i saw as the essential problem/s… I’m not sure what other advice i could offer to make your experience the same, but I’m open to discussing it…

Still would like a full account of what happened when they found out about the whole 3G shutdown and their internal processes in dealing with it, but less motivated to press now that i have other expenses to pay and the money with which to do it…

My phone is pristine and, I was courteous in my refund request also. I got another email from the help desk saying they never got a response from the previous email which is possible, I suppose. I replied again to this one. Hopefully I’ll get a response similar to yours.

In the meantime I have purchased a Sunbeam F1 phone.

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Agreed, i hope you get a good dialogue going and a satisfying outcome.

I also have to thank you for mentioning the sunbeam because id forgotten the name but was looking for where i first saw service suggested with their phones, the payment for which you could break down per minute and per text and very granularly control other data services…i don’t see it there now, but the lead spurs my search…what service do you intend to use with it?

I’m using https://www.usmobile.com/ for the Sunbeam which uses the Verizon network. If you prefer the ATT network I have used https://www.puretalkusa.com/. The both allow you to independently select the level of voice, text, and data you want to use and can be very cheap. I’m only paying $13 a month for my US Mobile plan.

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@impaul
@Ebs

Do keep us posted on how things work out.

I’d be interested in refund, as both my S9’s are in excellent condition, just as they were received.

Oh, i accepted the refund and it has been credited back, so i’m much less inclined to give anyone a hard time and much more inclined to continue spreading the word; i still wonder what they were/are thinking about that whole situation but not nearly enough to throw away all the value this community brings to all my privacy research

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I finally got the return shipping label this morning.

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This topic was automatically closed after 21 days. New replies are no longer allowed.

Hi jc6. This is totally off topic but replies are no longer allowed at my “I’m pissed off with /e/” thread and you wanted to know how my return for refund came out. Well, they gave me a full refund, not only that but they refunded the the $30 express shipping fee also. So I’m pretty satisfied.

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