05-16-2020, 10:57 AM
This is a tricky issue, but I think there is some common ground here:
The support response shown in the PDF could be improved. First establish what's wrong from the customers perspective, then offer a solution. I would probably accept an answer like "Unfortunately this is not covered under regular warranty but the Samsung J7 2015 replacement batteries are compatible.".
Then there's the simple fact that PINE64 is a much smaller company than most other phone manufacturers. Companies like Samsung have margins to send off replacement parts even outside of warranty just to keep customers happy. PINE64 is already selling the PinePhone with slim margins so I would fully understand if they're being a bit thin on replacement parts (especially with a pandemic getting in their way). It's perhaps not ideal from a customer service standpoint but I'm sure they intend to improve this over time.
The PinePhone has resulted in a lot of attention so I can imagine they're a bit overwhelmed at the moment, as far as I can remember the main products aside from the PineBook have all been SBCs which do not have the same target audience at all.
Then there's the parts where our opinions differ a bit:
The PinePhone is not meant as a universal end user device, by which I mean you could give it to anyone and the phone will take care of itself. It's for developers and early adopters. While it shouldn't matter on a formal level I'd be a lot less inclined to complain about faults, even if they would be relatively severe on a universal end user device.
There's a lot going on with power management right now. Voltages are being adjusted, sleep mode is being debugged, etc. Since Lithium batteries are particularly sensitive to misconfiguration while charging I'd expect having to sacrifice a few. It's unfortunate these parameters aren't easier to tune and that these changes propagate in waves to existing units, but it's getting better. I might even stock up on a couple of batteries myself when my PinePhone arrives just to be safe.
At the end of the day, these batteries are cheap. As you said you found a replacement battery for $8 and to me that's not really worth burning bridges for. No, it's not fun waiting around for a replacement part for your shiny new device, but it's just a mass produced battery. I'm not trying to dismiss this as a non-issue, but as far as damaged hardware goes it could be a lot worse.
Lastly, maybe you're right and the battery compartment should be just a little bigger to accommodate for growing batteries. It's a valid complaint (and if it's serious enough this could end up similar to the infamous Note 7) but you went almost straight to demanding a new battery. In the greater scheme of things, what's more important; you getting a one time solution of a new battery or fixing a potentially critical design flaw for everyone? This is really a decision for PINE64, but please help them on the way there. Like I said this is a device intended for developers and early adopters. Your help in finding design flaws will be appreciated by the community if you go about presenting them in the right way.
I hope we can bring this together into a proper investigation for a hardware flaw and I'm looking forward to a follow up with the new battery. Please let us know if the new battery fits better and if there's a notable increase in battery performance, it will help us determine what went wrong with the old one as well.
The support response shown in the PDF could be improved. First establish what's wrong from the customers perspective, then offer a solution. I would probably accept an answer like "Unfortunately this is not covered under regular warranty but the Samsung J7 2015 replacement batteries are compatible.".
Then there's the simple fact that PINE64 is a much smaller company than most other phone manufacturers. Companies like Samsung have margins to send off replacement parts even outside of warranty just to keep customers happy. PINE64 is already selling the PinePhone with slim margins so I would fully understand if they're being a bit thin on replacement parts (especially with a pandemic getting in their way). It's perhaps not ideal from a customer service standpoint but I'm sure they intend to improve this over time.
The PinePhone has resulted in a lot of attention so I can imagine they're a bit overwhelmed at the moment, as far as I can remember the main products aside from the PineBook have all been SBCs which do not have the same target audience at all.
Then there's the parts where our opinions differ a bit:
The PinePhone is not meant as a universal end user device, by which I mean you could give it to anyone and the phone will take care of itself. It's for developers and early adopters. While it shouldn't matter on a formal level I'd be a lot less inclined to complain about faults, even if they would be relatively severe on a universal end user device.
There's a lot going on with power management right now. Voltages are being adjusted, sleep mode is being debugged, etc. Since Lithium batteries are particularly sensitive to misconfiguration while charging I'd expect having to sacrifice a few. It's unfortunate these parameters aren't easier to tune and that these changes propagate in waves to existing units, but it's getting better. I might even stock up on a couple of batteries myself when my PinePhone arrives just to be safe.
At the end of the day, these batteries are cheap. As you said you found a replacement battery for $8 and to me that's not really worth burning bridges for. No, it's not fun waiting around for a replacement part for your shiny new device, but it's just a mass produced battery. I'm not trying to dismiss this as a non-issue, but as far as damaged hardware goes it could be a lot worse.
Lastly, maybe you're right and the battery compartment should be just a little bigger to accommodate for growing batteries. It's a valid complaint (and if it's serious enough this could end up similar to the infamous Note 7) but you went almost straight to demanding a new battery. In the greater scheme of things, what's more important; you getting a one time solution of a new battery or fixing a potentially critical design flaw for everyone? This is really a decision for PINE64, but please help them on the way there. Like I said this is a device intended for developers and early adopters. Your help in finding design flaws will be appreciated by the community if you go about presenting them in the right way.
I hope we can bring this together into a proper investigation for a hardware flaw and I'm looking forward to a follow up with the new battery. Please let us know if the new battery fits better and if there's a notable increase in battery performance, it will help us determine what went wrong with the old one as well.
