Estimate your Librem 5 refund 💸

Update: Still did not receive any refund :frowning:

I ordered in April of 2018. I ended up in the Evergreen batch. I first requested a refund in Sept 2021, almost 3½ years later. I was told I could have a refund when my phone was ready to ship.
In May 2022, I was finally informed that my device was ready to ship. I requested a refund. I was told that my refund ticket would take “several weeks to process”. In June I asked what the status was, and they informed me that my refund was “scheduled to be processed in Q4 2022”. At the end of December 2022 I emailed again and was informed that my case “is still in the refund processing queue. There is no precise ETA at the moment”.

Still order status “await shipment”. Several mails to them answered by alternating “cannot help” and “see what we can do”.
Candid Camera?

Order Date 2017-10-7
Refunded Requests: 2020-10-27
Order Status: Pending refund

EU customer (Germany)

In 2020-10-27:
“We can refund your order, but not immediately. It will take some months”

After asking about it in 2022-7-6:
'The refund was not yet processed. It should be processed in late Q4 2022."

Refunded: -
Money received: -

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I got a full refund today.
The full timeline for whoever is keeping track of these things:
April 2018 ordered
Sept 2021 requested refund
May 2022 got “device ready to ship” email. Asked again for refund
December? 2022 filed a complaint with AG
April 5 2023 received a refund

omitted: dates of various conversations with Purism support

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June 3, 2019 - Ordered Phone
March 01, 2023 - Scheduled for shipping at March 08, 2023. Asked For a refund

Still no refund or timeframe when I get it. Support ignoring the requests to give time frame for more then a month

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Looks, so, generally agree. I allowed them to use my money to fund the project with preorder(hello inflation, by the way) , they promised refund when the shipping order comes, and now they ignore y and does not even give y time line. Would never deal with them, initially was thinking about my next laptop with them…

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Follow up, wrote me that it will take several weeks to process. I will update everybody. Let me keep it clear: I am disappoint not in how long it takes, but that they keep me in dark and luck of information.

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here is my request for my “Refund”
Order Date: September 23, 2019
On Tuesday, April 18th, 2023 Purism Support
Hello,
I have created a ticket for your order to be cancelled and refunded.
When it is being processed my colleagues from our financial department
will contact you to confirm the billing details. (which NEVER happened)
I sent another request May 9, 2023 asking if there was any progress and again I never got any response

same and almost same time frame

now that shipping is par when will the refunds start rolling in!

Somebody on reddit did get a response from Purism. Apparently the refunds aren’t going to be rolling in.

[reddit user on /r/purism subreddit] … so when I saw their announcement recently that they had shipped all pre-orders, I asked for the refund again. Their reply:

[Allegedly from Purism] Sadly, we do not process any refunds at the moment (not just pre-orders), but we do offer two other options which may be ok with you One is to get the phone which you have pre-ordered (we could ship it within several business days). Another is to receive a store credit +20% gratitude on top of the amount paid. As I do not have any timeline for the refund all the information I currently have indicates it will not be pr0ocessed any time soon.

As I see it, this is a (continuing and outrageous) violation of their sales agreement/contract.

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sudo mv refund‐request /dev/null
sudo mv customer-order /dev/null
echo who wants to invest in Purism?
echo we are a social purpose company

The script that runs when you request a refund from Purism…

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January 2019 ordered
November 2022 requested refund
Several inquiries for status ignored. One was answered with “no news”.

So far - nothing else.

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I’m not sure that that is logical. Customers purchasing stuff from Purism generates revenue and profit, some of which they might, apparently at their discretion, devote to providing refunds to those who have requested one.

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You may call them untrustworthy for not keeping up to their policies, but for that you cannot call them thieves.
All refunders are offered the L5 or a voucher. So they don’t have lost any money.

You may also ask the question: Why did the buyer ordered the phone if he/she did not want it after all?
It’s easy to blame Purism, but as buyer you also are responsible for your actions.

I wonder, if you truly feel that way, why are you keeping your Purism product and why not get rid of it?

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They can’t use either to pay unexpected expenses… those are not money…

Peoples situations change over time. Making a purchase where there is a policy that states you can get a refund at any time is generally easier than when there is no refund policy. To have that policy changed and/or not complied with is not a reflection the responsibilty of the customer that upheld their end of the agreement by exercising a portion of the agreement that allowed them to request and receive a refund. The closest that could be made to blaming the victim and making this about the customers lack of responsibility woulf be to say they should have mote thoroughly vetted purism and found that purism was not trustworthy on this front.

Purism was already compensated for the product, what would not keeping the product avcomplish here?

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I guess the more world-wise purchaser might have more thoroughly assessed the risks of buying a product that did not at the time exist. It’s like buying real estate “off the plan” - you will, if you are lucky, get it in years, and you can’t be sure of what you will actually get. It is inherently more risky than buying real estate that actually exists at the time you buy it - you will get it in weeks and you know exactly what you are getting.

Financially it would achieve nothing. It would more be a case of standing on principle (as perceived by that customer).

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I can only speak for myself, but I ordered the phone in 2019 because I wanted to support a free phone. At that point a refund was possible. That affected my will to support the project.

Since then things can happen. I have been sick for 1.5 years, which badly affected my personal economy. So I want(ed) a refund. Now I am ghosted by Purism – they don’t answer my e-mails (which are not aggressive in any way). And they don’t offer a refund. And they haven’t offered me any voucher.

Things can happen to a company too, I know. But the lack of communication is not a good way to treat a supporter (they’ve had my money for several years).

Yeah, I might be an idiot, I know.

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I in no way speak for Purism …

but perhaps if you keep on asking the same question, after a while they don’t want to spend the time giving you the same answer. That’s certainly not efficient use of the time of Support staff (unless they can automate it) and likely a humble Support person doesn’t have the authority to agree to a refund (in this circumstance) or, more importantly, to make a refund happen.

Hypothetically, let’s say the answer is: No “change of mind” refunds are available. You can take the phone that you ordered, which is available for despatch, or (hypothetically and maybe) you can get store credit (voucher).

Have you actually asked for store credit?

I understand that if you just want to liberate cash, you probably don’t want store credit. So it could come down to: you want a refund, Purism isn’t willing to agree to that, stalemate.

In that scenario it would be understandable that Support really can’t do anything.

You could try to sell your place in the queue or you could take delivery of the phone and try to sell the phone. Either way, if you successfully sell then you do liberate some cash.

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