Ohhh, so like, you’re one of the folks who actually needs to be using a Librem 5, because someone is after you.
Come to think of it, that suddenly makes me realize why there are so many forum complaints contrary to my own experience. I’m nobody, they’d let me have as many working Librem 5’s as I want because I’m a naive dingleberry with no state actor after me for anything. They probably hacked me and realized I was just using my devices to play video games anyway.
I wonder how many folks who had issues with Librem 5 were actually dealing with intervention from a third party…
Speaking of third parties intervention
I can report that international shipping is on hold because of problems with DHL (since begin December).
I’m waiting for my new L5 and my repaired L5 since then.
All I can do is waiting patiently until this shipping matter is resolved and I’m sure it will.
Within the US, I was able to use a Librem 5 as my boarding pass for flights a few months ago. Maybe somebody could buy a bunch of Librem 5s and then go on vacation to Europe? Is there some reason that doesn’t work?
I guess I’ve never been to Europe so I’m ignorant of what the customs paperwork would require for such a case.
I don’t think it is that easy.
The problem seems to be the (removable) battery.
The only company who is willing and able to ship the L5’s (or other electronics with a battery) is DHL.
According to support they tried to use other firms, but those refuse the shipment.
There are strickt regulations transporting batteries on a plane and I’m sure you would not be able to board the plane with let’s say 10 L5’s in your bagage.
You miss the fact that we are talking about the current problem that Purism has an issue with DHL and thus can no longer send electronics that CONTAIN a battery outside the continent.
This has nothing to do with ordering extra batteries.
Yes, I reported my L5 was unable to make 4g calls in Oct 22.
I was contacted by João Azevedo who was initially very helpful. He got me to update things and requested I send a log file (which I did). He replied on 24th Oct saying they had found an error and were looking into it. I emailed a few weeks later (politely) requesting an update but he just refused to reply.
I emailed ‘support’ on 29th December asking how I could escalate the issue within Purism. I received a reply from João Fonseca asking me to try a couple of things (confirming what I had already sent), which I responded to on Jan 4th. I received no reply to that email or a further one a month later asking for an update.
So, they are just blanking me now and I am left to conclude that my L5 (UK version) is not capable of 4g calling and they (Purism) just does not want to state that in writing.
So having waited 4 years on my phone, I find that it is about to become obsolete after just over 1 year of limited use and Purism won’t even respond to my emails to update me on the issue.
I see now why they are showing something like 83% 1-star reviews on Trustpilot.
I am really disappointed with their attitude and will no longer believe any of the ‘hype’ they come up with.
I have had some correspondence from Joao, but never support directly. I have been communicating with him in the last few weeks about getting a replacement phone which they are doing seeing as it was lost when I sent it in for my RMA. But when I was troubleshooting my modem issues there wasn’t much coming back from support at all, I would just ping Joao once a week to see if there was any progress. I have a feeling they might be stumped and haven’t sorted the issue out. I really think they will probably have to pivot to some other modem, perhaps not a very FOSS unit but if it doesn’t work then what is the point in having it even if it’s as close to a FOSS modem as we’ll get.
I can’t guarantee I’ll be much help in the troubleshooting of the modem issue, but can you provide me (privately is fine) any information which may help me locate your support ticket number? I do know that support will sometimes freeze up if they don’t have any updates to provide or when there’s a pitfall on Purism’s part and there’s not available funding to address it (support has the accountability of customer relations, but none of the control of funding, so that’s a known pain-point for them), but I can definitely empathize with your frustrations of being left in the dark.
Thank you for your reply. They did not issue me with a support ticket number and I am not sure what information I can give you to help you find one relating to my correspondence with them. Other than email dates (going back to Oct 23) there is not much else I can think of.
I do appreciate your offer of help and if there is something specific that would let you look into the issue, I will be happy to send it to you.
When contacting support for a problem I did not receive an RMA number in the beginning either, but after several mails between support and me, I received an RMA number. At that point it was clear that I needed to send the L5 in for repair
Maybe they give such RMA number only when sending to the repair center is needed.
Yes, the RMA number is to track equipment coming back for service. I don’t think they have a ticket system for opening up a trouble ticket with them. They probably should though, would really help them organize their tech support efforts and also keep track of issues when looking for patterns.
Steve, count yourself lucky.
3g has now been switched off in this part of the UK (if not all of it) and so after just over a year of very limited use, my L5 is now obsolete as a phone.
Interesting, because it should be set up for 4G (our 3G is turned off also).
I’ve literally made ONE phone call on the thing, for testing purposes (that’s how I established it works if I am close enough to a tower to cook frozen meals). Meanwhile I have to carry around a craptastic surveillance phone, and Purism has my money.
Did you set your L5 network mode to 4G only or did you set it up to 2G, 3G, 4G (preferred)?
I was adviced to set that mode to the latter for a properly working connection.
4G with VoLTE works with some carriers. It’s complicated and not a simple yes it works no it doesn’t and not a simple if the phone is allowed on the carriers network that means VoLTE will work.
As for Purism not caring, it’s more likely that they don’t have anyone in that region with that carrier to test with to make things work and are too small for the carriers to work with. So lack of cooperation from cariers and lack of sufficient resources to brute force their way to working is much more likely than not caring.
