Good afternoon. I wanted to see how many times members of this forum have had their devices into the repair team for any issue.
Myself, it has been 2 times and I am about to embark on my third. The first time was for the keyboard keys crunching when pressed. On this same visit, they had to fix my bootlogger, as it stopped allowing me to properly input my password when input. Additionally, the screen would flicker. Those issues took approximately 3+ weeks in the teams custody.
The second time was my wifi card, which is documented in the forums. I would be at approximately 95mbs on wifi and over 6+ hours, I would be down to 8 or less mbs on wiif. This went on over a period of 1.5 months. I sent the machine in to the team. It was in their custody 1 month, 1 week. The team sent me back a new machine. I noticed when I plugged the AC adapter in, it was stiff. I closely looked today and the AC adapter is bent or not screwed down all the way inside of the laptop case. This will make the 3rd time i will have had to send in my device to the team.
I purchased the machine in January 2019 and this make 50% of my ownership with the device in the shop for work. For what we all pay for these devices, the level of review should be top notch. I do not think this is the case. My level of frustration at the level of build on these devices is highly irritating.
I love what the machine can do when it works, but I need to have it in my possession to use the machine. I am close, very close, to just going back to a more mainstream company and just encrypting my device and living with the level security that will offer.
I am fearful the Librem 5 will have the same level of build quality. If my machine with the 3 strikes is indicative of the build quality, we are all in trouble with our new Librem 5 which will come out in 3rd Quarter…of some year to come.
Please chime in and let me know your experience. I want to see if I have a proverbial Chevy Pinto or this is indicative of a wider issue.
Since you decided to bring your experience public, I will also publicly reply.
Sadly, 3-4 weeks were normal at the time, if you take into account transit times. I have also warned you that we were in the middle of moving our hardware services/assembly line to a new location and that delays are expected.
For several reasons: 1) wifi issues are hard to diagnose; 2) still delays because of the moving to a new location; 3) if you remember, you request one week delay because you were on road. We stored your device and shipped as soon as it was possible, but it cannot happen in the same day you gave a green light and I believe I explained you the process.
I have already explained: 1) this is just a cosmetic issue; 2) since you did not reported it in the first 48 hours since you received your device how can we be sure it didn’t happen after delivery? You perhaps accidentally tripped on a charger cable, for all we know. Our technicians would have to have a look at your laptop to determine the cause of this.
We will gladly provide a return label to diagnose and try to determine what happened, if it’s our fault we will send you another machine again, and of course, your warranty is prolonged for every day you haven’t had your device with you.
You must understand my frustration. I do not believe you ever addressed the AC plug as cosmetic in correspondence. I wanted to know if my experience was an anomaly. Mladen: This is not a reflection on you. You do not make the machines.
As you know, I received the device on Wednesday of this week and did not unwrap the device until the following day. As far as me bending the plug. That is absurd. The way it is slanted, it tilts as you plug in the AC adapter. As far as sending it back, I can sense already that I will lose any ensuing battle of review and repair. I suppose this is a situation where attained perfection should not be asked or expected for the cost paid.
i was unaware it was unacceptable to ask the forum if I was an anomaly or there was a standing issue with build quality. I did say that I love the machine. I do think the QA/QC process needs to be improved.
Again, Mladen, this has nothing to do with the level of support you have always provided when I had questions. you have always been there when I had a question on software, Linux commands, and syntax.
As I had said with my wifi experience, you were super helpful. Again…not an issue with the level of support you provide.
It is not, you are free to enage with our community (I could easily delete your post, yet here it is, unchanged) but please ensure you are presenting the entire situation with all the facts. We do want to make our customers happy – I have told you this is a cosmetic issue but we will investigate and proceed with sending you new device, again, if necessary. Sadly, these things happen, wifi cards fail, QC fails, I am sad this has happened with an enthusiast and a supporter like you.
And we are aware of this, and working on this for several months now. This is not an easy process, especially not for a SPC company like Purism is. I won’t get into any details, but we really do have strict assembly and QC procedures (in written form!), we will need to work more on hiring and educating quality personnel.
I appreciate putting the discussion in context. The only part that was not stated out loud was my laptop having to wait 1 extra week due to the 4th of July holiday. It is not the time spent in maintenance, but the number times sent to maintenance. I do not believe I had maid any false or misleading statements in the original post. I will continue to say, it is not you as you do not build the laptops. Every single time I have needed assistance with installing software or trouble shooting, you have helped me…every single time. I thank you for that.
As I have told you a bunch of times, I love the machines Purism puts together and sells. I just wanted to see if my issues were an anomaly. I know you personally use the machines the company provides.
I imagine they would be an anomaly. Here’s been the track record of the last three computers I’ve owned.
HP Elitebook - 1 support issue unsuccessfully resolved related to catastrophic failure of processor (what are the odds?)
HP Spectre360 - 1 support issue successfully resolved via 2 support calls
Purism Librem 13v3 - 1 support issue successfully resolved via support via email
Aberrance commonly receives more attention than the mean; however, for readers of the forum who are looking to make a purchase, quantitative discussion is much better for informed decision making. While I cannot speak for everyone, those are my numbers, and they are neither better nor worse than any other manufacturer.
If Purism holds any advantage, it’s the passion of the staff in helping resolve issues. Not having to worry about interacting with a potato holds great value for me.
I would definitely agree with the passion of the staff. Mladen has been fantastic in helping me diagnose a myriad of issues with my machine. If not for him, I would be a caveman operating my machine. I know for me, my luck goes either in 100% one directoin and then if not, it goes in 100% the other way…Lol.
I love what Purism brings to the table. If I didn’t I would not have purchased the Librem5. I want Purism to be a major player in the technology field, possibly rivaling some of the bigger players.
this is one of those moments when you realise you a have a few L5s waiting to be shipped to Europe and can’t help but think - what if i have to RMA one or more at the same time ? uh it’s going to be tricky for me to make sure all my L5s are in order in the first 48hrs … booting them up then testing them individually, open the case up to see the inside … i’m getting twitchy already just thinking about it. probably best to let it rest untill i get them but still - damn ! i hope the hardware/build quality will be defect free.
you Nord-American continent guys are so lucky to have Purism on your soil.
No hardware issues here. I find the Librem 13 build quality to be near to Apple and Acer standards. But more importantly, having a Debian mild fork supported by Purism just removes so many headaches compared to my experiences replacing Win7 with Debian 10 (aka buster) on older Dell Optiplex hardware. (Great 8 yo compact i3 systems.)
I tried to install Gnucash (impossible) until someone suggested KMyMoney, which is a better piece of software. I wanted Firefox until someone pointed out the compatibility switch documented in the Wiki. My point is that community support, including employees like our mladen, is superb, much better than you can get for Windows and Linux-in-general. There is only one version of PureOS and only a few hardware variations, making support workable. I’ve never regretted my purchase and I look forward to the phone, just don’t expect me to be in the first batches.
Yes! Mine in Germany was probably stolen at the DHL-facility. It had reached Krefeld, which is about 25 Kilometers from where I live. DHL found out, that the package did not match the conditions of sending.
But gues what. Purism gave me a new one!
I had a minor issue with my trackpad upon receipt (internal screws were tightened down a tad too tight). About 30 minutes of tinkering with a screwdriver per Mladen’s recommendation, issue solved. It’s been a solid performer since. Approaching six months of service now.
My Librem15rev2 was so far never in service, but it arrived without a 500GB SSD - this was probably due to the fact that my original order had to be modified because the drive bay, which was in the design when I pre-ordered the laptop, was abandoned and my order was accordingly changed, which maybe didn’t make it to the assembly line. But once I realized the SSD was missing, Purism immediately sent it to me (me based in Europe). Shortly after, my battery went blank (didn’t charge up any more), and Purism sent me a new one (again no charge). About 1 year ago, the fan made strange noises, and I managed to replace it myself. Current case is more tricky - the hinge broke, and the laptop doesn’t close any more. Being a rev2, spare parts are (probably) not available any more, and Purism was not sure if they could repair it. Well, I ordered a rev3 in the summer clearance sale, which should arrive in the next days, and rev2 will be retired as desktop unless I find a repair shop which dares to take the screen apart (glue seems to be very strong…if someone in the forum has experience in disassembling the screen, any information would be welcome). How does this compare to my experience with Macs? I have an iBook from 2002 which still works except the screen is kinda dark now - this one after about 6 years had a broken hard disk replaced and the battery was exchanged due to an Apple exchange program (inflammability? I don’t remember). 2009 MacBook Pro needed new battery after 4 years (and now battery is completely dead again), DVD drive stopped functioning some years ago, and now fans need to be replaced (make strange noises). Original Apple Power supply simply being plugged in the outlet (Macbook switched off) clicked, blew my fuse and started to smell like burnt cable, so I decided to not use it any more and got a non-Apple replacement power supply. But I don’t use the Macs anymore in a production environment, they are just around for fun…
My L13v2 went to service twice but as it turned out it was the power brick both times. I was about to send it for a third when I realized it was only the three pronged universal cable that was defective so I replaced it myself. And that’s it, the laptop itself has been flawless. The customer service experience has been great and Purism helped me greatly. My living situation makes shipping particularly painful which is 60% of the issues I encountered getting the machine serviced and that’s on the Canadian Arctic not Purism.
Here’s my laptop issues history:
Asus G73: Had to redo the thermal pasting to the CPU and GPU because I was having thermal shutdowns.
Lenovo Y40: The power controller burnt randomly while watching Netflix. Getting the machine repaired was a freaking NIGHTMARE and Purism is head and shoulders above Lenovo on that department.
Asus G752VSL: Replaced the “Sub-woofer” and now it seems the left stereo speaker is gone. The speakers on that laptop are really bad and I’ve been over-amping so that’s probably on me.
A wide variety of HP Pro/Elite Books: Those are work laptops and they just stop working all the time but I just request a new one, so hard to comment on the customer service experience. We’ve switched to Microsoft Surface Laptops 2s and so far so good. Well the casing is very weak and just dropping a pen on it from two feet will dent the screen cover.
So anyway, here’s my truth about this: my L13v2 is a solid laptop and I am very satisfied with it. Your mileage will probably vary but I hope your experience is as good as mine.
