Reading here once in a while. Following L5 information via Mastodon. Searching “news & events” from time to time. Always silent, I am now at a point to tell you about my pain concerning Purisms information policy. #PureFeedback
First, I am a L5 customer. Not a backer. There might be room for interpretation. But I consider myself a customer. And - I do not feel treated as a customer. #PureDisappointment.
It all started, when there was the announcement in shipping delay postponing from 04.19 to Q3.19 with the words “minor shipping adjustments”. More marketing language. In addition no consequent information stream. A lot of things have been started pretending to be some kind of series (e.g. daily videos on a platform owned by one of the “big tech companies”, monthly updates on soft- respectively hardware, FAQs that do not update although the number of questions exponentially rises) but only pretended to be. Then some new information channel was opened. #PureConfusion.
Now it is Q4.19 and no one in this forum confirms to have received a phone yet.
I absolutely do not have a problem with delays of shipping. I gave money to a Social Purpose Company because they seem to think the same way as I do when it comes to privacy and data protection. I am not an Android or iOS user. Never had a smartphone because I do not want my data to be abused or commercialized. So we are on the same page. For me the most important thing is, that we all together change the situation for ourselves and our children to get (back) our digital rights. Take your time Purism, because as Nicole said: “Developing hardware is hard, maybe that is why they call it hardware.” #PureSupporter
But where my problem really is: I want to be treated honestly, open and in a respectful manner.
My example from daily (personal or business) life: If I tell you to send you an Email in CW20, I should do so. Otherwise I should inform you as early as possible and tell you when you get your information. If again there is a delay I have to inform you again, etc.
What Purism does is to tell me: “You will get the Email not in CW20 but in CW30”. And in CW30 they tell me: “You will get the Email between the end of the week and CW40”. And at the end of the week they tell me: “We will send you the information in batches.” And now it is CW31 and I find myself in the situation that Purism tells me: “Well, we opend up a new message and started typing ‘Hello’.” #PureTruthStretching
When you talk about ‘shipping’. We all understand sending out boxes with phones in it. Obviously there is also room for interpretation when it comes to the word ‘shipping’.
Everyone in this forum writing about reviews, batch information, received emails, etc. is pretty impatient because of the expectations Purism rose and the lack of information to create transparency. #PureImpatience
Actually, I am patient. I think I am part of “everyone”. I’m an idealist at heart, but because I build physical objects and often am called in when nobody has a clue as to how to start solving a problem, I know idealism has limitations. Because of that, I am pragmatic, tolerant, and understanding when somebody tries something incredible that hasn’t been done before. The last two places I worked as a full-time employee couldn’t understand why I couldn’t give time estimates on things that haven’t been done before.
The announcement of delivery and the good quality of the device in the published photos followed by lack of communication has made people nervous and impatient, just look at the forum threads about it.
I hope they publish a post or update the existing one with the information that many people request, such as the approximate number of devices per batch.
I think that people understand the delays but not the lack of information.
But do they really? You know, in general I don’t defend much of how Purism communicates. There really is a lot of room for improvement.
BUT… when they try to do it right, it backfires.
So, they wrote “lose fit in Aspen”.
People were outraged, not understanding that “lose fit” in metal work is measured in micrometers, not millimeters. So, that storm had to be calmed.
Sure, they seem to have a lack of foresight for such irritations, but… they burnt themselves and possibly now think twice before publishing anything.
But the thing that really irritates me: On the third day of shipping, people are wondering why no reviews are online yet. Really?
And then, apparently it is a “deafening silence” when there was no blog post for four days. Come on.
I rather have them use their time to get stuff done for one or two weeks and THEN let us know how it went, rather than somebody composing a blog post for some hours, having it proofread by someone, blessed by Todd etc… just to tell us that they only managed to push 10…30 parcels out between Tuesday and Friday.
The result would be this:
Media outlets: “Purism seems to have serious issues”
Forumers: “What? 30? At that rate, I’ll get mine in 2022! I’m going to cancel! I’ve had enough!”
I’d rather have them report in retrospect something like “We had some issues getting started, and couldn’t manage to push parcels out on the 24th because X, but then got about 10 out the following days. Improving the process, we managed to scale it up to 30 per day in the second week and will continue to do so…”
By the way, if the past can serve as any indication, have a look at this olden blog post about fullfilling laptop preorders and finally shipping from stock:
People are not rational.
Me neither of course. I just know how it is to be on “the other side”.
I really hope that Purism does NOT leave the real work and start informing on every step of the project. I do not need any more information - I want the work to be done and I know personally how much time information takes. And everything is from the same small amount of time they have. Information is NOT for free - it takes time to produce. And we have limited time in the project (not that I contribute much more than money).
In fact I am angry with all those complainers because they want to waste my money on useless “information” instead of getting the work done.
I couldn’t agree more! One can ask for what they want, however when passive aggressive tactics like public complaining are used then hostility is declared. I don’t think anyone here wants to be hostile on purpose
I believe people start realising that the “shipping” announcement wasn’t actually true. No one in this forum, even people that ordered the phone on day 1, received the email with the choice of modem and plug. That’s a bit weird.
I would love to be wrong, but I start thinking that the shipment news would be a massive boomerang for Purism if wasn’t true.
And the deafening silence of these days from the company, seems to confirm my fears.
Well, this IS an investment adventure. I put my money in the project two years ago and had no idea if there ever was to be a phone or not. So I am a backer - not a customer. It is premature to talk about customer because there is no product yet on the market (but will be soon). All efforts of the development crew must be put on the development and discussions and speculations can be between us non-doers who can afford to waste time on talk (writing). While I can understand people yearning for information it is no good idea to request lots of it from a small group as if it were a large company with hundreds of people just marketing and informing.
Development of a completely new type of phone is by definition a project with no secure timetable.
Someone I know who works with communication once explained to me that one very common mistake in communication is what she called “inside-out” communication, that you as a company/organization design your message in a way that makes sense to you, internally, without paying enough attention to how the message will be interpreted by the people receiving it. I think Purism’s press release about “shipping” is an example of that.
Probably, the information in the press release about shipping was correct and appropriate from Purism’s internal perspective. The product is perhaps “shipping” using the company’s internal definition of that word, maybe meaning that some devices have been sent/given to someone who ordered it. Some of the people ordering are surely more or less internal Purism people, like Purism SPC’s chairperson who did that nice “Librem 5 - first run walk through” video. Internally, Purism may consider that as “shipping” since he is someone who preordered and now a phone has been delivered to him.
However, most people reading the press release, and news articles citing the press release, will think that “shipping” means that phones are being put in boxes and sent off to customers who are not Purism employees. Whoever was preparing the press release text should have thought about “how will this be interpreted by most people reading it?” and then would probably have come to the conclusion that it would be misleading.
I think there is also a saying that “all communication takes place on the recipient’s terms” or something along those lines, that seems fitting here.
Please note that my point here is not to complain about delays, or to complain about lack of communication. I’m just saying that I think the press release about “shipping” was misleading (and that could have been avoided if Purism had thought about how it would be interpreted, which is something you should always think about when communicating).
It is difficult to find people who are good at developing hardware and software while at the same time being very good at communication and information. In fact it seems to be exclusive features - and I am speaking of myself as an engineer. I have no time for explaining to outsiders when I am concentrated on technical problems. In fact I get terribly testy about “stupid” questions (although I know they can be well founded). So you need different people who are good at explaining and informing. However, I really hope that the people of Purism are 100 % engineers in order for me to get my phone as soon as possible and of good quality.
Also there are people at this forum who are good at explaining the technical details of L5. Many thanks to them !
What happened to Brian Lunduke? Wasn’t he hired to keep the communication channel going on (director of Marketing at Purism)? Maybe I’ve missed something
