Perhaps in this hedomi’s case it can be attributed to this, but generally speaking, it’s a bit more complicated than that. At some point the website said that you could cancel your preorder at any time for a full refund. Later they changed this, so that you could only cancel when it was your turn in the queue. That’s all fine and well; a company is allowed to change its terms and conditions for new orders. And therein lies the problem: people who ordered before that change found they also couldn’t get a refund anymore. This breaks the contract they had with Purism: at the time they entered into the agreement, the conditions clearly stated that they could cancel and get a refund any time they wished (prior to shipping, obviously). As far as I know, Purism has never publicly acknowledged this, nor given any explanation. That’s what a lot of the frustration regarding refunds is about.
Furthermore, you joined less than half a year ago, so you may not know the history. But a lot of stuff happened before you joined us. It’s gotten better now, but there was a time when Purism would keep radio silence for months, leading people to speculate. Then, out of the blue, they’d send out optimistic emails promising they’d reach certain milestones by a given date. So you waited anxiously for an update… and waited… And a week, maybe two after the deadline had passed, you’d finally receive an update that they missed the deadline. Or that time when they creatively redefined the word “shipping” so they could claim they were “shipping” the first units, when in fact all they did was receive the first batch of internal test/development units.
There’s a lot of history here, and the people who were early with their money are rightfully frustrated. Just because Purism has cleaned up their act a bit and gotten a lot better at communicating doesn’t mean the mistakes of the past weren’t made, or no longer affect the present. And sure, right now there’s this pandemic wreaking havoc on the supply lines. But the project was problematic even before someone noticed a weird cough in Wuhan. And the shortage of parts has no bearing on the software, which while having made a lot of progress lately, right now is still on the level we’d expected back in 2018 (and with a questionable battery life to boot).
And one could go on: you pay for a “working phone” in 2018, and in 2020 you’re being asked to help fund the software for it. Supply shortages hit the industry, and suddenly it doesn’t matter when you ordered, if you didn’t order the more expensive USA version, you’re put on hold as they’re prioritising that. Which would be somewhat acceptable if there’s a good explanation why those same parts are available for the US factory but not the Chinese one, but if you then top that off with “but you can always pay extra to upgrade to the US version and skip the line”, that’s rather questionable. Especially if it then turns out that you aren’t able to meet the delivery dates you published on your website for those either.
So yes, there is cause for frustration, even if things are improving lately. And there’s still stuff going on that makes people rightfully question Purism’s financial situation, and their chances of ever seeing their preorder materialise. Hopefully in 2026 we’ll all have our phones and can have a good laugh about this whole affair…