A Reddit user shared how Purism returned to an inventory funding platform called Kickfurther “to finance the delivery of our newest flagiship product, the [Librem 14] laptop computer” with inventory availability slated for “April 21st, 2021”.
That quote/information is taken directly from Purism’s company post on the platform, which perturbed me considering the seemingly endless delays and the closing of a recent Topic discussing the Librem 14’s shipping nightmare.
I understand these Topics can derail a bit due to the mounting frustrations from us as consumers, but the decision to close such a Topic goes against free speech principles and cripples transparency amongst forum users. That said, I’m attempting to start a new Topic that discusses these developments again.
What is everyone’s thoughts on the ongoing delays?
Do you believe the company turning to Kickfurther highlights issues that have been withheld to us as consumers? It should be noted that the most recent excuse for a delay involved Purism’s “shipper”.
Has anyone received notice that their Librem 14 has been shipped since the company asked for address confirmations?
This is strictly to stay informed and not to stir up the pot. We as early adopters deserve the right to discuss these matters.
For the record: https://www.kickfurther.com/coop/purism-spc-librem-14-laptop
If i understand it right they are founding additional inventory, preorders are filled, they just wish to have werhouse of devices ready to ship for next clients.
And using COOP founding in that matter is actually good move, and it was used many times before.
So i thiink it’s not actual reason to panic.
For what it’s worth, Purism has used Kickfurther for several other products of theirs, all of which saw the light of day and made it into customers’ hands.
My personal interpretation of the “inventory ability slated for April 21st” was that they were hoping to be able to ship from inventory beginning April 21st - that is, have a surplus of units available in stock, rather than shipping all laptops immediately as they come in. Admittedly, that is probably way too optimistic, so that may not be the correct interpretation.
While I advocated for closing the thread in question, I recommended it in hopes that a new blog post would be imminently available with the latest updates. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to ask given that the last *blog post update happened well over a month ago (February 22nd)…
IMO, being silent is often times worse than being upfront and informative about delays.
I asked about the KickFurther campaign in the Matrix chat after reading the same Reddit post, got the standard answer. It’s probably not productive to enter conspiratorial territory or bully Rankin.
I interpret the delay in communication as Purism expecting the issue to be resolved quickly and seeing no need for a stopgap post immediately before the “We’re Shipping!” post. That being said, I’m just speculating and we likely shouldn’t read into it too much.
Do I want more information? Yes. Is that possible right now? I don’t know. Could this be done better? Probably, I’ve seen some impressive stuff from StarLabs and System76 that’s just not happening here. Nonetheless, this is not the time to create division! This situation is hell and its important to remember that we are all in the same boat.
My advice? Wait quietly for the Librem 14, ask questions occasionally. If you still have grievances post-shipping, create a megathread, detail every perceived failure from start to finish and have no mercy.
I can’t speak for the Kickfurther because I haven’t looked at it, but I did recently read an article describing an issue with the port in Los Angeles. Barges are sitting around anchored because there are not enough docks to handle traffic, causing a bottleneck of supplies spanning multiple industries. Could be linked to Purism’s shipper related issue? America’s Imports are Stuck
Careful, doesn’t say that the issue would last a week or anything of that nature. It only says that Kyle would update us then. That being said, his language is still ambiguous. We’re already mid-way through the next week, we’re likely overdue for that update. Though he could mean the week after.
I wish I had known about this as I would have taken part in the offering (@Kyle_Rankin, hint, hint). From the timeline provided, I think @NineX is right, it is for the next batch. All in all, I think that this is a positive sign.
Perhaps in lieu of an actual update, Purism should just take the time to issue a formal apology to Librem 14 customers. That would be nice. I’m not one of them, but their inability to take responsibility or extend any olive branch ever has become more than a bit tiresome as an observer.
I still haven’t received any kind of initial confirmation email regarding shipping and I ordered in November 2020. I’m a bit baffled by the opaque and dismissive response from Purism regarding any inquiries into this process.
Production spec doesn’t mean mass produced unit. It could just be that there were no changes from the last sample batch.
I agree with your frustration, though there is some nuance here, below are based on my observations and interactions:
Purism is more transparent than most other companies in the same space and they point to this when references of not being transparent are brought up instead of acknowledging that there is room for improvement.
Some of the information (order quantities for example) Purism has made clear they will not disclose, yet most people’s response to this is to double down on requesting this information instead of both sides working toward a middle ground (such as a progress meter of percentage of pre-orders shipped or some other middle ground that shows progress over time). Cooperation and compromise from both those asking for more AND from purism could go a long way here.
Purism is generally pretty averse to constructive criticism, though some of that criticism can be drowned out by people complaining with no constructive aspect to their complaints. I have also seen multiple times where purism will play the victim instead of acknowledging that they are part of a given problem and could be part of the solution instead.
Most of the “dismissive” responses I have seen from Purism stem from non-constructive feedback that either repeats or goes in circles. I find it works better, generally, to provide a solution or suggestions, than to just list complaints; and I don’t begrudge them for dismissing complaints that they don’t see a feasible solution for and aren’t being met with any sort of cooperation on.
Purisms communications have improved, at least for as long as I’ve been observing, and there is very little acknowledgement of that. Making progress and then being told that nothing has changed/improved incentives reversion not progress.
All in all I think trust has been harmed some, and that takes time to rebuild; but I also think this cuts both ways and the customers/community members can improve this by being part of the solution as well.
My apologies if the above wandered too far off for this thread, I didn’t feel it warranted its own fork, but also know it is also partially tangential.
Sure, it goes against free speech; but free speech isn’t one of the core purposes of these forums. Purism offers librem.one as a platform for free speech, the forums are for discussing their products/services. The fact they allow us to go somewhat outside of that in discussing our feedback of the company as well as completely off-topic items in the round table shows Purism making an effort to allow more than is explicitly allowed while closing of topics is generally reserved for when the conversation is better suited for another platform (like librem.one).
There is some, in my opinion, conflicting information on the L14 shipping. The latest information I saw seemed to indicate that the shipper had not picked up the pallet of laptops from china to be delivered to Purism as opposed to having already taken possession and being stuck in transit. Based on the timeline that the items had not been picked up but we’re expected to be received a few days after being picked up it’s possible that shipping from china was intended to be via airmail. That said, changing shippers may change shipping methods…
I also agree with the assessment that kick further appears to be a means of stocking supply (or a second run/batch) rather than a pyramid to pay for shipping the previous orders.
And yeah, Purism seems to never be lacking optimism.
The ambiguity is likely related to not having the information to be less ambiguous with.
It is possible, as has happened before, he is getting information from others to compile into a post. If they are overly optimistic when telling him when they can give him an update, then he is optimistic when passing along a timeline to us to give us an update… This can spiral pretty quickly the more steps in the path there are. I do think it’s important for all parties to provide updates when they said they would, even if the update is “hey, the person upstream from me didn’t update me so I have nothing to pass up the chain” with that said, I strongly support when someone higher up in a company buffers their internal employees from their customers which I believe is what Kyle did fairly recently regarding delaying getting out updated information regarding the Librem 5 (point of reference, not trying to talk about the phone beyond that).
Heh, this does seem to be a decent example of purism not having a good centralized location for getting information. I don’t see it in the blog, not the forums, I’m sure it was announced somewhere, but having information spread out over multiple platforms makes it challenging to find relevant information and to be made aware even if you are trying to opt in, you have to know where to opt in for what… maybe a link tree style page with all the different places purism posts information and what they’re used for (maybe this already exists and I just don’t know about it not where to find it)…
