Is there a real person to contact for questions regarding phone? Does anyone ever respond? I sent an email months ago requesting information on phone but no response. How can I purchase a phone if no one responds???
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You can ask whatever here about…
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Unfortunately, things fall through the cracks fairly regularly Purism’s support. I think the ratio of staff and support requests are overwhelming. It may take more than one email to get a response.
But as mentioned above, you can post your question(s) here on the forum and the community may be able to answer.
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These forums are reasonably active, and we have people on here who use Librem 5 phone as their daily phone and possibly their only phone.
Purism support, by contrast, is run by two guys both named Joao or something like that, who tend to answer your questions if there is a way for them to be immediately helpful but I gather they get so many requests that they’re scurrying to save users with broken tech rather than having the free time to solve every problem under the sun by tomorrow morning.
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Thank you for the response.
I was hoping to learn how user-friendly is the Librem5 phone and figured speaking to someone in person (well, on phone) would be easier than going back and forth with email/posting and get questions/concerns answered. If the two guys both named Joao are too busy trying to help users with broken tech, it makes me wonder why people are having so many issues and if it’s worth purchasing an L5. I was looking forward to trying the phone but information you shared has me wondering if it’s worth it.
Thanks again for sharing some information on the topic.
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It is always worth checking that their response was not classified as spam or rejected as spam by your mail service provider / mail client software.
For any company that I deal with I would apply the same approximate strategy: ask, give them a reasonable time to respond, follow up if no response.
I’m not sure that asking Purism is the best approach for that. Maybe latch onto this topic: How knowledgeable do I need to be to operate the Librem 5 for basic needs?
You would need to identify what your “basic needs” are - because they may differ from those of any other customer.
If you hunt around on the Purism web site, you can probably find some demonstration videos of the Librem 5 in use.
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I don’t think that’s possible. To the best of my knowledge, there’s no published phone number for support; in addition, the team is spread out in various countries, working remotely in different time zones.
Here are the contact options: Contact – Purism
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Preferably not of the type where some “influencer” pokes around on the phone for 5 minutes without reading the quick start guide, or applying any of the waiting updates, then declares it useless because it isn’t like a Samsung or iPhone.
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Edited for clarity. 
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Yes.
Yes.
You can purchase the Librem 5 and other Purism products from their web shop:
Purism – High-quality laptops that protect your freedom and privacy
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Thank you!
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I do not represent Purism. This is probably not actually the state of their support. I was in part parodying my world view in some way when I wrote that, perhaps in some form of media-manipulated exasperation after reading too many forums complaints, and so you should not trust me on the matter.
What I can say, however, is that I have been using my Librem 5 as my phone for one year, and it hasn’t really had any technical issues other than a part that I broke myself after having too much too drink, at which point I emailed Purism support and one of “the two guys named Joao” sent me a replacement component for free, despite the fact that the component was obviously broken by me and obviously at a party after I had something to drink.
The bigger concern, rather than whether the tech breaks, is whether users know how to use it. The software may be more complicated than Android or iOS, so a lot of users will try to get tech support for non-hardware problems, and that can be much harder to support when it indicates gaps in user knowledge moreso than something actually wrong with the device.
Edit: My general experience as a Librem 5 user, I would say, is that the Librem 5 is eye opening to use as one’s phone because of all “the problems.” The Librem 5 is almost a general solution to mobile computing, in a way that would be glorious and far superior to my experiences with Android and iOS. However, “the problems” that are revealed when using a Librem 5 aren’t actually problems with the device that Purism could solve. Instead, they are societal problems. You might go to dinner with a Librem 5, and try to get food, but the business looks at your phone and says, “We don’t serve your kind here,” and so you don’t get to eat. Purism can’t change that, because the decision of who is allowed to buy food (in this case, probably only Android and iOS users) would be in the hands of that particular business.
If you take that problem and repeat it over and over, you create the reason a lot of people aren’t going to like Librem 5s – it’s because they probably won’t have the inner energy to use something that they’re not supposed to use like that, when everyone around them pressures them to stop using it.
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I experienced something similar a few years ago:
The only difference now is that I replaced the Alcatel Go Flip 3 with the Librem 5 USA.
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Great analogy! Thank you. I don’t use QR codes, so I would’ve requested a physical menu as well–and would’ve paid cash. 
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For what it’s worth, QR code support on the Librem 5 is to a point where you probably could use the QR code to order your meal - but I never do that because of what happens afterwards - some unknown company that provides the online service to the restaurant wants you to enter a whole lot of your personal details. Which really shouldn’t be necessary just to eat a meal!
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Thank you for an updated response. I truly appreciate. I’m just a novice with technology, hence my hesitation, but I just might take the plunge and spend time getting to know an L5.
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For what it is worth, I have been in a few situations where the menu linked to on the QR code did not have this problem and actually allowed the user to browse the menu without providing any information beyond what the HTTP connection leaked. However, in many cases I had JavaScript enabled on the Librem 5 albeit with some adblocker, etc, so there is a fairly sound case to be made that I was not restricting myself only to free software in the ideal way, and could be opening myself up to malicious software while I’m scrolling the dinner menu.
But, those concerns aside, I recall at least once I sat down with folks, turned on the camera hardware switch, pointed my phone at the table’s QR code, opened up the menu and ordered dinner like everyone else and no one even noticed that my phone wasn’t Android/iOS.
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I should clarify: In my experience it depends on whether the QR code is
a) just letting you browse the menu, or
b) letting you browse the menu and then order.
The latter is the problem scenario - but it seems to be common - and that’s what I meant by “order your meal”.
For the former scenario, a lot of restaurants have their menu online, all good, whether you access the menu via QR code or not. (Whether the menu online is up to date is another question.)
But we digress …
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