Refund date possibly postponable indefinitely?

Hello everyone, I would like to ask for some advice. At this point it’s been almost three years since my librem 5 order, and the way things are going I don’t expect my order to show up in what I would consider a reasonable time. There is one issue however, and that is that multiple people here have already mentioned that purism only refunds your phone at the time you would otherwise have received your device.
The reason I would want to cancel is because I do not expect purism to ship the phone at all. As long as even 1 person every week gets a phone, they can still claim to be “shipping”, which I guess is fair, but what does that mean for refunds?
Assuming the worst case scenario, where cpu’s only become available in the tens or hundreds a month, and phones are pushed out at the same rate as they used too, shipment could in theory take another many years.
Does that mean purism could in theory just not issue a refund as long as they can claim to be shipping?

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  1. If you want a refund ask for one from purism, the community can’t issue refunds. Several people whom claimed they couldn’t get one did ultimately get one.

  2. What purism can/can’t do depends on so many things no one here can speak definitively about every possible scenario. In some situations could they be able to postpone refunds indefinitely, yes; in some situations would they not be able to postpone refunds at all, yes. Ultimately it’s complicated and it depends. The best first step is still to ask purism for a refund.

  3. You say you want to ask for advice but then never ask a question where advice can be given. Do you want advice on how to start to cancel your order? Contact Purism. Do you want advice on whether or not you should cancel? Too many variables but I’m sure you can get plenty of polarized opinions that skip over your personal situation. Do you want advice on what to do while you wait for your order? Same as last answer… Something else? Well then why didn’t you ask…

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Thank you for the response. :slight_smile: Maybe advice was not the right word to use. It’s more like a question that I don’t know the answer to, but if answered I can base my next course of action on. In this case, based on your response, I might be best off by contacting purism.

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At this stage, I don’t agree with your expectation. It depends on whether “the phone” means “your specific phone” or “any further phones” (or “any phones” but that is obviously wrong since they have already shipped phones).

I believe that Purism will ship phones out as fast as they can based on their ability to acquire parts. As you perhaps imply, noone really knows how long the global supply chain disruption will last. Even without further global shocks, or shocks of more limited scope, we are in uncharted territory as far as economic forecasting goes. It may well be into 2022 before you see your phone.

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I don’t think getting parts is that uncertain. We can see what is the lead time for the i.MX 8M Quad from checking the web sites of the major parts suppliers. Nearly everything else in the phone can be replaced with an alternative part.

The far bigger question are the finances of Purism. I’m hoping that Purism won’t have any supply chain problems with the L14, because it needs to have at least one source of steady revenue.

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Also the Librem Mini and the Librem 5 USA as other sources of revenue (but their latest missive is unclear on whether the Librem 5 USA is expected to stay in stock).

I actually will dispute this – the community does issue refunds of a sort, by buying phones from people who are tired of waiting for them. I would recommend @vancha place their phone “for sale” on the site if they wants a refund, or at least try it first. I’m not sure about since the most recent announced delay, but I’ve generally seen L5s placed for sale being sold within a week or so once posted. I would also mention that this is an option that is both better for people who want more L5s and are willing to wait, and for Purism. Given that vancha bought at a time when L5 was cheaper, they may even see a profit.

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