Refund process for librem 14

Hardware
1

Hello,

Basically i’m really starting to think i was duped out of my money, i never experienced anything like this hence i am seeking some help in understanding.

I had made my pre-order from a librem 14 back in 11th of March 2021.
After several delays and changes i changed my mind regarding the product and asked for a refund.

I was told i had to wait for the queue to reach my order number and a confirmation email to make a refund request…

Jump back to 16th July i made that refund request…
Was expecting it to take 1-2 weeks but here i am, September 17th, 2 months later and still haven’t even gotten any reply from financial team.

All the tickets and emails i send support asking for an update on my refund request the answer is “Financial team hasn’t replied yet, you must wait. we are sorry”

2 months is ridiculous and it’s not on the agreed terms, they say its 1-3 weeks maximum to process refund requests.

Since my order has been made more than 2 months ago i cannot use visa to file a dispute and get the transaction reverted.

Anyone have any similar experience or advice on how am i supposed to get my money back?

Much appreciated

1 Like
2

It seems Purism has been in a bad financial situation recently, especially after the industry-wide problems with supply chain, and they might not have enough money to fulfill all refunds. I believe that after successful investment campaign they should have enough funds for everything. Some other people also reported delays of their refund.

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3

yea i understand that, but i don’t understand why the delays in the supply chain have to do with the purchase money from products.

Shouldn’t they keep that money until at least the product was delivered?
therefore shouldn’t that money be ready to leave at any time?

This seems highly shady to me and i’m not so sure if its ok to do this either…
thanks for the reply

2 Likes
4

well that’s simple, to answer.
there is a difference with small batch production and mass production.
when you are ordering 1 minion units, payment’s can be split, so you can keep money on your account, till supplier will fill order.
Problem starts when you aren’t big enough, and you are ordering smaller batches , eg 2000 units.
Then supplier wish to get payment before order will be filled.
basically as small company Purism isn’t in position to negotiate delay payment, or loaned production line…

3 Likes
5

ahh, i see.
that was a good explanation thanks.

So basically they used preorder money to buy the components.
And until someone “buys my unit” that was requested for refund they won’t have the money to pay me back is that it?

so i’m stuck with no alternative but to wait

6

It’s probably even worse than that. They also had “just-in-time production”, where some parts were not ordered/produced in advance, because Purism feared possible hardware bugs in the first units. Then, the supply chain problem occurred and those parts suddenly became much more expensive and/or unavailable.

2 Likes
7

Did you actually talk to your card issuer yet? They may be able to help anyway if you provide the necessary documentation.

But you should really exhaust all possibilities with Purism support team first.

8

yes i did, their reply was that the limit to file a dispute with visa is 2 months after the purchase so it is not possible

9

You might consider the alternative to sell your “place in the queue”, as others have done even here in the forum.

2 Likes
10

how does that work ?

11

That may have been early on, but those of us that ordered a Librem 14 in the last 4-6 months were told order today and ships in 8 weeks and Librem 14 parts were in stock according to their Purism Products and Availability Chart which now says 12 weeks at least when it was updated on 30 Sept.

12

I fell for this too… They told me I’ll have it before Christmas… If they don’t I’m cancelling and doing a charge back…

1 Like
13

T-minus 7 days and counting down until I pull the refund trigger at 6 months and order a Framework Laptop.

14

should think twice before the refund trigger because it has been on for almost 4 months since i asked mine and still no refund

15

Well, apparently it has worked fine for 20 others in the past year who have gone the BBB route, so you may want to try that. See the following for details: https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-francisco/profile/general-merchandise/purism-spc-1116-925629.

16

Following this topic:
After not replying to an unequal sum on my invoice that i was preparing to trade the laptop with a fellow member of this forum.
Purism emailed me stating the refund “should be completed on the week of November 29.”

it is now Thursday of that week and i sent an email regarding the state of this refund, that i already know i won’t get…

So now it has been 4 months since my refund request and still nothing, no word.

What legal authorities should i start contacting to get my money back as an european consumer?

i already preparing to file a complaint on https://www.ftc.gov/
what else can i contact that might help me get my money back?

2 Likes
17

@z_l How did you go with your refund? I am in a similar situation and am looking for ways to get my money back. I have emailed purism multiple times about getting a refund but keep getting a response of “it’s coming soon”. This has been dragging on for months now…