Shout-out to the Purism Team!

This is more of a general shout-out to the Purism team that anything else.

I’ve been following your progress for some time now and am preparing to make my first order - Librem 13 w/ core i7. I believe strongly in the products/philosophy that your team is working on and hope your organization continues to see great success. I love the products your team is building - fingers crossed for the phone to make it’s funding goal! :crossed_fingers:

If I can volunteer my time in any way to help your organization succeed, feel free to reach out.

5 Likes

Prepare to wait. And expect every date you are given to be missed for shipping. I count myself fotunate I’ve only waited for 2 months so far. So if you are OK with sinking 2-3$k into a laptop order you may not see for months, no problem…

Did you order the i5 Librem 13, the i7 Librem 13, or the Librem 15?

I ordered the i5 librem 13 which was advertised as “in stock”/“shipping from inventory”…

2 months ago…

Do you know why it’s taken so long for it to ship?

I’ve tried to find out several times. I’ve been told so many different things that I don’t believe or trust anything else that ops communicates to me. I really tried very hard to work with ops/support and to be forgiving and understanding. If you read around a bit more, it doesn’t seem like they care that much about their customers. Saw some people had waited months only to find out their hardware configuration would never be shipped (they were not informed when the decision was made, despite having handed over their money).

I’ve been given estimated ship dates that have been missed. At one point it seemed like they had laptops but not the USB drives for QubesOS but didn’t offer or even want to ship without the USB drive.

The lack of transparency caused me to initiate the order cancelation process today because if I wait longer, I will not be able to charge back on my credit card if they don’t deliver (like the guy with hardware configuration that would never ship).

Edit: Their PR/Social Media folks are amazing, but it’s all hype unless they can fix their customer service and supply chain. They do a great job generating hype around the purism products and philosophy and being visible when people post about ship times.

I think the biggest problem that Purism currently has is communication. It’s not the fact that laptops take a while to ship (when dealing with a small company like this one, some delays are expected); it’s the fact that they constantly give incorrect information.

Yes, I understand all the variables that go into why they cannot give a precise ship date for all orders; however, repeatedly giving a date that is off by several weeks (at a time when their website says that they are shipping from inventory) demonstrates that whatever process they use to give the ETA’s is flawed, and they should either try to find another way to make sure the information is accurate, or stop giving them altogether.

To me, it seems like when someone inquires about an order, all they would have to do is this:

  1. Get their order number.
  2. Check the order number of the latest shipped order (they could check the last order shipped on the previous day, to make things simple).
  3. See how many orders there are between those two.
  4. Based on the (average) number of orders they ship per week, they would be able to easily calculate (roughly) how many days before that order ships.

Again, because of cancelled orders, etc., this wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but it would be very close, much closer than the current estimates (where someone could get the runaround for at least a whole month: every two weeks being told it will be another two weeks before receiving their device).

The best part is that this has been suggested to them at least 6 months prior and acknowledged as a good idea. I think someone even volunteered to implement it for free. I even suggested it in one of my email chains with ops.

Still. Has. Not. Happened.

For all their stated dedication to FOSS they sure don’t like to be transparent about their shipping delays and supply chain problems. Hard to take them seriously after my experience with them.

I don’t think I can ever trust them again after visiting their currenty store. Still claiming they have librem 13s in stock and ready to ship.

This is what we have tried, and unfortunately, it turned out it isn’t so easy. For example, have a look at here for an explanation: https://forums.puri.sm/t/understanding-operations-and-logistics-why-can-order-delays-happen/319/15

We have a large backlog, and we’re trying to ship as fast as we can.

What does it mean in your webstore if an item is “In Stock”? Is it actually ready to ship? or just a bunch of parts available to be assembled into a laptop?

1 Like

Just to be clear, my point wasn’t that you need to come up with a way to determine the ship date for each order inquiry; my primary point was that you shouldn’t give dates that are so wildly inaccurate as to be almost useless. A simple statement like the one you said there, “We have a large backlog, and we’re trying to ship as fast as we can” would be perfect, as it wouldn’t give any false hope.

If someone’s order has shipped, then you can tell them so; otherwise, you can just give the statement above. If people ask, let them know that you don’t want to give a specific date, because you are unsure. They might be mad at this, but it’s better than being mad because they think you’re lying to them.

Also, keep in mind that people will make decisions to buy based on what the website says, so it might be best to make sure that the website doesn’t give any potentially misleading information; otherwise, people will be far more upset at the apparent deception than they would be at merely having to wait a little longer than they’d like to.

2 Likes

The webstore still looks the same as when I ordered my “In Stock” Librem 13, which still has not shipped after 2 months of waiting. Could you guys clarify what it means when an item is “In Stock”? Does it mean you have the components but not assembled?

Doesn’t this seem dishonest for a company that tries to hold themselves to a higher ethical bar?

Emdem, “In stock” means that the laptop is ready to be assembled if needed. If we have a lot of orders, needed number of devices are pre-assembled and respective orders are assigned with a serial number, and they are waiting to get shipped. I will send you your order status in an email response.

As far as my order goes, I read the explanation that Jeff gave in that thread you referenced (which was writen almost two months ago, so I don’t know how much of those blocking issues still apply, specifically to the Librem 15), but I’m not sure why my Librem 15 order hasn’t shipped yet (or why at least it seems like Ops doesn’t have any idea when it will actually ship), given that my order didn’t include Qubes, and it was made over a month ago.

Mind you, my first order was for a Librem 15 (I switched it to a 13, for quicker shipping); if I had kept that order, I would have waited for almost four months beyond the original ETA for my laptop. So, my attitude comes from both an honest attempt to understand where Purism is coming from, but also from a disappointed customer.

here’s me waiting for my librem 15 v5 to arrive in eastern EU. was wondering if maybe i should have waited for the 15 to get updated to v6 like the 13 model.

@mladen will Purism refund me through my credit card if my order takes more than 2 months and i decide to cancel the order at the end of september? should i be patient or just cut my loses early ?

Our current models are at v3, there is no v4, v5 or v6 yet.

Yes: https://puri.sm/policies.