#+SETUPFILE: ../../../template/level-2.org
#+TITLE: Why you don't want a Purism Librem 5
#+DATE: <2021-06-27 Sun 22:01>
#+AUTHOR: vaeringjar
#+EMAIL: vaeringjar@land
#+DESCRIPTION: My sad story two and a half years in.
#+KEYWORDS: purism librem-5


* Why you don't want a Purism Librem 5

I had a special place in my heart for Purism. And I've blogged about
liking them before. Money scarcity finally became less of an issue
about two and a half years ago when I finally put down the money for
the Librem 5 back in the winter of 2019.

After what had seemed like forever, Purism finally decided to start
taking orders, not just crowdfunding for backers. So about a month
before the device should have shipped, Pursim delayed, and then
delayed, and then delayed the release.

Eventually they changed their refund policy. It originally looked like
this:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
1. If, for any reason, you want to cancel your order before it was
   shipped, we will issue a full refund.
2. If there is a defective hardware component, we’ll send you a
   replacement part or a new product unit free of charge (see Warranty
   #2 and #3).
3. If you want to return a product that doesn’t have any hardware
   issues, we’ll charge a 10% restocking fee. We accept these returns
   within 30 days of delivery.
#+END_QUOTE

Then they started making a distinction between orders and
pre-orders. I'll omit most of it. Reading back through the page
archives shows several versions.

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
1. If, for any reason, you want to cancel your order before it was
   shipped, we will issue a full refund.
2. If you want to cancel an order for products that are in the process
   of crowdfunding or pre-order, we will issue a full refund once the
   crowdfunding/pre-order of the product is completed and all
   pre-orders are shipped.
#+END_QUOTE

So about a year ago I started to try to reach out to their support
folks asking for a refund. It took several months and then finally
they referred me to the change in the policy. They said since I was a
"backer" I had to wait. I reached out to the Better Business Bureau
aka BBB (apparently on available from the US) and they took about a
month or two to tell me the business practices were awful but they
only rate and seek to resolve issues. But since Purism had ignored all
their inquiries, the BBB said they could do nothing to help me. They
did suggest a lawsuit, but who has time for that when there's a
pandemic, employment is shifty, healthcare is expensive, my bioregion
was recovering from fire damage from a few months before, or my
bioregion was currently going through power outages due to an ice
storm. Btw, see my other posts about how all of these have contributed
to lack of sleep.

So here I thought I would put down my thoughts and experience on
this. If I had a Librem 5 in my hands today I would be happy to have
it. No doubt about it. But as it is, I cannot recommend it at
all. There are some YouTubers who have reviewed it, but I absolutely
must assume they've been prioritized for their adverts. And in fact I
must tell folks to not buy it because of the way I have been
treated. If someone like me who lives a relatively privileged life
suffers a little from 700US$ in 2019, someone else in a lesser
disposition in life is going to hurt hard and even worse in 2021.

Please do not recommend the Purism Librem 5.

Thanks go The Wayback Machine at archive.org.


** UPDATE 2022-06-08 Lead times posted

It looks like Purism has started posting that the non-US made Librem 5
will taking 52 weeks of lead time. I've archived the page. So at this
point, though for accountability I have no faith in it, I should have
to wait a year. Going back to July 2021 I see they expected "parity"
as early as last October into this year.

The reason why I even looked on their website was because someone I
know who also ordered one (and is still waiting) sent me a link to a
post on reddit. I'm over it, but at this point I still need to warn
potential new customers.


* What can I buy instead?

If you really want to support a libre project, particularly a mobile
phone, I suggest the PINEPHONE from pine64.com. At least they seem to
be shipping to more than just YouTubers advertising their products.


* Links

- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190124034755/https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/][Librem 5 - Purism Shop - Archived 2019-01-24]]
- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190124033110/https://puri.sm/policies/][Policies - Purism - Archived 2019-01-24]]
- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210117180043/https://puri.sm/policies/][Policies - Purism - Archived 2021-01-17]]
- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20220608203150/https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/uqyui0/purism_says_phones_arent_coming_until_next_year/][Reddit - Purism says phones aren't coming until 'next year' - Archived 2022-06-08]]
- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20220608195751/https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/][Librem 5 gets availability lead time of 52 weeks - Archived 2022-06-08]]
- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210702113338/https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/][Librem 5 note added about shipping parity - Archived 2021-07-02 - Retrieved 2022-06-08]]
