purism

Since Purism chose to suspend my account on their forums and delete my posts which provided customers with instructions on how to report their violation for not providing refunds to the FTC, I'll post it here again, with the hope that its helpful for some of you.

Go to   https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/assistant

Select: Online shopping

Select: A problem with an online purchase or sale

Click: Continue

Check: I never received a correct refund

Fill out the rest and provide information about your individual case

Purism can then be fined for up to $46,517 per violation, because they're by law required to provide refunds for canceled orders within seven working days[*]. As I understand these reports can be made regardless of the country you're in.

[*] https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/business-guide-ftcs-mail-internet-or-telephone-order-merchandise-rule

Repost:

I've documented a number of my interactions and experiences with this company and I recently did manage to get my very long over due refund from them, and from here on out I am going to warn anyone who will listen to just stay clear from Purism!

Don't fall for their marketing and their videos showcasing their "products," because apparently they don't really have much of any of those at all to ship to customers, people who in many cases spend literal THOUSANDS of dollars for their devices. I recently found these reviews on review site Trust Pilot:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/puri.sm

I found a YouTube video of someone who took screenshots of all of the emails he's been getting from Purism about shipping his order... and notice how each email pushes back the shipping date further and further!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQlVdIzJ0GM

This Reddit thread polled a number of Purism customers who have never gotten their orders... (it's the majority)

https://old.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/po50gv/curious_about_the_actual_percentage_of/ (beware!)

Here is a review of the Librem 13 laptop from a Debian dev:

https://anarc.at/blog/2020-07-13-not-recommending-purism/

To be fair I have read of some good reviews of their laptops, so it seems clear that consistency in the quality of their manufacturing process isn't all that great.

Last but not least, my contribution to the discussion. I culled numerous articles to prove my point about Purism failing to deliver on their repeated promises:

https://old.reddit.com/r/tuxphones/comments/gef9t9/my_opinion_about_the_pinephone_librem_5_and/ (beware!)

Does anyone else have any other articles or posts to share?

Ordered a Librem 5 almost 4 years ago, then with the promise that I would receive a phone within 6 months. Received nothing. I've asked many times for a refund and always the answer was: 'I'm afraid per our policy we cannot refund a pre-order until it is up next in the shipping line.' And in response to my latest refund request: 'I'll forward your notice to our management, will follow up with you once I hear back.' Yeah, sure. Never heard from management.

I am really beginning to question the intent of Purism SPC. Do they actually make money selling stuff? Isn't their business model just to rake in as much money as possible? And aren't the few phones they send out, and the few who get their money back, just a way to pull the wool over the eyes of the rest? And raise even more money?

I have filed a complaint with the State of California, Department of Justice: https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

Can anyone recommend a lawyer? Or maybe there is a class action lawsuit I can join?

Another year, another refund policy update...

Remember when Purism at least promised to grant refunds? Those days are gone, now you don't even get that. This is what the refund policy said until recently:

If, for any reason, you want to cancel your order before it was shipped, we will issue a full refund.

And now it says this:

Once an order is placed Purism will deliver that product to you, no refund is offered nor given for an order in the processing queue. If in the rarest case of a product being discontinued by Purism and an order is in the queue it would be refunded. Purism delivers products for orders.

Oh, trial periods are also gone now. It went from

If you want to return a product that doesn’t have any hardware issues, we will charge a 10% restocking fee. We accept these returns within 30 days of delivery.

to

We do not offer trial periods on products, once the product ships it can only be returned for defective hardware and a replacement will be provided after return evaluation.

With their president gone, the shit show of not honoring refund claims and now this, I guess it's becoming more and more apparent that they're in financial struggle.

I just hope some of you guys get something (money, hardware) out of it until it all collapses.

Edit:

It seems to be even worse. They're apparently also (again) trying to apply their refund policy retro-actively:

link to post: 

https://forums.puri.sm/t/any-updates-on-refunds/10739/24

screenshot (in case the post gets deleted): 

https://i.imgur.com/iWzHZKZ.png