• mholiv@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      43
      ·
      6 months ago

      They changed the refund policy on the Linux phone that they sell.

      At the time when the phone was under development they let people preorder in exchange for a small discount. Many people including myself wanted to support such a product and payed in. At the time the policy was you could get your money back any time before the phone shipped.

      The phone was delayed for years and years and naturally people got impatient and demanded their money back.

      Purism on the fly changed the policy and said you could only ask for your money back in a small window just before your phone shipped. Not before and if it shipped it was too late. They just refused to honor the original policy.

      It was discovered that people could content the attorney General of California and the state would force them to honor the original policy. A lot of people, including myself did this.

      The fact that it came to that makes them a shady company.

      This all being said I am very happy they are profitable. While I would never preorder anything from them again, if they update the phone specs I would consider buying one.

      More Linux first companies is a good thing.

      • Chakravanti@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        It’s open source hardware that took years to even start let alone finish. Too many people retracted their sense over that time and they didn’t have the money left to pay back. I know that because it was obvious so they did the best they could.

        I can’t & won’t even begin to describe just how horrible you and an enough other mouth runners did…well…just that.

        I never gave any of you any respect. I still don’t. I considered the notion for few seconds and decided that if nothing happened to the Librem 5 I put down for, that I still have ZERO regret putting the worthless valueless US$ into just the concept of.

        Zero regret years before it was shipped and still so.

    • rah
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Probably the most egregious behaviour is declaring different terms and conditions for sales and pre-orders after a person has handed over their money, particularly changing the terms around refunds. Literal Vader “pray I do not alter it any further”. And illegal. Refunds in general have been a nightmare for customers with many making a complaint to the Attorney General of California which seems to have been the only way to get money back.

      Check r/purism on Reddit if you want to see lots of examples of their shady behaviour.

      Also: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Zlatan-Todoric-Interview

      And: https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-purism-and-the-librem-5-part-1