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.

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

Scamming customers