Back on November 12th, I was one of the first in line for the One Laptop Per Child foundation's "Give One Get One" program, which let me donate $400 to pay for two XO laptops: One for a deserving child in a developing nation and one for a child in my life myself. I got several e-mails telling me that as a first-day donor, I was first in line to receive an XO, with scheduled delivery by December 22nd.
Then on December 22nd, I got a note saying that I wouldn't get the laptop by Christmas but that I should expect it to show up by January 15th. Meanwhile, other folks I knew who who'd donated after I did got their machines.
January 15th came and went. No XO. I went to LaptopGiving.org and found that the "Track Your Order" feature actually just pointed to a page of general information on when shipments were expected. That page told me I'd probably already received my my system.
On January 17th, my colleague Matthew Newton poked his head into my office. He'd also donated, and was also impatiently waiting for his XO. He told me that he'd just spent an hour on the phone with OLPC customer service, and had been told that they didn't have his shipping address, as a result of some glitch relating to the fact he'd paid via PayPal.
I too had paid with PayPal...but I didn't have an hour to spare. So I checked the "Track Your Order" link and entered my e-mail address and tracking number. That sent me to a page saying I'd probably received my XO, with...confusingly...a link to a page that it said would let me track my order. I clicked on that link, and got a page not found error.
Today, I happened to be in the office early, so I called OLPC support and turned on my speakerphone. Thirty-five minutes later, the call rang through to a rep. Who told me that they didn't have a mailing address for me. (Like Matthew, I paid via PayPal.)
I gave him the address and asked when I might expect the laptop. He told me that OLPC doesn't tell them when machines are going out...but that I might have good news in February. I'll believe it when I see it.
As I've mentioned before, I feel a twinge of guilt each time I get annoyed over all this. The most important XO laptop I paid for was the one that was meant for some child in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia or Rwanda, and if it indeed got there in a timely fashion, I'm happy. But if Matthew's experience and mine are any experience, OLPC's fulfillment house lost the addresses of at least some of the people who made donations through PayPal. And I can't figure out why they didn't e-mail those people early on to put things right. (In my case, at least, they instead repeatedly suggested that my XO would show up real soon now.)
My colleague Tom Spring is working on a story on this; he's talking to both OLPC benefactors who haven't received their XOs, and to folks at OLPC. I'll let you know when his piece is up...
Same story for me and three of my friends. We all bought on either November 12 or 13. Still no laptop. I feel the OLPC deliberately mislead generous Americans during the Christmas season knowing that laptops would not be ready until 1st quarter 2008. I did a VISA charge back on Jan 23... 2.5 months *after* OLPC charged my CC. They seem to be good at charging CCs, nothing else.
Much the same story here, except that I paid via Visa. I gave up trying to get through on the Customer Service line, and have been thoroughly disgusted with their automated form replies to my email inquiries.
I did finally receive an email this morning saying that they were waiting for their inventory to be replenished. In other words, we still have a long wait ahead of us.
The whole situation has been handled very amateurishly. I'm glad their ineptitude is finally being made public..
"The whole situation has been handled very amateurishly." Exactly! That's the point. This whole project, which has already changed the face of personal computing, was & is being done by volunteers, from Negroponte on thru hundreds of other "amateurs"...in the true Latin sense of that word. OLPC was never been set up to sell individual computers as a business; this 1-time deal was a kick-start to spreading the concept. It worked. & check some other amateur websites for the huge grins on the faces of little kids in places like Ulan Bator, seeing their first computer--& it's their very own! That's the point, not shipping 1 computer to 1 rich American x 80,000.
Now, thanks to Negroponte et al., you suddenly have a host of other very inexpensive (also cheap, tho) for-profit alternatives. Sears is selling one this week for $185--monitor not included. Do a charge-back & buy one. If you do get an XO, you all will be complaining about the small screen & keys. The XO is for kids.
Hi ,
Add me to the list of unhappy donor who has not received the promised laptop. I paid through VISA . Cannot get a rep to talk to us. The lines are always busy and was put on hold for hrs. We timed ours - waited one hour before we hung up. We are hoping the child will get one may be by 2008 christmas?
One very frustrated Donor.
Bala
A bunch of these are coming off on eBay right now with the going price about $350 to $450 each. I was interested in something like it after my 8-year-old asked for a computer for her birthday. But I didn't plan to spend that kind of money on a funky green-and-white laptop that is supposed to cost $100.
I checked and Asus has a similar offering at about $300, model "eee." If you are just interested in the technology, that model is a good alternative.
Of course if you are only interested in helping poor kids in third world countries, or owning a funky green-and-white kids' laptop, this is not your alternative. In this case, please send me your extra OLPC whenever you get it.
Thanks.
I was one of those who called to order on November 12th the very first day and at 6:03 AM to boot. From that moment on NOTHING went right and after MANY phone calls and e-mails and no computer I finally cancelled my order in disgust just last week. The details are too many and too uninteresting but suffice to say that none of the one laptop people were up to the task of taking and processing orders, and whatever system was in place was totally insufficient and inefficient. What a fiasco and how disappointing to waste all those good spirits and generosity.
LLWB
I was one of those who called to order on November 12th the very first day and at 6:03 AM to boot. From that moment on NOTHING went right and after MANY phone calls and e-mails and no computer I finally cancelled my order in disgust just last week. The details are too many and too uninteresting but suffice to say that none of the one laptop people were up to the task of taking and processing orders, and whatever system was in place was totally insufficient and inefficient. What a fiasco and how disappointing to waste all those good spirits and generosity.
LLWB
I to had been waiting for my computer. I got the run around and tonight I finally got tired of it. You have 30 days to receive a refund which I tried to to before the period was up but they couldn't do it. A week later I called again and ask to talk to a supervisor, she gave me some bs story that the order was in the warehouse ready to ship out soon, I waited another two weeks, still nothing so I called my bank card and did a dispute over all of this. I will get my credit back and they can keep there computer.
Tired of waiting in VA. Good luck to all.