Once Again: Where the Heck is My OLPC XO Laptop?

I'm sorry to bring this up again, but it's becoming an obsession. On November 12th, I was among the first people to donate $400 to the One Laptop Per Child project to send one XO laptop to a deserving child in a developing nation, and have one shipped my way. The OLPC people thanked me, said they'd try to get me my machine by Christmas, and reminded me that my status as a first-day benefactor meant I'd be first in line to get an XO.

Shortly before Christmas, I got an e-mail telling me that I wouldn't get the laptop for the holidays, but that I was scheduled to receive it by January 15th. When that date came and went, I called and learned that OLPC didn't have my address. They took it down, and mumbled something about me maybe getting my system in February.

That phone call was about ten days ago. I've been checking the LaptopGiving.org tracking system periodically since then, and it's kept mentioning possible address problems, but said that if I'd called previously I should wait for the information to be updated in their system.

Then tonight, that message was replaced with one simply asking me to call OLPC for more information. Given that I was on hold for almost half an hour last time, I'll need to figure out when I can devote some time to this project.

Oh, and the tracking system still talks about machines being shipped on a first-come, first-served basis--which, if it were true, would have meant that I'd have gotten mine weeks ago.

Meanwhile, lots of other donors were wondering where their XOs were. One of them was my colleague Matthew Newton, who made his donation well after I did. As of late last week, he finally got the good word that his XO had shipped. But another friend got this e-mail just today, signed by OLPC's founder:

Dear Donor,

Please accept my apologies for the delay in receiving your XO laptop. Give One Get One was such a phenomenal success that we over-taxed our order processing and payment systems. Demand exceeded supply.

Additional XO laptops are being built now and will be delivered in 45 to 60 days. If you wish to reconsider your contribution in the face of this delay, we will issue a refund to you. We have set up a dedicated phone line for these requests. The number is 1-800-883-8102.

In the meanwhile, please know that laptops are in the process of going to Mongolia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti as part of the "give one" side of the equation. Fortunately, OLPC's mission of getting laptops to the children in these countries has not been delayed. In Mongolia, the children are already enjoying themselves and learning new things with their XO laptops. Please see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ulaanbaatar.

Eliminating poverty through learning is gaining wider acceptance thanks to support like yours.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Negroponte

Mistakes happen, but it's kind of amazing that OLPC could decide to extend the originally brief duration of the "Give One Get One" program, and then explain what's happened by saying that demand outstripped supply.

Oh, and I read this as saying that it's possible it'll be early April before my XO shows up--more than three months after the Christmas target that was a key theme in the original G1G1 pitch.

Standard disclaimer: I actually care far more about the systems going to kids than getting one myself (truth to tell, Bill Pytlovany, the author of WinPatrol, read of my woes and was nice enough to lend me one of his XOs.) I remain a believer in the OLPC vision, and if the organization turns out to be very good at getting XOs to the kids who need them and just terrible at getting them to comfortably well-off gadget freaks like myself, I'm reasonably content with the whole situation.

But it would still make me a much happier donor if OLPC would simply e-mail me to explain what's going on with my XO, rather than expecting me to call them--again and again--to ask into its whereabouts...