On November 12, the first day the OLPC was available to the public via the “Give One Get One” campaign, I woke up and went straight to the website to order mine. I filled out the form, they charged my account immediately (I paid via PayPal), and I started looking forward to receiving my laptop. I couldn’t wait.
After receiving a thank-you email on Nov. 15, on Nov. 28, I received an email saying that I would receive my laptop between December 14 and December 24, pointing out that “Our ‘first day’ donors are our highest priority and we are making every effort to deliver your XO laptop(s) as soon as possible.”
No problem. Sure, I was hoping to get it sooner than that, but if they got a little behind due to overwhelming response, that’s a good thing, right? Sure. I can wait until the end of December.
The week before Christmas came, and I still hadn’t seen my OLPC. On December 22 (two days before the final date they gave me on Nov. 28), I received an email apologizing that I would not receive my laptop by Dec. 24. They gave me a link to print out a certificate if the laptop had been intended as a Christmas gift, and told me that it would be delivered “before January 15.” Before January 15. Cool.
January 15 came, and I still didn’t have my laptop. So at 10:37am EST on the 15th, I sent an email to OLPC Support asking where my laptop was. To my surprise, I received a response at 2:40am:
Dear David
Sorry for the delay of your XO. We are expecting for all/most of our Ox’s [sic] be arriving today. If you don’t receive your Ox [sic] by the end of today, please Contact us again.
Thank You
OLPC
So I gave them the day. By the end of business hours, it still hadn’t come, so at 6:30pm I replied, thanking them for the quick response, but explaining that business hours were over, and I was still without my laptop. At 9:50pm, I received a response:
Dear David,
There has been an overwhelming response and due to that response systems and inventory were overloaded and that OLPC is working hard to ship all laptops out. If you have not yet received your laptop, we are working hard to get it to you. If you live within the United States, you should receive your laptop Early 2008. If you live in Canada, you should receive your laptop in the January/February 2008 timeframe. FedEx will be providing a tracking number once they receive your package.
Thank You
OLPC
Donor Services
That’s not encouraging.
I went to laptopgiving.org to see what their online tracking service could tell me. This “service,” it turned out, simply pointed me to a general page informing me that I had probably already received my laptop.
I’m officially an unhappy customer. I wrote a long email, expressing my anger but trying not to be an asshole. I wanted to make it very clear that that I was unhappy, that this level of incompetence service was totally unacceptable. And I asked what they were going to do about it.
I received a form letter response saying that I would receive my laptop “no later than January 15, 2008.”
On January 19, the story changed. I received an email from OLPC saying that there was a problem with my shipping address (my work address). The two other people in my office who had also ordered one shipping to the office, the other shipping to his apartment received the same email. The email apologized, and said that they had set up a 24-hour phone line dedicated to fixing this problem. This number would be available on January 22.
Okay, now if the problem was just me, I doubt they would have set up a 24-hour 800 number just for my call. Methinks there are larger problem afoot.
On January 22, the two other employees and I all called that number. All three of us were told there had been an unknown problem with our addresses, all three of us gave our addresses once again, and all three of us were told that we would receive our laptops within seven to ten days.
Today was the eleventh business day, and guess what: no laptop. So I called their 24-hour dedicated line again and explained my situation, only to have some phone worker not only read me the exact same script, right down to the part about the seven to ten days, then proceeded to tell me that he didn’t have a supervisor that I could speak to. Eventually I settled for him giving me the main customer service number.
After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, a very nice woman asked how she could help me. I gave her the whole story. She apologized, and said that they had had a problem with the address — that they didn’t receive the street address — and she offered to correct the problem. Wait a minute — isn’t that exactly what I did on Jan. 22? And again about 20 minutes before this phone call? So let me get this straight: including the original order, I have now given you the full, correct address three times,, yet you still don’t have it? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
So I give her my address. Again. She claims to enter it, and asks if there’s anything else she can help me with. Yes, as a matter of fact, there is: When will I receive my laptop?
At this point, she informs me that, due to the overwhelming demand, they are waiting on new inventory when they expect to receive sometime in March.
Are you serious? March???
This is unreal. I have never dealt with a more incompetent organization. There has been mistake after mistake coupled with zero communication. And I’m not alone in my frustration: Harry McCraken of PC World has posted two articles: one on January 24, and another on February 4.
Maybe I’ll receive mine sometime in 2009.
Update: Feb. 21, 2008, AM
After my girlfriend (who ordered her OLPC in December) received an email saying she would receive hers by “end of March” I decided to torture myself by trying their online tracking again. To my surprise, this time it seems to actually have semi-relevant information:
Your donation is ready to be shipped and is in our shipping queue. Please check back with us every few days for updates If you have received this same response after several days (2 weeks or more) please contact Donor Services to verify your shipping information
“2 weeks or more,” huh. I guess I’ll keep waiting.
Update: Feb. 21, 2008, PM
On a whim, I went back to the tracking form and enered bogus information: “d” for my email address, and left the reference number field blank. The form returned this nonsense:
Your donation is ready to be shipped and is in our shipping queue. Unfortunately, we are awaiting new laptop inventory to fulfill your donation. We expect additional inventory to reach our warehouse from the last week in February through the end of March, and we intend to ship all remaining laptops to donors at that time. We will keep you posted as shipments are scheduled, and will send you an email when your laptop ships, with your tracking number.
Hold on a second, read that again: “Your donation is ready to be shipped and is in our shipping queue. Unfortunately, we are awaiting new laptop inventory to fulfill your donation.” Okay, maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that if they are “awaiting new laptop inventory to fullfill my donation,” that it probably isn’t “ready to be shipped.”
Seriously — how incompetent can one organization be???
Update: Mar 11, 2007
It finally came! Four months, almost to the day, it finally came — and it’s really cool. I’ll write more about it later.