What I think frustrates many of us still waiting

[Goatview]

And Hallmark Cards said:

"Never mud wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty but the pig likes it."

So?

[tsdguy]

I know that a lot of people having been working hard to resolve problems. Nonetheless, OLPC found time last week to give away SEVENTY of their laptops at an Australian Linux conference, at random or pretty near to it. 70! http://lwn.net/Articles/267113/

Where do you get 70? Did you read the article? Looks like you just pasted a quote from another source as I've the the 70 number quoted incorrectly several other places. Funny.

Hard to believe but perhaps these systems were already pulled for this project. Why don't these guys have the same chance of getting their laptops as anyone else.

[mattd]

A FedEx truck just pulled up and tried to deliver one of the XO's for which I have been credited. I almost couldn't believe it.

There is only one possible response to that:

Ha ha ha, oh wow. THAT is comedy gold.

I love this place. It is an endless supply of drama, comedy, and an amusing microcosm of the human condition.

Goatview, give us an update if you get the second one. I'd like to know if you'd still enjoy playing with it even after all the rigmarole.

[Goatview]

If my life had been a cartoon yesterday, when the cartoon FedEx driver got out with the cartoon XO box, the XO box would have had those little wiggly lines with flies emanating from it as though it held dead fish. Or it would have had tic tic tic coming out of it. I never even TOUCHED the box.

So yesterday was too soon for sure.

I wonder how many other refunded participants are going to be tempted in this way and how many will succumb? I wonder if I would have opened the box if I had found it propped up against my gate when I returned home from the store? Behaving with perfect honesty is harder when time goes by and the rationalization process gets a toe-hold in your head. For instance, it is easy to tell a clerk "Wait! You gave me a dollar too much!" when you are still in the check-out line--if you discover the error when you get into the car, not so easy.

And in the case of OLPC, how simple it would be to make the jump from "it isn't mine" to "they messed with my head, insulted me, wasted my time, gave them away free when I had to pay and get nothing...I deserve to at least have a look at the thing" to "I'll send it back when they ask for it or bill me. That's not stealing." But of course it is. But it is stealing from someone who messed with your head, insulted you, wasted your time, gave them away free, etc.

It's not really a moral dilemma (see this if you want the greatest moral dilemma story ever written: http://tinyurl.com/2l2j7o ), but it's similar.

[mattd]

Actually, Goatview, it may be easier for OLPC to handle a return if you accept it and then contact help @.

From this olpcnews thread OLPC has a process setup for 'misdeliveries'. Just rejecting it and it showing back up at Brightstar will - considering who we're dealing with - just confuse them.

Now, whether to open and play with it is another matter altogether.

So you've got options depending on how much you want to screw with OLPC.

[Goatview]

Crap. I just read it. I wonder if they are going to start billing me for the rejected laptop? I wonder if they will just take it out of PayPal? I wonder if I should just cancel my PayPal account for a while. I wonder if the CAN just take it out of PayPal? Too much wondering. I'm going to cancel the account just in case.

This has finally become funny to the point of enjoyment.

UPDATE: I removed all my banking info from PayPal. All OLPC can do to me now is send email or snail mail. Now I need to hope I don't need to buy anything with PayPal until the dust settles on the fiasco known as G1G1.

[Sarah Elkins]

tsdguy,

See the following for the numbers:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/s ... 656,00.htm

http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Current_events section 9 says over 100, but I stuck with ZDNet's more conservative 70. "Several dozen" could easily be 6 dozen, around 70. But even if it was half that, it was an insult.

Are you seriously asking why people who took initiative and committed to OLPC should get the laptops they paid for and were promised and have been delayed getting again and again, before random passersby at a later Linux conference? Many of the G1G1 donors are Linux and open source enthusiasts, at least among the folks I know, though I don't think that factor should override prior commitments anyway.

[Goatview]

It's 8:10 p.m. on Friday, the day after I signed to refuse the XO FedEx brought to my door. I just got this in my email:

"OLPC Customer Care" <service@laptopgiving.org> Add Mobile Alert
To: goatview@yahoo.com
Subject: Coming soon: Your XO laptop
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 18:06:08 -0800
Your XO laptop is on its way.

We're happy to inform you that your XO laptop has shipped. In order to help you get the most out of your experience with the XO and One Laptop per Child (OLPC), here are some important links. Please save this email for reference.

To find out everything you need to know to get started with your XO laptop, please click here or visit http://www.laptopgiving.org/start.

Your order reference number: 7000015XXX

Please click here to track your order on our website.

For Terms and Conditions of the Give One Get One initiative, click here.

To learn more about T-Mobile USA's offer to provide one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot, click here. Please note that to activate this offer, you will need to enter your Give One Get One order reference number: 7000015XXX.

From all of us at OLPC, thank you for your participation in Give One Get One. Your gift will help give children around the globe amazing, new opportunities to grow, explore, learn and express themselves.

We hope you enjoy your XO laptop!

OLPC Foundation

P.O. Box 425087

Cambridge, MA 02142
------------------------------------

I guess I could still get that year of T-Mobile, but I won't.

Sigh.

[rbrb]

Since I started this post, I thought I would update everyone on the status of my promised laptop. When I first called Donor Services in January to change my mailing address (I was one of the people that used a business address and apparently had a line dropped from the address) I was told my laptop would ship in 7-10 days. Of course that did not happen. I began to follow the tracking site set up by OLPC and received the message: "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." After waiting the "several days (2 weeks or more)" I contacted Donor Services. They said my address had been updated and the laptop would arrive in mid-February. I continued to track my order and after waiting another "several days (2 weeks or more)" I again contacted Donor Services. They were completely confused by my saying that the tracking website said that I should contact them to check on my address. The person on the phone had me read what the tracking site said several times and then put me on hold for 15 mintues just to come back and say that my address had been updated correctly and that they were out of inventory and my laptop would not be shipped out until late March.

Needless to say, I am still frustrated.

[Infamy]

rbrb,

As I've been emphasizing elsewhere, when you call donor services, ask them to tell you your address. You will have to do this on the main line, 1-800-201-7144, but at that point you will know if they got it right or not. Also, if you haven't yet, send a message on over to help AT laptop.org and let them know about your progress. If you have already done this, PM me and I will look into it.

Thanks,

Infamy

[rbrb]

Infamy,

Actually my last call to OLPC was to the main line per the suggestion from you previously posted (it happened to coincide with another two weeks of getting the same queue message on the tracking page). I indeed had them read back my address and it was correct. I have not emailed "help" since I first contacted them in mid-January and resolved the address error. What is the purpose in contacting them again? The person on the main OLPC line was pretty emphatic that there would be no laptops until the end of March and my address is correct. I'm certainly willing to shoot another email but I'm just trying to find out your thinking in this. Thanks.

[pgf]

As I've been emphasizing elsewhere, when you call donor services, ask them to tell you your address. You will have to do this on the main line, 1-800-201-7144, but at that point you will know if they got it right or not.

and, as i've responded practically every time you've said this, infamy: after doing what you suggest, you will _still_ be no more confident that your laptop is in queue to be shipped. my address has been read back correctly every single time i've asked, and that's about a dozen times, starting on 12/28. i was promised multiple delivery dates during that time, and none were met. surely you understand that having someone on that same phone number make one more promise is useless? it certainly has no relevance to "knowing if they got it right or not". i've gotten email from donor services that leads me to think things might be okay now, but since some of those messages were contradictory of one another, and since the tracking page has said "having an issue verifying" for over two weeks now, i'm still assuming nothing will happen in march without further followup.

paul

p.s. and after all of this waiting, and phoning, and mailing, to read that it may be possible to get one's laptop in two days, by priority mail, simply by threatening a state attorney general investigation, is more than frustrating -- it's close to being infuriating. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=152274

[Infamy]

Paul,

I understand what you are saying. In your case, you can stop calling. They have confirmed your order nine ways to sunday, so you are set. Your order is there, and it is fine. The real issue is in trusting the dates from donor services, and understandably so. I wouldn't listen to them. They do orders. They don't do shipping/delivery. Remember, I am not asking that you call donor services to check your delivery date, I am asking that your call to make sure your order info in correct. When orders are correct in the system, things go like clockwork.

In light of this, allow me to make a blanket statement(which I've also emphasized elsewhere). Chances are very slim that you will recieve your XO before March. I've done enough looking and talking to know what is where at this point, and March is the month. There are exceptions for undeliverables etc, as those are XO's that are already assigned to people, but if you haven't seen anything shipped on your order yet, assume March.

Regarding the post about the attorney general. We recieve all sorts of threats like this, and I can assure you that it doesn't have an influence(think about the inter-relationships here). We have shipped some orders out using USPS to alleviate some of the PO Box issues, but it has taken time to get under way. It is more likely the order was targetted to be shipped this way, and it took time to do it, or the person clarified whatever was holding the shipment back.

-Infamy

PS: rbrb, I misread what you said. If you order is correct, then you are scheduled for March. Please disregard what donor services tells you for dates, and refer to what I've said above.

[Goatview]

Regarding the post about the attorney general. We recieve all sorts of threats like this, and I can assure you that it doesn't have an influence(think about the inter-relationships here).

Could you clarify this statement?

[Infamy]

Threats are not an effective means of communication, and are not related to what ships and what doesn't.

-Infamy