Big Delays for Small Laptops: OLPC Recipients Irate

She says that the OLPC made a decision that getting laptops to developing nations was more important that delivering them to consumers. She adds that, while many laptops have already shipped to U.S. donors, the OLPC never offered anyone a firm delivery date. The terms and conditions when buying the XO state:"Delivery of your XO laptop may be subject to delays, and neither OLPC Foundation nor its suppliers can be responsible for any delays in delivery."

Despite these terms, many purchasers insist XO Donor Services representatives have made delivery promises that are not being met.

Some also wonder whether chronic delivery problems for Give One, Get One donors may bode poorly for the 15 countries slated to receive nearly 500,000 XO notebooks. "If OLPC can't get notebooks to people in an industrialized nation, how can we expect it to deliver them to a country with a subpar infrastructure?" asks Mindy Engelberg, another disgruntled XO customer.

Lustig says delivering in bulk to just over a dozen countries is infinitely simpler than processing and delivering 80,000 individual laptops.

The OLPC's apology may not be enough for Ruggiero and others. Ruggiero is so fed up he says he's considering taking Lustig up on her offer and getting his money back.

Engelberg of Everett, Washington, says she spent $800 for two XO notebooks and hasn't received either. "I keep hearing I'm going to get my laptops by this date, or next week, or it's shipping," she says. "I wait and get nothing.".  

"The lack of clear communication has been what really annoys me," Engelberg adds.

Compounding the frustration is that OLPC doesn't appear to have a functional order tracking system. According to XO customers, an order tracking page on the OLPC's site at the URL LaptopGiving.org site allows you to punch in your order number to get shipping status. Those that use the site receive the message "you can check on the status of your laptop by visitinghttp://www.laptopgiving.org/," which is the exact same site.

Many of those that ordered the little laptops say they believe the culprit behind XO delays is a third-party California company calledPatriotthat OLPC hired to process orders and handle customer support. However, Doug Livingston, Patriot president and chief operating officer, begs to differ.

Livingston says his company just fields the calls, verifies the addresses, and forwards that information on to another company that boxes and preps the XOs for delivery. "All the information we receive is from the OLPC," he says.

Livingston says when an address is truncated or includes a post office box address (which its shipping agent Federal Express won't deliver to) it's something Patriot tries to correct. But, he stresses, his company never collected address information to begin with. OLPC's Lustig acknowledges a problem in collecting complete address information for PayPal customers and some other customers who paid with a credit card.

"We absolutely have to verify an address is valid before we send the laptop out," Livingston says.

He is aware of long hold times that OLPC customers have had to endure, but says his company was not contracted by OLPC to handle the "extensive" call volumes it is currently receiving.

OLPC says the buck stops with it. "We take complete responsibility for the problems customers are having," Lustig says.

To that end, Lustig can't says she can't say for sure when the last XO notebook will be shipped to each Give One, Get One participant.

But at this time, she says, there are no plans to Give One, Get One program to Europe, as some reports have rumored.