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Big Delays, Small Laptops: OLPC XO Recipients Mad

Posted by Soulskill on from the give-one-get-one-if-you-are-lucky dept.

PCWMike writes to tell us about the growing concern over the failure of OLPC to deliver laptops to some of its customers. PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken notes that record-keeping was poor for some of the people who paid via PayPal. A report on LinuxJournal also suggests that customer information was lost due to errors in the database software used by OLPC. Quoting PC World: "OLPC spokesperson Jackie Lustig acknowledges problems with the ordering and the fulfillment process, but says the biggest challenges are a short supply of XO laptops and the organization's ability to meet consumer demand for the XO laptop. 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. Lustig says delivering in bulk to just over a dozen countries is infinitely simpler than processing and delivering 80,000 individual laptops."

7 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. No, I still don't have my XO... by gorim · · Score: 3, Informative

    And I can't even track my order in their online tracking database. First email went unanswered and second one got a response, but was missing any indication of when they would ship, just that they were overwhelmed with the response.

  2. Re:Focus on what they do best? by adriccom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oddly, that is who OLPC partnered with to do G1G1, and who share the blame for the screwups.

    Please see the draft flowchart, if you like:
    http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_laptop_delivery_works

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  3. go to the source by KatTran · · Score: 2, Informative

    The actually source of all these stories might be interesting to people, instead of articles about the source. Since when did people stop being able to read primary sources and start being able to only read "news" articles.

    http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_laptop_delivery_breaks

  4. Re:Money transferred but no accountability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I ordered a "give one, get one" on the first day and got it just a few weeks later.

  5. Re:It *is* simpler by SkyDude · · Score: 2, Informative

    He is absolutely correct; a half-million units shipped to just 12 to 15 destinations *IS* simple by comparison. Just look at the complexities of UPS' operations in moving 80000 packages within the boundaries of the US, and that becomes apparent.

    Tue, but UPS manages to do it effectively. So does Fedex.

    By the way, UPS moves approximately 10,000,000 parcels per day, not 80,000. Fedex does around 7,000,000 per day. What's needed is professional logistics management, and that may end up costing more than this product will support.

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    == First cross river, then insult alligator.
  6. Re:Why am I not surprised? by mi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seriously, corporations suck - in my experience they're much more hopeless than government organisations.

    Where I'm from the government was providing all of the services, and some of the services you are listing — Internet, Mobile Phones — simply did not exist. To get a regular phone line, one had to wait in queue for years.

    I reckon that whoever says the opposite has an agenda.

    Yes, and whoever disagrees with me is a moron.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  7. Yes, there's a chance... by Scrameustache · · Score: 2, Informative

    Does anybody know if there is a chance for the G1G1 thing to happen in Europe too? Europeans interested in the One Laptop Per Child Project's XO laptop may soon have the chance through a "give one, get one" offer similar to that offered in North America last year.
    "At some point we might do it in Europe," said Walter Bender, OLPC's president,
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    You can't take the sky from me...