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This morning I received the following email from OLPC.  I’m just taking a “wait and see” attitude at this point.

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
Chairman
OLPC Foundation

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I thought I would drop in on the OLPC status site to see if there has been any update on the expected delivery of my donation.  This is what I saw when I entered my order info:

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.

I think this may take awhile…

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Well I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and blog about my
“ One Laptop Per Child” experience
so far.  I guess from what I’ve heard and read that I am one of the lucky
ones.  I placed my “Give One, Get One” donation on
12/29/2007.  I paid via PayPal.  This morning on the Geek News Central podcast I heard Todd Cochrane mention several PC
World stories that shared some woes of those whose orders were late,
missing, boched, or worse.
On 1/21/08 I received an email from OLPC with the following text.
“Dear Donor,

We are contacting you in
regards to your Give One Get One donation and the shipment of your laptop. Your
donation is in the queue for laptop shipment.

Please expect to receive
another update from us by Wednesday, 1/23, with information on when you can
expect to receive your laptop.

We appreciate your
generosity and patience.

Sincerely,

OLPC Donor Services“

and then on 1/24/08 I received the following
“Dear Donor,

We wrote you several days
ago to let you know that your donation is in our shipping queue for the
shipment of your XO laptop.

We are awaiting the arrival
of new inventory so that we may ship your laptop to you. We will send you
another update in the next few days when we have specific shipping information.

We appreciate your
generosity and patience.

Sincerely,

OLPC Donor Services“

After reading the second
PC World article I decided to head over to the OLPC donor site
and check on the status of my order.  Not surprising I had the same
result, after inputting my email address and order reference number it just
gave me a generic response that said
“We are working hard to ship all XO Laptops. If you are unable to track
your laptop or have not received it, please contact OLPC Donor Services by
calling 1-800-201-7144 for assistance”
So I called the number. 
I was prepared to spend an hour on hold but
surprisingly I was only on hold about 15 minutes.  I got a very helped gentleman
that confirmed that they did have my shipping address information
correct.  He also told me that my laptop was at “status three”, whatever
that means, and that it should ship shortly.
Even with all the difficulties OLPC is having I pray that in the end the world
really will be a better place for all they’ve done.

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