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[Thegoodwife]

My husband left for Afghanistan on Jan 15 saying he had wiped his hands of OLPC, but I am going to see if I can shake anything loose, as the XO wasn't for him, but for our four-year old, for Christmas. 

This isn't a sob story. 

But see how many times you can listen to "Mommy where's my green laptop?" without taking some sort of action. 

I called donor line and was told the donation is in the warehouse and the laptop is in the process of being shipped. 

I emailed a few days ago [email protected] and Sandy a nice volunteer replied that the laptop can be shipped but there's an inventory shortage, which she said all signs point to mid-march before laptops will again be in the pipeline, which makes my goal of getting one in the house in April when my husband is scheduled to process through, doable she said. 

That's pushing things out to 130 days or so.  Is that possible? 

My husband has gotten no emails from OLPC since Jan 19 when it said it would ship the following week.  Is there anyone of you guys know who is in charge or shipping?  All I'd like is something definitive.

[pgf]

i'm afraid many of us are in the same boat.  whether because of address problems caused by faulty database software, inadequate communications between the companies handling the shipments, or whatever, it seems to be the case that even if your order is ready to ship, they simply don't have any laptops available.

many of us have been told the same "second half of march" timeline.  unless sandy has assured you that it's not necessary, it's probably worth checking with donor services (800-201-7144) one more time to be sure they have your correct address, that they can tell you that it "verifies correctly", and that they have a correct email address for you.  the folks handling the phones have made a lot of mistakes in the past, and are hamstrung by not being able to see all of the pertinent data from their computers, but presumably this is getting better.

(and when you do get your laptop -- be sure your four year old doesn't rip off any of the soft flexible keyboard keys!  there have been several stories of that happening!  and if you thought getting a laptop was hard, apparently getting a replacement part like a new keyboard is _much_ harder.  :-)

paul
p.s. compared to waiting for one's spouse to come home from afghanistan, my wait for a laptop seems pretty inconsequential.

[GregYohn]

Hi!

I sent my defective XO back last month and received a new one already as a replacement. I did not get notified it was being shipped back to me, and I was out of the country when it was shipped back to me.

I would call again and find out about the item directly from a person via telephone.

[eden]

Hi Thegoodwife!  Welcome to the Forum!  We're glad you're here.

Well, so far it seems that OLPC designed them, Quanta makes them in Taiwan, Brightstar distributes them, Patriot is responsible for customer service, and lots of people are still waiting for their laptops.  I am truly sorry to hear you are one of those still waiting. 

The OLPC wiki has some news updates each week: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Current_events

And these pages might be of interest to you too:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Talk:How_laptop_delivery_works

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

Good luck!

[goney3]

Walter Bender (who is way up there on the food chain) has repeatedly stated that there is no more laptops for shipping and that a slow-boat from China will arrive in late February with laptops being shipped out mid-March.

There are about 20,000 of us waiting, so you're not alone.

There was a glitch (involving everyone Eden mentioned) that caused this massive delay. The best we can do is to wait till March, and if not then, panic. But for now, there have been reassurances that you WILL get your laptop.

Welcome to the forums and the wait list. We are with you.

[mattd]

I don't have much to add to the other posts except to say we're now in a 'stable' period and we all get pretty much the same information back from OLPC (or whoever). And, from out here, it looks like OLPC is slowly getting their act together.

Sure it's a small comfort, but one we haven't had since, well, day one. Here's hoping for an uneventful March.

I hope your husband makes it back safe, Thegoodwife.