Big Delays, Small Laptops: OLPC XO Recipients Mad 165
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."
It *is* simpler (Score:5, Insightful)
Please reconcile (Score:5, Insightful)
"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....Lustig says delivering in bulk to just over a dozen countries is infinitely simpler than processing and delivering 80,000 individual laptops."
But how can that be, if the problem is short supply of the laptop?
Cheers,
Ian
Patience and Hope (Score:3, Insightful)
They said it themself (Score:3, Insightful)
Saying this will happen to governments orders as well is very strange, and uncalled for.
I hate being so untrusting... (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems that a lot of recent OLPC stories are being drummed up to try and discredit them, and it is a bit sickening.
Focus on what they do best? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Patience and Hope (Score:1, Insightful)
Seems a bit mean-spirited... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm in Canada, and waited 7 weeks for my XO to arrive. No biggie. I've waited almost as long for Dell to ship correctly configured servers on occasion. Those were biggies. Were my expectations appropriate for each company? I think so.
I'm sure that OLPC will honor all their commitments and get these orders out as soon as they can. Sometime s**t happens, and things falls through the cracks. People should just take a deep breath, and ask themselves if they'd rather have their XO right now, or have the one they donated delivered first.
G1G1 doesn't stand for "Get one, give one".
Re:It *is* simpler (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Sure, but they're not hand delivering the things themselves. All they needed was some decent software to keep track of orders, print labels, slap the labels on boxes, and ship the boxes via UPS. This, it seems, is what they FUBAR'ed.
Re:It *is* simpler (Score:4, Insightful)
Shipping 100 units to 100 locations is simple.
Shipping 80,000 units to 80,000 locations is also simple, though the volume is orders of magnitude higher.
The problem is that they did not appropriately plan and acquire/devote resources to distribution. Maybe they didn't think about the extra cost associated with tracking and distributing those orders.
There is no reason why distribution of pre-orders should present any kind of challenge to a company. This is not on-demand shipping, or just-in-time delivery. This is simply basic distribution scaled up.
Maybe I'm a bit harsh, but there is simply no excuse for someone to promise deliverables without a plan to deliver them. Did they not expect so many orders?
Re:Why am I not surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
All OLPC needs to do is ensure they are able to focus upon delivery or subcontract those services out to a logistics company that can achieve those goals at a reasonable price. The logistics route is often simpler as those companies can readily handle break down packaging from bulk to individual orders as well as final delivery to the recipient and if required keep the recipient advised if there are any delivery delays.
No, most people would be patient... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seems a bit mean-spirited... (Score:5, Insightful)
Their core job is not to make and sell laptops to individuals. What would be great here (and if the free market really actually worked...), would be for a dedicated company to step in and sell the things directly to people in over-developed countries. That way the project can get on with developing and distributing to governments, and someone else can distribute to individuals.
Of course, they might cost slightly more because of the profit motive, but heck, most of them are seemingly being bought by geeks who already have 3 computers and can afford an extra $50 or so.
Re:Patience and Hope (Score:3, Insightful)
There are better things to spend on, but long-term improving education is one of the best things to spend on for any nation including our own.
Re:Patience and Hope (Score:4, Insightful)
And better yet to let a man fish [thp.org]. Or a woman, as the case may be (kind of insane to not allow the majority of your farm workforce to own property).
Re:Seems a bit mean-spirited... (Score:3, Insightful)
on a personal note, living in ireland meant that i couldn't order one of these unforunately. so i went for an asus eee. the demand for those this side of the pond was incredible. ordered december 4 arrived jan 22. i had to get mine from the uk as our company hardware supplier gave up after ordering 200 and only receiving 16. demand for cheap micro portables was insane.
Re:Why am I not surprised? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It *is* simpler (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to hire and train the people to do it. They have to get paid, taxes collected, schelde, deliveries must be timed shipping bills must be paid, boxes bought. Then you must make sure that the people do the work correctly and that they don't steal the notebooks.
It really isn't as simple as you think it is. Let's face it these people are note stupid but they are having problems with this. It only seems simple from the view point of arrogance and ignorance. Just shipping out 10,000 CDs for a software update is a big job.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why am I not surprised? (Score:4, Insightful)
I've just moved to the UK, and the incompetence of various companies has absolutely astounded me. I've just set up
Banking
Phone
Internet
Mobile Phones
Insurance
Not once - NOT A SINGLE TIME - has the company not cocked up something that has required me to phone them back (and queue on the phone) at least once. Several cases have require multiple such calls (the worst required me to ditch them and go with someone else). Seriously, corporations suck - in my experience they're much more hopeless than government organisations. I reckon that whoever says the opposite has an agenda.
Re:It *is* simpler (Score:2, Insightful)