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[Teamkitty]

  I am still not able to reach anyone live at customer service, despite calling during their office hours. After 2 hrs (plus) of waiting with muzak, I got dumped to a message. This inspired the following email from me:

"I waited nearly two hours on HOLD with mind-deadening muzak only to get dumped to a recording telling me to leave my name and phone number to be called back. I am NOT available during your business hours and when I call the center that is allegedly open until 1 am, I can only get the SAME STUPID recording.

Look, you took my money. On Sunday - last Sunday - I got my first REAL response from a human named Kate. From that point on, nothing personal, although I did get an alleged tracking number of 70000XXXXX, but since the email appeared mass-generated I am not even sure it is legitimate.

This is what I want:

1. An apology for the horrid way you've treated me and your other donors.

2. A personal email, giving my name and shipping address, along with the order number.

3. A fairly accurate idea when you plan to ship the computer to me.

I don't care how understaffed your office is- this level of neglect and arrogance is inexcusable. Should this pattern of donor neglect continue, I will consider a claim in the State of [my home state] to prevent you from working in this state as a charity, given your seeming deceptive practices, in addition to canceling my entire donation."

I am incredulous.

TK

[Goatview]

YAY Kitty!  Sic 'em!

[Teamkitty]

I am normally a calm, measured and patient person. I take no joy in writing this, but I don't make idle promises, either. I am not entirely sure this email today with the "alleged" shipping number was not some kind of phishing attempt by someone who had hacked into the site. Hopefully, the strong wording will produce a response that will, at the very least, let me know the response was legitimate.

TK

[mel_d_lew]

have you been reading the thread that it's not really OLPC that has all the problems? it's patriot communications who was hired to handle all of the order processing, and Brightstar who was hired to handle all of the shipping...  and it even seems to bee Fed-Ex who has been losing people's packages!

you can check other threads for more info on this.

think calling the Better business Bureau on Patriot's bad customer service (donor service)
might be more accurate then filing a report against OLPC

[Goatview]

OLPC got the money so OLPC gets the blame.  We should never have heard of Patriot or Brightstar or anyone other than OLPC. It was OLPC's responsibility to honor its agreement with the G1G0 people, not Patriot's and not Brightstar's.  P and B are responsible to OLPC.

[Teamkitty]

Goat is, unfortunately, correct. OLPC chose the contractor and has not, from my perspective, exercised due diligence and therefore is the responsible party. It's very regrettable. Thanks for the insight though - I have followed the threads on Brightstar.

TK

[Teamkitty]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Support@rt.laptop.org <Support@rt.laptop.org>
Date: Jan 24, 2008 6:16 AM
Subject: [laptop.org #5217] FURIOUS!!! Worst Customer Service EVER!
To: larsonlewisproject@gmail.com

Susan,

Following Hurricane Katrina over 1 billion dollars of aid monies were
used fraudulently.  This is according to the Government Accountability
Office.  The same thing happened after the Tsunami to the point now that
the UN and World Bank started an initiative to go after the tens of
billions of dollars of stolen funds.

Susan you seem like an intelligent, sensitive person.  My guess is that
following those disasters you made donations.  I know that my family
did.  Have you now contacted the State of Minnesota to complain about
these complete and utter ripoffs and recover your money?  Did you go to
blogs voicing your outrage to this?

Now lets compare that with the fledgling OLPC organization which became
completely overwhelmed because they choose the wrong vendor to handle
their order entry and fulfillment functions.  Yes you had to sit on the
phone a long time and a representative of that vendor did a less than
admirable job.  Yes you have not received your laptop.  It will arrive
sometime in the near future.  Or I'm sure that if it is so imperative to
you a refund can be arranged (I would discourage you from doing that -
the laptop is actually very cool and you'll enjoy it).  But please don't
accuse the people of this organization of trying to deceive you.

Please feel free to contact me directly if it would be helpful.  I can
be reached at c@internetaddress.etc.

C.
One Laptop Support Volunteer
SB. NY


And my response. Surely, it does not escape any of you that none of my above points were answered in C.'s message. 

Dear C.,

Thank you for your prompt response. First, let me address the email communications issue. I am very concerned about the overly general nature of the responses that I have gotten from OLPC, including the one today. Nowhere is my name or address used - and the message today doesn't even use a tracking number.

You yourself seem like an intelligent person. In these days of phishing and other confidence scams launched over the internet, the standard of vigilance must be high. Given the unusually long delay in _any_ personalized response from OLPC other than the initial receipt generated by Paypal, and the very rapid processing of my payment, I have every ground to be suspicious.

Secondly, although your example of Katrina is both flawed in magnitude and category, I will answer you briefly. I had no damage, material or otherwise, from Katrina nor did I make what is called a "restricted donation" to any charity. Normally, I would not make a contribution to a 501(c) 3 that was not approved by the Council on Charitable Giving, the National Committee on Planned Giving or at least stacked up well on Guidestar.

The educational project by OLPC was unique. I supported the project directly with my donation, and since I am in an unusual position to influence some international educational decision makers through my own charitable affiliations, I wanted to be able to present a computer at a future board meeting and make a recommendation on my own experiences. None of this is necessary to be broadcast to a larger public; I work behind the scenes and am happy to do so. But I wanted to explain to you why it is personally important to me that your project succeed on many levels - including that of communication and donor loyalty.

Particularly with regard to customer service, Chuck, OLPC has failed. I would add that, had you been well-trained in customer service yourself, you might have begun your own email with an apology for the situation and concrete, helpful suggestions as to how the problem might be resolved. In fact, had you read my letter more closely, you would have realized that after all of the waiting, I never did actually make contact with a vendor, staffer or anyone. Therefore, this email was yet another lost opportunity to demonstrate that OLPC actually cares about its donors, and, ultimately, its reputation.

I am sorry that the opportunity was spoiled.

Sincerely,

Team Kitty
(Mrs. Team Kitty)

[Brian Basgen]

 This is a complete failure in the leadership team of OLPC. Their continued hopeless ineptitude at dealing with this problem puts their good hearted volunteers in positions like this: doing their best to defend OLPC in absurd ways.

 As everyone knows, the logic the volunteer used is grossly flawed and pretty ironic: OLPC should be forgiven of any mistakes because of how the US government mishandled Katrina. That makes absolutely no sense, but the ironic part is what does make sense: the implication that since people are suffering in the world, that is more important that this laptop. We have heard that argument before, haven't we? In other words, that OLPC has no right to give laptops to children so long as children are hungry, without homes, without health care, without safety, etc, etc. For OLPC to be making this argument is a bit problematic.

 Yet, the volunteer has hit on something. Comparing OLPC to FEMA seems about right in terms of logistics handling. In fact, it is a good assessment in terms of the source of failure: 100% based in the leadership of the respective organizations, in spite of the good work of all the volunteers.

[Ulsterman]

"...OLPC organization which became completely overwhelmed because they choose the wrong vendor to handle their order entry and fulfillment functions."  This quote from the OLPC support volunteer if accurate provides confirmation of suspicions, namely they are overwhelmed and they chose the wrong vendor, but I wonder whether this volunteer is speaking for OLPC itself. 

If so, it is the second piece of new information about the shipping situation, as other posters in the problem threads have received emails mentioning "...awaiting the arrival of new inventory..."

I wonder which is right, that the ordering process was flawed or they ran out of laptops? 

[microwiz]

I am sorry that the opportunity was spoiled.

That was one heck of a reply, TK.  Kudos.

That argument advanced by the volunteer is also straight-up bizarre.  The volunteer appears to be making an excuse that basically comes down to "You didn't complain about money donated to a charity and fraudulently misused after Katrina, so why are you complaining about this?"

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