Heads up to European Give 1 Get 1 donors! Amazon.co.uk may be canceling your G1G1 Global purchase because OLPC is talking too long to ship your XO laptop. Via OLPC News Forum, here is the Amazon.co.uk email being sent out:
G1G1 Global in jeopardy?
Dear Donor:That Amazon would cancel G1G1 orders is a shock. OLPC donors knew that shipping would take a while, and Amazon itself says that shipping would start around Dec 19-24, though Amazon.co.uk/XO currently says "This item is due to be released on January 3, 2009."The following order, placed on 17-Nov-2008 with One Laptop per Child, will be canceled if the order is not ship-confirmed by 19/12/08. (Merchants on Amazon must ship products within 30 days from the date when the order was placed; otherwise, the order is automatically canceled.)
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ORDER DETAILS
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Order ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Merchant name: One Laptop per Child
Item(s) to ship:
Name: OLPC XO Laptop
Qty: 1 ASIN/ISBN: B001LDQWJIYour credit card has not been charged for the order.
In fact, One Laptop Per Child is in the midst of preparing for XO delivery via G1G1 Global this week. The current Community News says:
Gustavo Mariotti, working with Nicole Dallow and others from the Brightstar Miami office, repackaged laptops for the UK shipments. Kim and Gustavo have figured out how to work with Amazon UK to accept two types of orders - those fulfilled by Brightstar and those fulfilled by Amazon. Next week, we expect to prove that we actually can ship through this program. We should also have our WEEE Certification for UK (recycling electronic goods) by next week.Amazon.co.uk and OLPC, what is going on? To quote another G1G1 Global donor: "I do not want my order canceled!"
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Hi Wayan,
That is an automatica message sent by Amazon to anyone whose items haven't shipped ~5 days before the end of the given shipping period.
The orders aren't being cancelled, but it does mean that there are a set of orders being shipped out this week. I hope we can send a followup email from OLPC to everyone who hasn't yet received a laptop explaining that they should still expect their machines. [AMZN makes it laborious to get the addresses of people who buy through them, but it is possible].
SJ
Hi SJ,
So, this is just automatically sent out by Amazon as part of their process? I replied to the email asking was was going on, hopefully I will receive an answer saying I don't have to worry, and that my laptop will be sent within the next couple of days :)
SJ,
Glad to hear that OLPC is responding to Amazon, but it does make me (and all G1G1EU) donors worry that you could still miss the ship-confirmed date.
I've used Amazon for years and never had such a notice sent to me on any other occasion with any other vendor. And its not like OLPC/Brightstar has a great record with G1G1 donors.
Wayan,
Amazon merely read Allen Majorovic's post on this site, and they took it to heart. They consequently regret their involvement with OLPC's "extraordinary arrogance and vulgarity" and this is their way of telling people to "find some charity and simply write them a check" instead of wasting their time with a failed social experiment.
The donor should have read Allen's post by now too, and should now realize that there is no "evidence" impressive enough to make a G1G1 purchase. The donor would have backed out anyway, resulting in an unnecessary return shipping hassle. Amazon is just doing them a favor.
Well, Amazon would certainly not do me a favor, if they cancel my order. But hopefully they wont; I got an answer from OLPC this morning, and they expect to ship the machines today :)
Hi there, my OLPC G1G1 from amazon.co.uk has been shipped today via DHL. I received an email containing a tracking-number. By the way: I live in Germany and ordered it right at the start on November 17th.
-:-), Thomas.
So the sky is falling! The sky is falling! (again!)
And this is another problem reported by Wayan Vota as a breaking news event. But we all know how to interpret his posts like this now, everything OLPC/Brightstar/XO/Sugar/Nicholas Negroponte is wrong and we must be sad and listen to the voice of WV.
It is time for another video of you drunk on the internet, Wayan. Such a classy guy. And so wrong. Again.
Amazon DID cancel XO orders due to OLPC's delay in shipping. From Community News:
"Laptops have arrived in the UK and started shipping to recipients. Some laptops were shipped just as they were being canceled through the automated system, so Kim Quirk has emailed those donors, requesting that they reorder."