ConFigures

XO on the way, One Hopes

Woke up early yesterday to order an XO through the OLPC Give One, Get One program. For why, see my One Laptop Per … Christmas? entry. Bonus: now one gets a year’s free T-Mobile WiFi subscription along with one’s XO! The previous mail from laptopgiving.org had specified a start time of 6 AM EST (runs through Nov. 26), but had also said it would send another mail Monday morning announcing the start of the program. By 7 AM, I could wait no longer, and so I called the hotline and ordered one (the announcement email came through at 7:30). I was a bit thrown by the odd confirmation number I got. Later I saw in posts and comments on OLPC News more concern over phone orders (online orders, via PayPal, had seemed to go more smoothly, with confirmation emails and shipping costs listed), and so I called the customer service at 1-800-201-7144. After a few minutes on hold, I was put through. The woman on the phone asked for my confirmation number and immediately said “Oh, I’ve heard that one before”. !!! After some discussion, she agreed that two different people should not have the same confirmation number, so she took down my contact info and said someone would be contacting me in the next few days. One person monitoring the customer service system had seen 50 emails requesting help before 6 AM. Another person, not long before I called, had reported getting 400 emails. Just to be safe, I put in another G1G1 donation via an online order. It was late in the day, though. I’ll be disappointed if a fault in their system means I’m down in the queue and won’t get in on the first batch for delivery (supposedly shipping the first week of December, according to the customer service woman). Still, like getting a coffee mug from my local public radio station after making a pledge to them, my calling in to G1G1 is more about what I’m giving than what I’m getting.