Monday February 04, 2008 OLPC Order Cancelled
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I just used the 1-800-883-8102 number on the OLPC wiki page to cancel my OLPC "Give One, Get One" order and ask for a full refund. |
I had the "pleasure" of speaking to a surly gentleman who gave me no confidence that the refund is going to happen.
I'm guessing he's on minimum wage, is following a script, has no understanding of anything beyond what's on that script and has had a lot of calls like mine today.
He asked for my address and my name.
He also asked me for my reference number. I asked him if that was the receipt number. He told me to hold. I could hear him typing away in the background. After about a minute he asked me for my reference number again. Again, I asked him if this was the 12 digit receipt number. Again he told me to wait. After another 30 seconds he came back and said yes.
I gave him that and made it clear I wanted a full refund.
He then sped up and went into script mode and told me when I could expect the refund transaction to occur (5-10 days) and when we would actually get the refund (1-2 months).
Another of the things he'd asked for during all this was my email address which I'd given to him. At the end of the conversation, I asked him if I would be getting an email confirming this refund request. He didn't know.
If anybody from OLPC is reading this, I encourage you to improve this customer experience. I understand from reading the recent PCWorld article that you've out-sourced this part of the operation, but it still reflects on you and your company, and it left me with a real bad taste.
I know that there are a lot of good people working for OLPC. I'd especially like to thank Chris Ball, who gave me excellent help over the weekend in getting the old OLPC prototype up and limping.
Technically, I think the OLPC has got great potential but my confidence in the whole business infrastructure is not there at the moment. I'll revisit this in a few months, if it shows signs of having improved.
( Feb 04 2008, 03:09:33 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
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I share your frustration; I too am a G1G1 donor who has yet to receive a machine. I have spent *hours* on hold waiting to speak to one of those "representatives" who work for Brightstar, the fulfillment company OLPC hired. Those reps have ZERO idea what is going on, and seem to think that their complete lack of knowledge entitles them to a surly attitude. No one at OLPC seems willing to hold Brightstar's feet to the fire, either. Finding out what was "wrong" with my order (they had "lost" the all-important second line of my shipping address, as they apparently did for hundreds of other donors) has been intensely frustrating from start to finish, and I would have followed your lead and taken a refund by now had I not received confirmation from FedEx late last week that my XO is finally on its way... Here's hoping, anyway...
Posted by /\/\/\/ on February 04, 2008 at 04:15 PM PST #
Of course, the good news is with the general competence of companies of this nature, you stand about a 50/50 chance of getting a refund *and* an XO.
In about six months.
Posted by Adam Williamson on February 04, 2008 at 07:19 PM PST #