I have a teeny tiny netbook so I can write when I'm away from home. Two hours was a good run for the battery in the beginning, but it's running slower now as batteries do.  There are other issues, too; it is slow, there isn't enough oomph to play tiny bits of home video without juddering, and if I open two or more tabs in a browser it's likely to seize up.  I'd been complaining about it a lot a year ago, and a Fediverse friend told me about a solar laptop that was pretty interesting.  I was even more intrigued when Hosh told me it came loaded with Ubuntu (not my choice of OS, but far and away better than windows or mac) and the clincher was that it was a Canadian product.   Like most people, I shop local when I can.  One advantage of buying a high ticket item that doesn't cross a border means there are no customs surprises later.  And, of course, supporting tech innovation in my home province is win-win, right?

Other netizens I know at home and abroad were equally interested.  People like to find out from earl adopters.  My friend Lydia's husband is in green tech, so naturally she couldn't wait to hear, and across the pond in Denmark Morton was just as interested, as was Hosh himself.  One of big appeals was a battery supposed to run ten hours, but even if the performance wasn't that good, the computer's could be charged with its solar panels in the sun.  For a writer, that means the freedom to spend a whole day writing in a park; or wilderness vacations without needing access to a wall plug. 

Since I kept mooning over the Sol computer during NaNoWriMo... and after, my husband said he thought it would be the perfect Christmas present for me.  Yay!  So I ordered a top of the line machine, with all the extras and upgrades (except the one to windows!), and settled in for the 4-6 week wait.   

I knew it was a young company, but it hadn't really sunk in that the lengthy wait was because the computer wasn't actually in production yet.  But instead of arriving, there were delays.  Technical difficulties.  Fixing bugs.  Needing to set things up with a distributor.  Sure, these things should have been done before their online store opened, but I know myself that there are always things you didn't count on.  

As the summer went by I emailed them, and even phoned the number on the web page.  I had a bit of a turn when it was out of service, but I called the number for Wewi (the mother company).  Nothing to worry about, the website hadn't been updated.  And the guy I talked to (probably Wewi owner David Snir) offered me a refund then and there.  I knew it was a startup, I wanted to support them, not push them into insolvency.  And besides, I didn't want a refund, I wanted my solar powered laptop.  

Then my husband decided to run for the Green Party in the federal election, I thought it could be at a chance for some extra publicity for Wewi, so I asked if a loaner might be possible for the duration of the campaign.  There was no response at all, which made me nervous, but I had an election campaign to run.  And when the election was over there was NaNoWriMo, so I didn't have time to chase after my new computer.  Certainly part of that held the hope that the company would get its act together and send me my Sol.  

But that wasn't to be.  As the anniversary of my purchase approached, it was time to get serious about getting a refund.  So I called, and worked my way through their voicemail contacts until I got to an actual human.  He took my information and promised to get back to me, then suggested I call him again if I didn't hear back on Friday.  

After hearing nothing on Friday, I called again on Monday.  This time his line went straight through to voice mail.  Next I spoke to the woman on the bottom of the directory; she tried to put me off, but I insisted I wanted a refund, and notification of it.  The next time I called the only option the phone system was disabled, and there was no longer any way to speak to anyone.  Next I called the Wewi company phone number, which took me straight to company owner David Snir's voicemail.  I left him a message but he never replied.  Then I sent him an email; no answer.  

Today I wandered through the Wewi Facebook page and discovered I wasn't the only person who had paid for Sol Laptops in vain:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=747207312058675&id=559496344163107&comment_id=8408...
and
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=712789658833774&id=559496344163107&comment_id=7464...
and more still on G+
https://plus.google.com/+FranciscoMarzoa/posts/W5Mf2m5wqra

I know I won't be so quick to buy into new tech in the future.  This kind of business practices can't be good for the tech community.  If you know anyone who is considering this, talk them out of it. 

Possibly the worst thing is that even though the company wasn't shipping laptops, it kept updating the website, and now supposedly the next generation Sol is available.  It certainly doesn't help to have the Wikipedia page lending credibility to these people.   At this point it doesn't really matter any more if this can be chalked up to small business growing pains or if it was a con job from the start; either way, I'll be using my own wee netbook for some time to come. :(