My first dealing with lenovo

[crazyeddie1]

Wrong warranty:

I ordered a brand new X60s from lenovo outlet on June 12th which was delivered to me yesterday afternoon that I am going to rate as a very impressive n quick delivery service. This unit was advertised with full 3 years warranty but the one I received only had of 2 years, on calling sales inquiring about this issue a rep named Chris started to BS me by telling since the laptop was built in 2007 so that's why I would be getting only 2 years of service regardless of what was advertised, I said fine but how was I suppose to know about this stuff when your webpage was purely misleading (see below...) not to mention the rep who took my order on Thursday confirmed I would be getting a new unit with 3 yrs of warranty, she had no answer and put me on hold 4 times my further request to talk to her manager was denied saying there was no manager and call again tomorrow to check, I said fine I'd like to return the unit and get a refund, her reply was "there is a 15% restocking fee" I said restocking fee for what? for cheating me? frustrated I hanged up.

The call lasted about half an hour and I was put on hold for 20 minutes during it.

Misleading statement:

"Interested in a great deal on Lenovo's latest technology? A new, "pre-built" Lenovo notebook or desktop might be exactly what you're looking for. These are new Lenovo PCs that were ordered and then cancelled or returned unopened. These systems carry full warranties. They are sitting on the shelf, fully assembled, waiting to be shipped. Call the number shown below to place your order with one of our Sales Specialists. The PDF document below lists the selection of possible systems available; however, we cannot guarantee availability due to very small quantities."


My quest:

In the evening I started searching IBM website to find someone to talk to about this problem, fortunately I came across a form which seemed could help, a few minutes after filling it up got a call from Atlanta, the rep sounded very willing to help and listened to me carefully and promised he will fix things up by Thursday for me if the proof of purchase was sent to him by yesterday (which I did), guess what today I got a call from Atlanta again saying they have updated the warranty to 2011 (the website is showing!) now that is really good service and everything has been fixed exactly under 24 hours.

Theses two calls lasted only 3 minutes in total.

Note to self and readers next time don't call sales if you have wrong warranty but send request to this link: https://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/suppo ... cale=en_ca


Laptop impressions:

Problems out of the box:

Too much Bloatware, a dead pixel and a very clunky hard drive.

Pros:

Quiet unit, great keyboard, nice standard screen, good form factor, amazing battery life over 8 hours!!!!
Cons:

Erratic nipple mouse (mostly floating on its own not always but does sometimes), resolution is too low, coming from Apple cinema display the screen appears washed out, black is not black and the unit cannot be used outdoors in sunlight.

[makai]

Sounds great that you got this taken care of... However, regardless of what the website says, is there any way to get this in writing? I remember a member here posting that his/her warranty all of a sudden disappeard off the website... or something to that effect. I don't remember the outcome of that thread.

I don't mean to be an alarmist, but one day you might need to take care of something and someone on the Lenovo side might say... "hey wait a minute, your laptop was built in 2007 according to the serial number... sorry, the website was wrong along and your laptop is out of warranty".

I would seriously try to get a written document from Lenovo stating they upgraded your warranty until 2011 due to their misrepresentation when they sold it to you.

Just my $.02!

[ajkula66]

Production date is unimportant. Shipment date is what the warranty is based upon.

[Superego]

Cons:

Erratic nipple mouse (mostly floating on its own not always but does sometimes), resolution is too low, coming from Apple cinema display the screen appears washed out, black is not black and the unit cannot be used outdoors in sunlight.

Regarding the erratic trackpoint, this is just a recalibration that is normal. If it's happening every time you move the pointer, there may be a hardware or driver issue.

Sorry, but if you're used to an Apple HD cinema then any laptop screen is going to be a letdown (even the all-but-extinct IPS screens ).

[makai]

Production date is unimportant. Shipment date is what the warranty is based upon.

It might be coincidental then that Lenovo website shows that 5 out of 6 Thinkpads I own, the warranty expired approx 1 month average after the date on the sticker... ie, sticker 05/02, website 2008-03-06. My 6th Thinkpad is missing the sticker.

The only other explanation I can think of is that they print the sticker when they ship the laptop. Doesn't make sense to me, but maybe that's what they do. I don't work for Lenovo, so I really don't know how this works. All this time I was under the assumption that the sticker reflected the manufacturing date.

[ajkula66]

Sticker does reflect the manufacturing date. Still, It has no bearing on the warranty whatsoever.

Someone has recently sold a T42 on this forum that had been manufactured in '04 but not sold until '06 and that's exactly what the warranty had reflected. Z61t that I've recently sold had an 18-month gap between production date and shipment date, and once again the warranty had been based on the shipment date.

Most of the machines sold at their "peak" would be shipped within 60 days of production, though, and your experience reflects that fact.

[makai]

I hunted down the warranty terms on Lenovo and indeed the warranty is related to shipment date... just as ajkula66 has stated.

blah, blah... The warranty period for the Machine starts on the original Date of Installation and is specified in Part 3 - Warranty Information. The date on your invoice or sales receipt is the Date of Installation unless Lenovo or your reseller informs you otherwise... blah, blah

You see, this is why I'm a "sophomore"... but then everything is a learning experience!

[crazyeddie1]

Didn't think about getting this thing requested in writing, you have a good point but when you send request to IBM (through the link) they give you a user panel where you can view what's going on and they record everything a type of log in other words, I suppose you can print and save it for future reference and present it to lenovo if they ever screw up things.

With Apple when they change your warranty they send you a letter of acknowledgment, though don't know if lenovo does it also?

[crazyeddie1]

Cons:

Erratic nipple mouse (mostly floating on its own not always but does sometimes), resolution is too low, coming from Apple cinema display the screen appears washed out, black is not black and the unit cannot be used outdoors in sunlight.

Regarding the erratic trackpoint, this is just a recalibration that is normal. If it's happening every time you move the pointer, there may be a hardware or driver issue.

Sorry, but if you're used to an Apple HD cinema then any laptop screen is going to be a letdown (even the all-but-extinct IPS screens ).

Thanks for your suggestion, don't think I am a fond of trackpoint but I am working on it. The screens on my Apple cinema display and MBA are almost alike, this unit's screen is not like that initially I was also seeing clear "dots" on fonts like they have been put to great magnification, overall screen is little bluish don't know if its just me but this is how I am seeing it.

[crazyeddie1]

I showed the screens to my gf she too said lenovo's is a bit bluish, I did a comparison in the dark:

http://homepage.mac.com/crazyeddie1/poo ... lbum3.html

[crazyeddie1]

Today I got the replacement drive from lenovo which is WRONG DRIVE not to mention old too! My unit came with 100GB they sent me 60Gig.

[fafaforza]

Don't feel bad. I ordered a T61. It came with some of the plastics not attached securely. Sent it back over a month ago and keep getting stories of a new service system being instituted and/or them waiting on parts.

Those SXGA LCD bezels are real hard to come by.

I'm too lazy to look for another model at the Outlet (most of which has missing or misleading info, "14.1in. LCD", gee, thanks) but canceling this order is a high possibility come Monday. Maybe I'll just go on eBay.