Awful Customer Service with Lenovo

[venture-capital]

First of all. I am a venture capitalist in information technology and consider myself experienced with tech companies etc..

Over the years I have convinced countless people within our portfolio companies to purchase Thinkpads. Above the durability the customer service level IBM provided was outstanding. I have Thinkpads at all of my offices and needed a replacement recently. This was my first time dealing with Lenovo, since IBM sold the TP line of computers to them.

I ordered a new X301 for personal use about a week ago. Since then I have experienced what I would call the most awful customer service I have ever had, even worse than the Aol 1.0 or Cox days. I have called 48 times (during business hours) since my order was placed. I've left 7 voice mail messages. Only on one occasion I reached a real live person, whom spoke such broken english I barely made it through the conversation.

I'm more shocked than anything, that Lenovo wouldn't treat customer service as IBM had in the past, given how obviously critical it is to sales and recommendations. Whether through cost cutting at Lenovo, problems with the brand takeover, or else, Lenovo will feel the backlash from this. When you treat customers with absolutely zero respect they will not return for business and I know that other people feel this way too. They will also spread the word about their experience, just as I am on this message board and plan on doing at the other thinkpad forums right after this.

Lenovo's got a big problem with this and I hope they can fix it before it erodes their brand to the level where they don't become another bland PC vendor. They're headed that way fast.

I vow to never buy another product from them again and to spread the word about my awful experience. Good Bye Lenovo.

[ZaZ]

I ordered a new X301 for personal use about a week ago....I have called 48 times.

Let's see, you ordered a week ago and have called 48 times since then? That's like seven times a day. They probably haven't even made your notebook yet. What could possibly warrant 48 calls? I don't mean to seem harsh, but don't you have anything else to do being a venture capitalist in information technology?

They will also spread the word about their experience, just as I am on this message board and plan on doing at the other ThinkPad forums right after this.

It seems you're a touch bitter, which I completely don't understand. You've gotten totally reliable service from ThinkPads in the past for years, but your now ready to chuck them over a notebook you've just ordered. I myself just had a less than stellar service incident with Lenovo. I ordered a battery from the Outlet about six weeks ago. Finally today after about my fourth call, I found a rep who could get to my order and straighten it out. Could it have been better? Sure, but I'm not ready to post on a board saying how horrible they or never buy from them again. Life's too short to get this worked up over a notebook.

[JaneL]

Let's see, you ordered a week ago and have called 48 times since then? That's like seven times a day. They probably haven't even made your notebook yet. What could possibly warrant 48 calls?

Really. I'd love to know what on earth he was calling about that many times.

FWIW, you didn't tell us any details about what issue you were trying to get resolved, so just general ranting like this is not only pretty useless (since no one can help if they don't know what to help with) but it also borders on trolling. We don't do trolling here.

Since Mark has responded to you at Lenovo's forum, I'm going to lock this thread, and we'll follow the discussion over there.

http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/board/messa ... ad.id=4498

[venture-capital]

More insight into the actual problem. This is a copy paste from a support message to lenovo:

We make large purchases of computer supplies regularly and have never had an issue with verifying an order with the bank. I called the bank (Wells Fargo) and asked them to please change our main office billing address to the shipping address until lenovo processes the order and then we can switch it back. Not a big deal but probably a bit more than is neccessary don't you think? This is where the frustration and calls stemmed from. Because we want to change the address back to the actual office address however are waiting for lenovo to actually process the order. Right now, the address is still changed waiting on lenovo. I've left countless messages for customer service with my order number spoken and spelled out like military communication asking for assistance. Nothing in return. No updates to the order. etc. So I sort of gave up on the order the last couple days and figured if lenovo doesn't shape up and work this out I'm gonna just purchase the mac book air that was the close 2nd choice for me. At least Apple won't make me change my banking information and go through a nightmare of customer service, and as you probably know IBM never would have either.

[JaneL]

I fixed the problem you were having logging in at LF, so you should have been able to log in there. Did you ever respond to Mark's offer to help?

http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/board/messa ... ad.id=4498

[venture-capital]

Jane, you solved the log-in problem at lenovo forums, thanks!

[venture-capital]

The big issue with lenovo is that after I ordered the laptop they left me a message stating the order would be in limbo until I physically changed my bank billing address to match my shipping address. I was hoping to get the laptop before a trip a couple week away so I figured I would humor lenovo, so I called my banker and they changed our primary office billing address on file. I let the people working at my company know that this would be changed for a day or so while lenovo verified the order.

Called 50+ times by now, can't count the number of voicemails left. The phone number lenovo sends you in the "order in limbo" email (1-800-426-3325) works about 50% of the time, the other 50% has a busy signal or cuts off after greeting.

Based on this, it's been a week, the bank and my company all think this is a little much for ordering a laptop and I sure agree. I've given up hope of receiving the laptop before my trip and pretty much given up on receiving the computer at this point. Depending on what/if I hear from lenovo I'm just going to change the bank information back and pick up the mac book air for peace of mind. Loved thinkpads all my life but it's not worth the headache.

Lenovo = epic fail. From now on I'm calling them Le-No-Go.

[underclocker]

My only comments;
-IBM has always had issues with (sales) customer service, and now, Lenovo does, too. After 2 decades of dealing with this, I'm thinking about applying for the position to fix their mess. There really is no excuse for their ineptitude here.
-Luckily, IBM/Lenovo has excellent resellers, just try CDW or Insight (you'll wonder why you ever tried direct!)
-Don't give up on their laptops, that's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater - you're only hurting yourself
-The service people seem to break their backs with warranty claims, yes sometimes you have to push, but they always make things right

Oh, one more comment, since you're in that field;
-Why not organize a fund large enough to buy IBM, then you can fix it yourself!

[killer]

A good summary.

Unfortunately poor customer service is a legacy from the 1980s and, when times are hard, the situation is exacerbated.

My policy is to be polite, to whoever is being an @rse, and ask to speak to their manager in order to clarify matters. The @rse then gets on your side and does what you want, or you speak to the boss and get the problem solved.

Either way, it pays to be gentle with people and never shout at them.

[archer6]

<snip>Depending on what/if I hear from lenovo I'm just going to change the bank information back and pick up the mac book air for peace of mind.

If your buying a MacBook Air for peace of mind you may be in for a big surprise.

I have a four month old MacBook Air (after the first two were defective within a week of use), a 2 month old Unibody MacBook Pro and these are just two Mac laptops out of over 14+ (PowerBooks etc) that I've owned over the last decade. Apple is no better IBM/Lenovo. They simply have better hype which "the Mac Faithful Followers" believe.

I'm not married to any brand, personally I like both and find through my experience that both Lenovo & Apple are far better than any of the others. That said, they are still staffed by human beings which are going to make mistakes whether we like it or not. At the end of the day if I had to choose just one it would be Lenovo in a blink of an eye.