Lenovo's poor performance

[archer6]

I am _very frustrated_ that my Lenovo rep did not advise me that GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA technology was going to be available in ThinkPads now. I just found out when reading a post here on the forum. To find out this way, instead of through my corp. rep is infuriating.

We are a Cingular customer, so this upgrade to the ThinkPad wireless connectivity choices would be perfect for us. The additional speed that UMTS/HSDPA offers is quite significant and would be a great benefit to us. I would have waited to purchase my T60 (and many of those for my company) had I known.

I sit here authoring this post on a very nice T60p, however to continue to experience the apathy, and to think about the seemlingly constant drifting about that appears to be Lenovos current mode of operation is unsettling.

For 10+ years I could always count on IBM. We received world class attention and service. The few times they did make mistakes, they took responsibility and resolved the issues in an exemplary fashion. The benefit to them was 100's of ThinkPads sold and deployed in our company. As positive as I try to be in giving Lenovo an opportunity to perform, once again it's misplaced optimism. I grow increasingly less enthusiastic and my loyalty as a long term customer is fading very rapidly...

[_erazor_]

that`s indeed bad.

should the rep have known that you need the WWAN so bad? if so it`s a real mistake that they didn`t tell you.

other than that: did you try to contact lenovo about it? maybe they are willing to try and fix (means: replace) the notebooks you already bought without WWAN ? you can at least ask ...

[lophiomys]

[...snip]
For 10+ years I could always count on IBM. We received world class attention and service. The few times they did make mistakes, they took responsibility and resolved the issues in an exemplary fashion. The benefit to them was 100's of ThinkPads sold and deployed in our company. As positive as I try to be in giving Lenovo an opportunity to perform, once again it's misplaced optimism. I grow increasingly less enthusiastic and my loyalty as a long term customer is fading very rapidly...

What comes to my mind, when I read your post,
is the "WonderTech"-story in Peter Schenge's Fifth Discipline.
Among other things, it says there something along the lines,
that bad word of mouth turns easily into a bad reputation,
when managers fail to put their puzzle together and
forget to care about the basic deliveries to their customers.
...
The pessimist hoping for the better.

[archer6]

that`s indeed bad.

should the rep have known that you need the WWAN so bad? if so it`s a real mistake that they didn`t tell you.

other than that: did you try to contact lenovo about it? maybe they are willing to try and fix (means: replace) the notebooks you already bought without WWAN ? you can at least ask ...

I have done all of the above. They do know how important it is especially for myself (I'm only the CE0... ..). I travel constantly and need connectivity beyond my RAZR & Blackberry, I use Wifi Hotspots (Starbucks, hotels, and airports) and would truly benefit from the Cingular service. I have a very high level of involvement in my company as I love what I do and I'm the one that created the company 17 years ago. It's leadership by example, treating the employees as the valuable assests they are and it produces tremendous results. The flip side of that is (I have expectations) That a company the size of Lenovo would practice what they advertise. Especially since IBM set the precedence.

Sorry to "vent" here, however I did in good faith post this with the same positive intent as the rest of us here which is to share information for the common good. This is not (despite how it may sound) Lenovo bashing. Far from it, just an unhappy customer disclosing honestly, my experience.

[NokiaNokia]

Archer6, if you travel a lot in the US there isnt that much coverage of HSDPA so its still beneficial to use EV-DO.
WE are still creating the bar....

[archer6]

Archer6, if you travel a lot in the US there isnt that much coverage of HSDPA so its still beneficial to use EV-DO.
WE are still creating the bar....

I have an executive friend at Cingular that says they are pushing forward on this very aggresively. However I do agree with you at this moment it is early in the curve...

[aarong]

Does anyone have information regarding swapping out the mPCI cards? There will be a Rev. A EVDO card coming out from Sierra Wireless soon and I'd like to upgrade my current one to the new version. I imagine, archer, that you'd be able to swap out the Verizon CDMA card for a Cingular UMTS card without too much effort. I do know there are some online retailers which carry the card (infact, there is a thread about the Cingular card somewhere here)

Is there a Thinkpad users group here in LA? If not, someone (we) should start one (-:

[archer6]

I imagine, archer, that you'd be able to swap out the Verizon CDMA card for a Cingular UMTS card without too much effort.

It's my understanding that Cingular UMTS cards in the Express Card format are due out soon. Best of both worlds.

[Kamika007z]

I imagine, archer, that you'd be able to swap out the Verizon CDMA card for a Cingular UMTS card without too much effort.

It's my understanding that Cingular UMTS cards in the Express Card format are due out soon. Best of both worlds.

Sorry, but can you explain what a UMTS card is? I know the express card is the smaller newer PCMCIA replacement right?

Thanks

[foodle]

Sorry, but can you explain what a UMTS card is?

Here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_ ... ons_System

Not that you should trust wikipedia ...

[Kamika007z]

Sorry, but can you explain what a UMTS card is?

Here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_ ... ons_System

Not that you should trust wikipedia ...

Thanks!

[thinktank]

May I ask if you are just travelling within the U.S. or to other countries as well? The choices that work "worldwide" are relatively limited from what I know. G3/UMTS is still not fully compatible e.g. between European and U.S. networks. I travel to Europe quite often. That is the reason why I did not choose an internal wireless solution and choose a laptop with a full-sized PCMCIA card slot.

If you are a Cingular customer, they should be able to provide you with PCMCIA cards that solve your problem. Since their service is SIM based, you can always switch to a different type of wireless technology while being in an area with a different type coverage/frequency range etc.

As far as I am concerned, I have not bought any G3/UMTS card yet and instaed rely on my SonyEricsson phone connected to the USB port as a GSM/EDGE modem. Works everywhere where there is any GSM coverage and is very cheap.
If you need G3 speed I would also check with T-Mobile when it comes to global coverage and support of multiple versions of G3 technology. They have an international division. It may be worth checking with them about global services, hardware and pricing.

Generally speaing, I find U.S. carriers to be far behind with all this. There seems to be a general lack of attention to this also among laptop users and the manufacturers. When I was shopping for a new laptop, I got a lot of blank stares and "why would anybody NEED this?" when asking about the compatiblity of GSM/G3/UMTS cards. That includes Apple who choose to put in a narrow "express card" slot into their new MacBooks for which no G3 or GSM hardware is available at all.
The next best thing that people tend to know about is EVDO, which to me would be pretty much useless because it does not work abroad.

[tselling]

I believe the Razr can be used as a WWAN modem if you have a data plan.... not sure about the Blackberry. I am able to use my T-Mobile MDA as a WWAN (EDGE) modem via USB or Bluetooth.

[thinktank]

I believe the Razr can be used as a WWAN modem if you have a data plan.... not sure about the Blackberry. I am able to use my T-Mobile MDA as a WWAN (EDGE) modem via USB or Bluetooth.

I am pretty sure the Razr will work that way as well.

Note: with T-Mobile you do not even need a data plan. A basic "t-zones" plan will work. The only problem is that port 80 is blocked on that plan, but there are easy ways around that by using the appropriate proxy settings.

[archer6]

I believe the Razr can be used as a WWAN modem if you have a data plan.... not sure about the Blackberry. I am able to use my T-Mobile MDA as a WWAN (EDGE) modem via USB or Bluetooth.

Yes the RAZR can be used..... and I do have a data plan. I must admit I started this thread off as a bit of a rant (sorry). It's just that I travel so much and try to keep the number of extra items I must carry to a minimum. Also, as an early adopter, I like to have everything built into the computer whenever possible. When I take ten paces back, and look at the overall picture, again there is simply nothing like the new ThinkPads....