Lenovo Service is Better than EVER

[rockefella]

A little while ago, I had posted about the difficulties I was having with my Thinkpad T42. It had been at the depot being serviced more than 10 times for all kinds of things. The planar board has been replaced at least 3 times, the hard drive replaced countless times, the LCD display replaced once, keyboard replaced at least 2 times, etc. Lenovo really seemed to be leaving me high and dry.

Finally, I spoke to a high-level IBM guy and he told me I had to keep sending my machine in for repairs AD INFINITUM. Then he gave me the number of a Lenovo customer representative in the Office of the President and said she would be handling my case from now on. The Lenovo rep told me that she had decided to give me a new T60 to replace my 1.5 yr old T42 and that she had been delayed because IBM refused to foot their part of the cost. Finally, Lenovo had just decided to eat 100% of the replacement cost.

Today I got my brand spanking new T60. Its specs are quite impressive. Lenovo upgraded me to a 100 GB hard drive, gave me Verizon WWAN built in, upgraded me to a 128 MB Radeon x1400 card, upgraded me to a fingerprint reader, and the list goes on. Lenovo most definitely did NOT skimp.

I am more than a little disappointed in IBM, but I'm also happy to say that the Thinkpad torch appears to have been passed onto a very worthy successor.

Long live LENOVO!

PS, I just bought a fully-loaded Thinkpad R60 for my wife and will certainly be buying (and recommending) Thinkpads for the foreseeable future.

[ronan_zj]

I hate you .lol
serious, Lenovo does have good serivce.
when I was in china ,my first desktop bought in 1998 was lenovo.
back that time, Lenovo had on-site 3 years warranty on my computer.

[ehsu]

Congratz!

Now I wish my T42 was broken down later than in July to receive a T60 instead of a T43.

Go Lenovo!

[Seeb]

Nice

Very cool to hear such stories.


I'm really happy for you, have fun with your new T60! :]

[agarza]

[censored] you

Why did you have so much trouble with your T42.

I doubt that kind of service would apply in all the countries, but It's indeed a fantastic story to hear they replaced your aging Thinkpad with a new model.

Could you post the full specs of your new beast?

[Antioch]

A little while ago, I had posted about the difficulties I was having with my Thinkpad T42. It had been at the depot being serviced more than 10 times for all kinds of things. The planar board has been replaced at least 3 times, the hard drive replaced countless times, the LCD display replaced once, keyboard replaced at least 2 times, etc. Lenovo really seemed to be leaving me high and dry.

Finally, I spoke to a high-level IBM guy and he told me I had to keep sending my machine in for repairs AD INFINITUM. Then he gave me the number of a Lenovo customer representative in the Office of the President and said she would be handling my case from now on. The Lenovo rep told me that she had decided to give me a new T60 to replace my 1.5 yr old T42 and that she had been delayed because IBM refused to foot their part of the cost. Finally, Lenovo had just decided to eat 100% of the replacement cost.

Today I got my brand spanking new T60. Its specs are quite impressive. Lenovo upgraded me to a 100 GB hard drive, gave me Verizon WWAN built in, upgraded me to a 128 MB Radeon x1400 card, upgraded me to a fingerprint reader, and the list goes on. Lenovo most definitely did NOT skimp.

I am more than a little disappointed in IBM, but I'm also happy to say that the Thinkpad torch appears to have been passed onto a very worthy successor.

Long live LENOVO!

PS, I just bought a fully-loaded Thinkpad R60 for my wife and will certainly be buying (and recommending) Thinkpads for the foreseeable future.

Same thing happened to me, except I only sent it in 3 times but each time it came back with more and more defects. Eventually I decided to open a service call with customer service. A rep reviewed my previous service tags, and decided to offer a replacement. I had a T42 and they offered me the same model as they did you - except I didn't want it. I don't want integrated WWAN, it's huge, drains resources, and I'll never use it. So I complained and I was offered a FULL refund of the cost of my machine, including tax and shipping, which I turned around and used to buy a new T60, fully customized, and had $500 left over (due to the price drops on T60s as compared to the T42s).

The machines Lenovo are offering for replacement are the leftover pre-configured machines sitting in the warehouse that they can't sell.

[rockefella]

[censored] you

Why did you have so much trouble with your T42.

I doubt that kind of service would apply in all the countries, but It's indeed a fantastic story to hear they replaced your aging Thinkpad with a new model.

Could you post the full specs of your new beast?

Here are the specs:

T2500(2GHz), 512MB RAM, 100GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1400x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI Radeon X1400, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless, WWAN, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 9c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

It's a *significant* upgrade from the T42 I previously had. The T60 I got might be overstock but I've got a smile from ear to ear. I'm using it now as I type this.

Of course, I have a big bad T60p with 15" UXGA screen that I use as my main computer, but this replacement T60 is very nice too.

[rjohnson009]

I wanted to share my recent experience. I recently purchased a state of the art T60 from the Lenovo website. After much research I had decided on the T60 since I thought it to be a better product in terms of reliability vs the other offerings from other companies.

After about 2 weeks, I got the BSOD and thought it just to be a glitch since the T60 was new. After a call to the help desk, I was told all that I had to do was a system restore. At this point, I have to mention that I spent the extra money to have Next Day Onsite Support. I was told by the rep that this was only for hardware issues and not software, so they were to send disks out to assist. After 2 days, I received the disks and followed the directions they provided. No help, still BSOD. I then proceeded to call the help desk again. This rep assured me that they would order the parts and that it WAS a hardware issue and that someone would contact me within 1 day. After 2 days and no call, I called them back. I was told by a 3rd rep that there was no record of parts being ordered. They also told me they knew it was not software or hardware and gave me a few instructions to try which included the following, resetting the memory, removing the battery, removing the hard drive, and a few other things. Still the same issue. I contacted the help desk again and asked a 4th rep who told me that someone would be out as NOW they found the notes about the order.

On friday, the day the rep was supposed to be at my house, he called me several times asking if it could wait until Monday. I said no, that I needed it now. He assured he that he could make the time to make sure I was satisfied. I did not hear back from him until Tuesday October 24th.

On Oct 20th, I called the help desk again and asked for a replacement PC. The return rep that I spoke with was great and issued an RMA and said that I could have it picked up on the 23rd. It was picked up and arrived at IBM on the 26th of October.

From October 26th until November 7th, I repeatedly sent emails and left voice mails for both the return rep and the sale rep with no reply. Finally, on November 7th, I heard back from the sales rep who transferred me to customer relations. I have been dealing with him since them.

As of Monday, November 13th, my patience had ended. Finally, I told him that since it had been exactly 1 month since I first reported the problem, I requested a complete refund. Right now, I do not have my refund but believe it may actually happen in a matter of weeks.

Sad to say that I purchased what I thought to be the best laptop on the market, but because of unacceptable service, inconsistent tech information and numerous delays, all of which are unacceptable, I am not in the market again for a laptop.

I do believe the Lenovo laptop is the best, but the service or lack of service I have received in the past month is totally unacceptable.

[rjohnson009]

As a follow up to my post where I went through 4 months of support issues with a brand new T60, I wanted to post a follow up note.

After over 4 months, I did receive my final credit in full (this after explaining math to the rep) and 3 tries to receive all my cost back.

Now the customer service agent contacts me and tells me that if I want to buy another unit that he will give me 10% off the retail purchase price.

I will never purchase another Lenovo unit again if I know I will receive the same level of customer support. A discount of 10% after 4 months of pain is not even close to being acceptable.

[Muse]

As a follow up to my post where I went through 4 months of support issues with a brand new T60, I wanted to post a follow up note.

After over 4 months, I did receive my final credit in full (this after explaining math to the rep) and 3 tries to receive all my cost back.

Now the customer service agent contacts me and tells me that if I want to buy another unit that he will give me 10% off the retail purchase price.

I will never purchase another Lenovo unit again if I know I will receive the same level of customer support. A discount of 10% after 4 months of pain is not even close to being acceptable.

I find your story entirely believable based on my experience. I won't go into all the details, but I'm typing on my new T60, originally ordered on 11/17/2006. I saved the cart, couldn't find it 2 days later. Meantime, prices went up and I called a sales rep who said I could order online and later call him and he'd initiate price protection. Snafu after snafu occurred and although promised price protection (assured of this, I agreed to not proceed on my RMA), I never got the credit. Yesterday, I was promised a credit in 2-4 business days and a confirming email. We'll see.

I have used the T60 very lightly and don't have an extended warranty but will be considering buying one within the one year time limit to purchase it. I think I may have issues with this laptop. Feature not a bug? Web browsing, sometimes things happen, I go to links when I could swear I didn't touch a thing. It may force me to use the trackpoint instead of the touchpad. Anyway, my optimism that things will be OK (which I normally have with electronic purchases) has worn very very thin with this laptop.

Someone noted at Anandtech forums as I detailed my difficulties in dealing with Lenovo that the right hand doesn't appear to know what the left hand is doing. I think that aptly describes my experience with them so far. I can only hope that my experience with their tech support will go better, should I need it, but I'm not optimistic.