Thinkpads Forum

Hello:

I just had a terrible experience ordering direct thru Lenovo.com. I placed an order several weeks ago around 1am on a Saturday for a Workstation T61p and received an error message from their website indicating that their site was down or under construction. No problem...this was an odd hour of the day. I then placed the same order a day or so after, but received a timeout. I clicked "back" and still had the order up, but when I clicked submit I received a general error message, and the order only had the tax item listed as a charge. I tried this once more a couple of days later with the same exact results and was going to post here to see if anyone had such an issue. I had another idea though, which was to open up a new account under my wife's name, but using the same email, delivery address, etc. The order processed w/o a hitch and I received my first order confirmation from Lenovo. None of the other attempts produced an order number or confirmation email - or email of any type from Lenovo, i.e. indicating they saw I tried to place an order, etc.

Yesterday, I received four Lenovo Notebooks, three under my name and one under my wife's. I thought, "Oh, well...I'll just need to setup a return for these." I called Lenovo's return processing number (866-428-4465) and they will not let me return these three notebooks unless I pay a 15% restocking fee. Their claim was that it was not a Lenovo issue, that I ordered on different days, and that the machine configurations differed (the first three I ordered with 4Gig of RAM but after some research discovered it was better for me to get this RAM from Crucial.com - so I left the memory at 512mb ... this was the difference). I was told that I should have called them, but I had no order number, and asked how they would have helped and why I should have thought I needed help. I repeatedly asked to speak with a manager but was denied until I told the cust. rep. that I was going to post on this forum. I was put on hold but had to hang up after 1/2hr as I am at work.

I wasn't even given the courtesy of having a return setup for these notebooks. I had my wife call from home but she received the same person I did, so I am feeling rather stuck. I did not even know that a legitimate order would cost me a 15% restocking fee. I've bought many notebooks from IBM and did return one within 30 days, no questions asked. Does anyone know what I may do or who I can contact regarding this? Am I really stuck with either 3 $2500 notebooks or 15% restocking fee ($1125 for unopened equipment)?

Thanks for your help!

John

I''ll see if I can rustle up some help.

from reading in Lenovo site. there restocking fees only on open box

Thank you so much...I feel sick to my stomach about this. Please let me know if you need my email, order numbers, etc.

John

danny_isr wrote:from reading in Lenovo site. there restocking fees only on open box

Thanks - this is what I assumed as well but the cust rep said they have new policies in place and that I would be subject to the restocking and shipping fees (which I forgot to mention in original post).

John

This is information from Lenovo's website on returns:

For a new Product that is unopened and still in its sealed package, you may return it to Lenovo for any reason within 21 days of the date of invoice and obtain a refund or credit. Lenovo does not provide refunds or credits for portions of a packaged offering provided at a single price or for preloaded Programs installed by Lenovo. You may return the complete package for a refund or credit.

To qualify for this credit or refund (as applicable), you must call Lenovo at 1-866-42-THINK (1-866-428-4465) to obtain a return-authorization form. You must return the new product, including all documentation and accessories, intact and in its unopened original packaging, to a Lenovo designated location by the date Lenovo specifies.

A copy of the invoice, the return-authorization form, and the shipping label must accompany the return. Shipping and handling charges generally will not be refunded or credited. Opened products returned are subject to a restocking fee equal to 15% of the price paid. You agree to pay the restocking fee as Lenovo specifies.

If you acquired a Program separate from a Machine, and paid a license fee, you may return the Program within 21 days of the date of invoice and obtain a refund or credit, if you do not agree to the license terms provided with the Program.

So I am not sure why I am having a problem requesting a return one day after receiving the notebooks. I am currently on hold, having asked for a manager.

Yesterday when calling about a battery issue Lenovo customer service informed me I would be charged 15% for a returned unopened T61 box. I did not even say I wanted to return it, the rep just tossed that out there

Where did you see that return policy listed on the Lenovo page?

ocellaris wrote:Yesterday when calling about a battery issue Lenovo customer service informed me I would be charged 15% for a returned unopened T61 box. I did not even say I wanted to return it, the rep just tossed that out there

Something has changed for the worse with Lenovo... I finally spoke with a manager and they are going to setup a return for these but I will have to pay the shipping. I was going to keep the one I did receive a confirmation email on, but am going to return this one as well, since there was no comprimise with these shipping costs. The unfortunate thing is that IMHO there are no other notebooks which come close in quality to a Thinkpad, but there is no way I can consider a purchase of this amount, and trust that I will receive support of any kind, including warranty, that I would be satisfied with.

I'm sorry you had this happen. It sounds very confusing and callous.

Take care,

John

That is extremely POOR service of them. If that happened to me and they acted like that i'd pull them to the BBB without second thoughts.

You only have one confirmation email and order confirmation - that is; you only bought as many good(s) that was stated in that single order confirmation.
It's their fault alone that their webservers were not functioning, unless you were warned of this at least beforehand.

It isn't fair either that you should pay the shipping to correct their screw-up, but i understand you won't go further than this.
Lenovo clearly isn't worth your time or money,there must be much better companies which actually knows their return policies, a proper ordering system, faster support and faster delivery

Troels wrote:That is extremely POOR service of them. If that happened to me and they acted like that i'd pull them to the BBB without second thoughts.

You only have one confirmation email and order confirmation - that is; you only bought as many good(s) that was stated in that single order confirmation.
It's their fault alone that their webservers were not functioning, unless you were warned of this at least beforehand.

It isn't fair either that you should pay the shipping to correct their screw-up, but i understand you won't go further than this.
Lenovo clearly isn't worth your time or money,there must be much better companies which actually knows their return policies, a proper ordering system, faster support and faster delivery

I went ahead and submitted a request for assistance to the BBB for the shipping amount. I develop web applications (both Intranet and Internet) so understand that errors will occur, but I never received any communication concerning these notebooks. I did not mention much about how rude the customer service rep. was ... he was determined to convince me that these were legitimate orders based on two reasons: 1) they were ordered on different days; 2) their configuration differed. Yes, I did try to order on different days and the difference in the orders was a change in the amount or RAM (better deal at crucial.com). What really upset me was that he would not setup an RMA because I owed 15% for the restocking fee. This is not consistent with their return policy which states that if an item is returned unopened within 21 days, it can be returned for any reason - there isn't any mention of a restocking fee in this case. This is the only reason why I believe that I was able to get his manager to "do me a favor" and setup RMA's w/o this restocking fee ... shipping still on me, of course.

I understand that there are no legal requirements for a company to accept a return and that all sales can be final. I understand that there are consumers who take advantage of companies with "good faith" return policies. I was going to call Lenovo to inquire about these orders, but felt a bit awkward in doing so since I did not have an order number - what was I going to ask about??? I was simply trying to order a $2500 notebook for which I believe I should have received an email indicating that the order went thru. This is really a first for me.

Thanks, John

johnvndnbrk wrote:I went ahead and submitted a request for assistance to the BBB for the shipping amount.

Check your PMs.

nonny wrote:Check your PMs.

Thanks! Got it! John

hmm, well one thing you can do to kind of take advantage of the situation, is to check the keyboard / screen build for each of the laptops you received. you can do this w/o opening the box, and checking online.

hopefully you can choose between the 4 and end up with a NMB keyboard and a LG screen. then you can return the rest un-opened.

paOol wrote:hmm, well one thing you can do to kind of take advantage of the situation, is to check the keyboard / screen build for each of the laptops you received. you can do this w/o opening the box, and checking online.

hopefully you can choose between the 4 and end up with a NMB keyboard and a LG screen. then you can return the rest un-opened.

...slick idea

I just received my T61p 14.1 " screen today and wonder how I could determine the screen and keyboard type without opening the box as mentioned above. Thanks.

Please use the Parts Look-up.

Thanks for the information. When I do the parts look up, it looks like I have keyboard FRU 42T3209 (Alps). How does the Alps keyboard compare to the Chicony and NMB. The 14 " screen shows as FRU 42T0373 (TMD). Is TMD the LG/Phillips screen and how does it compare to the other Samsung one listed? Thanks again for the help. Nice that one can check these things without even opening the box.

billj32 wrote:Thanks for the information. When I do the parts look up, it looks like I have keyboard FRU 42T3209 (Alps). How does the Alps keyboard compare to the Chicony and NMB. The 14 " screen shows as FRU 42T0373 (TMD).........snip

I have used all of 3 (Chicony, NMB and Alps) and IMHO they're all very good but comparatively NMB is the best, Alps very good and Chicony so-so. One of our fellow members RonS did an excellent comparison with pictures. As far as the lcd is concerned, no that's not LG/Phillips, that's Toshiba M a t s u s h i t a Display (TMD) and I have no experience with it. I have found LG/Phillips better than Samsung but I can't comment anything on TMD's quality.

nonny wrote:I''ll see if I can rustle up some help.

Hi Nonny - I wanted to follow-up with you and others who have helped me with this issue and mention that everything was taken care of.

Within a day or two of posting this I received a call from a Lenovo representative who provided me with the shipping labels and followed up with me shortly after to see that I had all I needed to return the notebooks. In addition to the response time, the follow-up calls really showed me how dedicated Lenovo is to customer service.

I believe that the customer sales rep. who I spoke with first was simply trying to do his job, and was very persistent at it! I would have no hesitation in using Lenovo's online ordering for future purchases, and am very satisfied with the quality of my new T61p notebook.

One final note ... Although I did receive immediate results by posting to this site, I do not want to give others the impression that this is the "only" way to handle issues with orders. Lenovo does provide a means for contacting them and providing feedback. This is an excellent forum for sharing and get answers to tough software and hardware questions for Thinkpad fans, and I believe I was a bit selfish and off topic in posting my order issues.

Thank you very much for your help and courteous responses!

John