Thinkpads Forum

On 5/2/08 I placed an order with Lenovo for a 9-cell battery for my T60. I got an order confirmation and the "Ships Within" time on the product was shown as 1-2 business days. I checked order status on 5/6/08 and saw that the _estimated_ ship date was 25 July 2008, 2.5 months from now. Sales is closed at the moment but I would like to know how torqued I have a right to be when I call them in the morning. Are these indeed long lead items?

Any other battery sources out there?

Wow! 2.5 months??? That's nasty! I would be very torqued! However, I guess when you call them they might have a better date than what was posted on the web. So... stay calm for now

I've personally never ordered from Lenovo... too expensive. You might try newegg... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... pk=40Y6797 which I guess isn't much cheaper, but I've purchased batteries from newegg in the past and not had any problems.

or search ebay. Right now I only see one boxed OEM 9-cell battery on ebay for your model, but often you'll be able to find several. I now try to buy all my batteries on ebay and I always try to find OEMs in sealed boxes. It doesn't seem to matter if the battery is dated a few years ago as I've never had a problem. The last 9-cell battery I bought from ebay was dated 2006 and I just bought it in Feb this year. It's working fine in my daughters T41... over 6 hrs reported time from full charge.

Try to always stay away from non-OEM 3rd party batteries! Not worth the trouble or worry!

Thank you for the other sites - I will check them out. Lenovo said the battery I purchased is on back order. They claimed that my checkout basket would have shown this (it didn't) and had no explanation for why the product listing continues to show availability. The rep said all he could/would do is cancel the order, so I did.

I have a sealed OEM 9 cell available.

Check your private messages.

Brad

There has been a battery shortage since some incidents that may or may not have been caused by fire (minus the "may not") which destroyed a few factories and the stockpiles of batteries within. They should reach near-normal manufacturing by the end of Q3.

2.5 months is a long time, yes. Normally, it takes 3-4 weeks (which is still too long, obviously) so I'm still with you on this one... Lenovo sucks in terms of shipping. I never buy direct when I can avoid it.

Ah. I didn't realize that there was a shortage. I can understand that loss of facilities would put a massive crimp in deliveries. Not sure why Lenovo, which must have a sophisticated database-driven website, would not have the correct information up in the presale area.

In any case, I think Brad has given me a very nice alternative. All's well, etc.