Lenovo Outlet Buying Experience??

[Raindrop]

I have been using IBM Laptops / Thinkpads for over 10 years in my small business. Last fall I replaced my T40 with a T61P and a docking station as my primary personal computer.

Recently I caught the Ultraportable bug and as I didn't want to wait a long time to get my new travel laptop I ended up purchasing an X61s through the Outlet. I made my purchase on Monday 2/25 and received confirmation on 2/26 that my transaction had been completed. Then when I checked the anticipated ship date it showed an anticipated ship date of 3/4, a full week later. While I couldn't understand how a machine that was already built and shown as "new" in the Outlet could take a week, I chalked up to having to grind through the customer service process.

Then today after not receiving a shipping notifiication message I check the status again and find a new ship date of 3/12??? A not very satisfying call to customer service yielded no new information other than the standard 8 to 10 business days necessary for processing the order. When I question how the same number of days to "build" a machine made to order versus one sitting "on the shelf" in the Outlet doesn't make sense the customer service falls back on his canned response. Now in addition to telling me that I am probably looking at March 12th before the machine will ship, he also informs me that if I try to upgrade the shipping it might delay the shipment of my machine. His comment was that even though they were now saying approximate ship date of the 12th it could ship early. When I share my confusion that how can a machine that is already built, scheduled to ship on 3/4, and now as late as 3/10 or 3/12 would possibly ship "early" does not make much sense.

Does anyone here have experience with purchasing through the Outlet, and is this just the nature of dealing with them?? A lot of the threads in this forum suggested purchasing through the Outlet if you needed a machine in the hurry, yet my current experience is not consistent with that CW. Are the Lenovo / Outlet projected ship dates just wishful thinking or are they somewhat realistic?

I got a fair deal on the X61s, although if I had to purchase at the configured price I might as well buy into the X300 so I regardless of when it gets here I will hold onto the X61s. It would just be nice to know what to really expect.

[hart22]

Lenovo Outlet operates in a very different way than the main store. You get no shipping confirmation. Sometimes in the order confirmation e-mail they don't even give you a customer number, just the order number. All-in-all the customer experience with them is what you would expect from the heavily discounted version of the main store.

The shipping dates are somewhat strange as well. Both of the machines in my sig are from the outlet. Both took a week to arrive from when I placed the order to UPS showing up at my doorstop. For the desktop it arrived well before the estimated shipping date, in fact if I recall correctly it arrived when the website still didn't list it as shipped already. For the X61T the estimated ship date was pushed back exactly 1 day, and then exactly 1 more day, and then by what appeared to be a bit of magic it was shipped and delivered in no time flat. But for a configured system to take as long as you're describing must be frustrating, as you suggest. Unfortunately outlet customer relations is fairly poor, so you may just have to wait for the system to ship and arrive via UPS. But from my experience it may ship earlier than what is listed, so that is not entirely wishful thinking.

One piece of advice however: when the machine arrives, verify everything. Go into the BIOS and check the serial number and various components listed there. Go under windows and check, and make sure they match what you ordered. Do a warranty lookup and make sure you have the listed warranty. Sometimes you'll get lucky and get a better component than advertised, and sometimes the machine may be missing something. Just check, and be sure to contact the Lenovo main store customer support once the machine actually arrives. When it's actually in your hands the main Lenovo/IBM support center takes over, and you will get what you paid for.

Just as an example, when I contacted them about the missing warrany on my X61T they made sure the warranty instated as advertised, and to compensate for some of the hassle they gave me almost 2 months of extra coverage on a base 1-year (which I later decided to upgrade). The outlet as great deals, but you have to do the work to follow-up.

[blackomegax]

Lenovo greatly underestimates ship dates lately. its automated.

Once it falls into the hands of a human, expect it to ship much sooner than you expect.

[thomasw80]

I just got of the phone with the Lenovo Outlet store. I placed an order on Thursday of last week and still have no order confirmation. To my dismay they have no record of my order! I took a "Screen Print" of the final order page with that did have an order ID number and estimated tax ( not sure why they can't figure the tax like most online vendors). I gave the customer service representative this number, my name, my phone number, my zip code ....... but no order. Now I'm not sure just how to proceed. I will wait for a week or so to make sure my credit card is not charged and then try it again or just pay the extra and order from someone that can ship the item in two or three days. So... so far may experience has not been very good.

[Raindrop]

Lenovo greatly underestimates ship dates lately. its automated.

Once it falls into the hands of a human, expect it to ship much sooner than you expect.

Thanks everyone for sharing your personal experiences. My X61s came with an X6 base and DVD that I wasn't planning on ordering in the first place. If I factored out the added value of the additional components, I still ended up saving about $200 over what I would have spent configuring and building a system so that does buy a little forbearance. I just couldn't understand how a machine that was built would take a week before it could ship, and then to have it delay another week for some inexplicable reason.

At this point I have little choice other than to wait for it to arrive and hopefully have it configured as advertised. I have already purchased extra chargers, a spare battery, a Shinza case, and at Waterfield SF case so I am pretty well committed to the X61s.

[watchtower7]

The outlet and the entire Lenovo company suck at everything except manufacturing good computers for a great price.
Service is not a word in their universe.
Be happy for your great deal and relax, take a deep breath and your thinkpad will magically appear.

[pbow9]

Looks like I'm going to be playing the waiting game as well. I ordered an X61 last Friday and I'm still "In Process". I don't understand why it takes weeks or even days to ship something that is already built, boxed, and ready to go.

[nikemen]

So, the outlet it not part of any regular lenovo or past IBM fulfillment group. they get stuff back, they quantify them and then try to get them advertised and then sent.

Nothing I have ordered from the outlet has ever arrived. Granted, this was last year as the outlet was just getting going, but what is odd is that TWO of my FOUR orders stilll show pending status.

Everyone thought I would receive the items, I spent about 5-7 hours trying to track them down, nothing ever arrived.

There is no visibility at the warehouse, no shipping confirmation or tracking information.

I think they have the feeling that, this stuff is just sitting depreciating daily, if we can sell anything and get ANY revenue we are ahead of the game.

[pbow9]

Well, my order's ship date got pushed back to the 17th from the 10th. I gave them a call today and they claim it is being shipped out on the 12th. We'll see what happens.

[Raindrop]

Well, my order's ship date got pushed back to the 17th from the 10th. I gave them a call today and they claim it is being shipped out on the 12th. We'll see what happens.

Like other customer service experiences I think it all depends on the competency of the service rep. Last week I called on Friday because I was concerned that I might not get the machine and the sale would be over at the regular Lenovo site. After sitting on hold the representative came back on line and told me that my package would arrive on Monday ( today) and even provided the tracking number.

Sure enough my UPS driver had not only the package from IBM, but also the Kensington charger from Amazon that I had purchased. After verifying the contents ( but not the actual configuration) I boxed by X61s and Dock back up and along with some software updates and sent it over to my MIS consultant. He will confirm the components and numbers in BIOS as suggested and get it set up for the three trips I am taking in the next two weeks.

I noticed that the Outlet had "reloaded" over the weekend with over 5 pages worth of X60/61/s models available. It would seem that people that had ordered cancelled in favor of X300s

[m509272]

How or better yet where do you get order status? I finally got an order confirmation with order number but no customer number. There is also no link on the outlet for order status. Any ideas?

[nikemen]

There is reall POOR order status, you most likely won't get a shipping confirmation. There MIGHT be a link to a status page, but don't trust it for much. This is NOT the typical lenovo fulfillment solution

[hart22]

In order to get the order status from Lenovo Outlet you need to call Lenovo and speak with a representative. The order number is sufficient, or the telephone number you provided that is associated with the order also works when speaking with them. Make sure you ask for your customer number when speaking with them, and with that you'll be able to look up your order status from the main page.

[tallshorty]

Does Lenovo outlet ship to Canada? or is there a Canadian Lenovo outlet?

[Raindrop]

How or better yet where do you get order status? I finally got an order confirmation with order number but no customer number. There is also no link on the outlet for order status. Any ideas?

When I received my order confirmation from Lenovo there was a follow up email that actually provided a link from Lenovo providing an order status. Within the order status there was another link that provided "anticipated" ship date.

[m509272]

My confirmation was pretty lame. In fact the order number wasn't mentioned in the body only the subject. The body had no customer number nor link to anything. From other sources it seems that it's pretty inconsistent as to how much information you get or don't. Looks like the phone number is the only way for me to get the status.

[James Koo]

You should be happy that you got your notebook. I also have been a long time satisfied user of T42 ThinkPad and recently ordered a T61 on Lenovo website on Jan. 8 with a $300 off discount. The confirming print out says it will ship on Jan. 23 or so. No problem.

After not hearing from them in mid-Feb. called. They told me they made a mistake on the website, the price was too low and they cancelled the order. The sales person offered a price that was $300 higher, and his supervisor over ruled him and the price was now $700 higher with no discount. I declined. They (different org in Lenovo) later still sent me a survey asking why I did not confirm the receipt of the shipment. By the way, the sales office is in Toronto, Canada.

If you read the fine print: "If a Product is quoted at an incorrect price due to typographical error or error in pricing information: 1) Lenovo has the right to refuse or cancel any orders placed for the Product quoted at the incorrect price, even if Lenovo has confirmed the receipt of your order and charged your credit or debit card; ... ... ." So I do not have a case.

I bought a T61 on sale in Hong Kong at a price better than the sales person offered me (I commute between California and HK). Normally the price of Thinkpad is higher in HK. Be aware of the fine print.