Thinkpads Forum

Hello everybody,

Not sure if anybody experienced similar problem but it extremely frustrating
I have reported to official lenovo service in Zagreb (Croatia) that keys "s" and "." have stopped working few days ago and that I have a some kind of stain/spot on my screen which is not on the surface but inside

My laptop was in the service shop for a week and conclusion was that there must have happen some kind of spill over the laptop since there is some oxidation on usb ports (when you open the casing) and since I have never ever spilled anything on it it seem Lenovo is trying to refuse warranty condition making up stories jut to avoid reponsibility
I have seen those pictures and there you can barely see some kind of thin white film only on usb port (which is functioning normaly) but everyhing else is normal and intact

In service shop they were also surprised that Lenovo is not accepting warranty term especially when taking in consideration that I came there because of screen and the faulty keys which are on the opposite side of keyboard and according to the pictures they have seen they are claiming this theory about oxidation on usb which is not even close to any of these keys and everything else around it is intact and usb port function normaly

I have hired a official legal expert to check my laptop and to prove that there was no spill (becaue the damage would be extremely noticable) and he will make an official conclusion about the situation because it seems Lenovo team is not willing to cooperate so I will have to approach some organisations here that protect consumer rigths and I will go for sure with that document to media

I hope you get my frustration since I have payed for this laptop more than 2000 eur (purchased in june 2016, warranty expires somewhere mid 2019)

Also, another anoying thing is that you actually cant contact Lenovo support directly, they are absoultely unreachable which is against the law because by EU regulation every vendor needs to be at your disposal if you have any issues with their products

Really wondering if anybody experienced something similar with those bunch of unprofessionals
cheers

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience. This kind of thing, "let's blame the fault on something the customer might have done, that's almost impossible to disprove, to try to get more money out of them", unfortunately happens from time to time, everywhere.

To try to clarify things a bit: is it actually Lenovo refusing service, or just the service provider? "Official" or not, these service providers are basically just contractors who Lenovo hires to provide in-warranty service, and who also can perform out-of-warranty service.

If there is more than one service provider in your country, you may try your luck with them.

Where I live, there are several Lenovo-authorized dealers. My friend recently had a very similar experience with one of them - opened a case due to computer not booting, they claimed that it was something spilled on the keyboard, and (same as yours!) - "corrosion on USB ports", sent some picture which were very unclear, and wanted money to replace the keyboard (which there was never a problem with!).

He took it to the other dealer and had the motherboard (and keyboard) replaced free of charge, without anyone attempting to claim it was user damage (which it almost definitely was not).

Thanks, I wish the reason for joining the forum was a pleasant one

Unbelivable, they have asked me also to buy the new keyboard and only then they will replace my screen and they were asking for the keyboard around 300eur
some guys from the service shop told me that Lenovo Bratislava rejected the warranty based on the picture of the opened laptop and that usb port which they have received from service shop (part of the procedure I guess)

Apparently service shop would gladly accept the warranty and change the keyboard since they are being payed by Lenovo for warranty repairs
best
Andriano

P.s. maybe worth of mentioning, within few months of purchasing the laptop I had a hard disk failure (ssd, PCIe) and now this, I dont trust Lenovo Thinkpad anymore especially when experiencing this kind of attitude, they are treating their loyal cutomers as dirtbags
I use my laptop for business/company purpose so you can imagine what kind of problem this is causing me and they cant be even contacted directly

Politely ask for the pictures and all documentation they have from Lenovo Bratislava rejecting the claim (don't take their word for it!)

Open a thread on the official Lenovo forums and involve the customer service reps there. Based on what you presented, I think your case is strong - if they only see some "hints" of "possible" water damage around the USB port, which is functioning properly, and is physically remote from the problematic area, their claim that it's responsible for the fault seems far-fetched.

Good luck, and do keep us updated (hopefully with a positive outcome).

Yeah, agree with dr_st, need to check if it's a problem with service provider (and not Lenovo itself).

Never encountered such warranty issues with our Lenovo representative.

In our region, we can confirm that Lenovo likes to use service providers for:
~Service provider for carry-in repairs
~Another service provider for on-site repairs (we use both from time to time).

Anyways, wishing you best of luck with your repairs!