Purchasing alternate keyboard

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Jagoop · #1 Post by **Jagoop** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:33 am

I'm considering purchasing a T61 (mayby and X61, haven't quite decided yet) in the USA.
Does anyone have any experience with replacing the US keyboard with a Danish One? How difficult is a replacement keyboard to obtain, and how expensive are they?

sokos · #2 Post by **sokos** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:53 am

easy job if you are comfortable in opening the thinkpad, u get get a keyboard from a local dealer for ~ 50euros

Vali · #3 Post by **Vali** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:06 am

Changed the keyboard on my T60p some time ago, ~1month.
It's a breeze, the keyboard comes with complete instructions.
You will need a "Philips" screwdriver, 2mm diameter, decent quality with magnetic head to handle the screws.
If you're familiar with opening PCs, it's a 15' job, taking some pictures of your beloved T61 internals included.

I considered myself buying from US, a lot cheaper than EU, but when I'm thinking of 3 years warranty it is worth buying from home country.

Yhe only thing that drives me nuts is that if you want a "p" machine everything is maxed, and so is the price and a little "premium" for "p" series because these are rare machines.

Good luck,
v.

#4 Post by **Johan** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:39 am

Jakob:

Instructions about exchanging hardware in ThinkPad's are found in the Hardware Maintenance Manual. For T61's, you will find it here. Also, there are a number of (short) specific installation and uninstallation instructions on IBM's site, here, and e.g. this link will show you how to switch a keyoard on a T61. For T60's there are even a number of movies - here; perhaps they may provide some idea of how T61's are also assembled/disassembled?

With respect to the Danish price of a ThinkPad keyboard, I believe they range around 700 DKK (that is at least the price for a Danish T60 keyboard if purchased from www.laptops.dk).

Beware of warranty issues if you import a ThinkPad from the USA; check that it is entitled for IWS. Finally, note that the Danish customs will charge you with the Danish VAT of 25 % upon arrival of your shipment to Denmark. This will significantly add to the cheap USA-price...

Good luck with your T61-to-come!

Regards,

Johan

#5 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:44 am

If you order from another EU country -- say, Germany -- will the reseller ship to you without VAT? Will Danish customs add VAT in that case?

#6 Post by **Johan** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:59 am

@ Tom:

With respect to paying the (import) customs duty (or VAT, two words for tax!), e.g. charged upon import of a ThinkPad from the USA into Denmark, the issue is when it gets into "EU-land". You see, EU is an Economic Union

which means that goods can freely be traded within EU with no customs added while crossing internal EU-borders. The high customs are paid upon the arrival (import) from abroad into the EU. Once inside EU, it can be freely traded without additional VAT or customs duty added. So, "the tricky thing" is to get it into EU while paying as little customs duty as possible!

Best regards,

Johan

#7 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:46 pm

Right -- I was wondering how VAT works when you are buying from another EU country, though?

sokos · #8 Post by **sokos** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:10 pm

VAT in Europe is paid once, in the country it has been imported, then it can go anywhere to the European Union without any extra taxes. Germany used to be the best place to import goods as they had the lowest VAT 16% but now it's 19% so it's more or less the same as all EU-member countries.

Pascal_TTH · #9 Post by **Pascal_TTH** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:49 pm

In most country, you can buy FRU directly from IBM at very *low* price. Here, in Belgium a very small country, we even had this online store : https://www-134.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... ject=parts

It's like Dell : you can only order for your country. A keyboard costs about 50 € including VAT and shipping with DHL or UPS.

Important note : A 9 cells battery costs 100 € in FRU and more then 180 € in accessory. It' the same for some other parts...

Troels · #10 Post by **Troels** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:18 pm

@ Johan

Not to make you regret your purchase or anything at all... but
Next time you need a keyboard for a thinkpad, or any other part, believe it or not - the official IBM replacement part department in Denmark is much cheaper.

They wanted 350 DKK including cash on delivery VAT and delivery for a T60 keyboard (for a 15") when i bought one some months ago.

Or if you need a new fan for the T60, the fan for discrete graphics costs about 250 DKK including delivery and VAT.

Also, you're partly incorrect about the no added VAT with cross-border intern EU shipments.
If you buy from a company in the EU and you are in another EU country, you must add the difference in tax between shipper's country and destination country, if the tax in the destination country is higher - AND the company has an exchange of cross border sales for a certain amount. The limit differs much from country to country.
Buying something from Germany and shipping to Denmark will have the difference in tax of 6% added if the company the Dane buys from exports for more than 280,000 DKK annually, see
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/re ... _dk-en.pdf

Jagoop · #11 Post by **Jagoop** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:19 am

I'd like to thank everyone for their informative answers.

I'm fully aware that the danish VAT (moms) will be added to the purchase price of any laptop I might purchase in the US. However, this will still result in a saving of around 20-35% off the Danish retail price.

egnatius · #12 Post by **egnatius** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:04 am

I'm kind of in the same boat as Jagoop because I might purchase a T61 from the USA but I need a Latin American keyboard.

Does anyone know if I can purchase service parts from Lenovo's USA website?

#13 Post by **ryengineer** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 1:49 am

egnatius wrote:Does anyone know if I can purchase service parts from Lenovo's USA website?

In US: yes, from another country: No.

Purchasing alternate keyboard

Purchasing alternate keyboard

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