T60 Crack in Base Heeeeelpppp Advice Needed

[thinkscientist]

Hi guys,


I seem to have a problem and was wondering if someone could give me some advice.

I have gone over 10 years with a thinkpad

600 Series > T20 > T21 > T30 > T40 > T60

Obviously I have been tremendously happy with my purchases and gone back each time. I really dont even bother looking at any other laptop as I am enthralled with the thinkpad quality and service.....usually!

However my most recent purchase a T60 has been nothing but problems since it arrived, mostly minor issues but I have a problem that I need advice upon.

I have had my T60 for about 9 months and it is meticulously looked after. It stays on my desk 90% of the time and I even have a microfibre towel to wrap it in when its not in use ( extreme... I know )

I am disabled and I work from home and hence thats why I buy Thinkpads as I cannot afford for my PC to go wrong.

Anyway over time I have noticed that my T60 has started developing a crack in the right hand side of the base from the battery slot to slowly creeping up between the USB Ports. I am going to find somewhere here to attach some photos.

Anyway, as I said my machine is absolutely mint and it is my pride and joy.

Soooo I rang IBM I have on site warranty in the UK for the machine and explained the problem.

They told me if it looks like you have abused the machine we will bill you for the repair. I said that's fine obviously I know it hasnt been abused.

I wasnt so worried about it initially but when it started cracking all the way round to the side I was afraid the whole corner of the base was just going to plop off so I thought for the amount of money I have paid plus for the on site warranty I shouldnt have to put up with this and hence the call to IBM.

Anyway, the IBM engineer came out, nice guy! and he looked at the machine and just said "sorry dont know why that's happening, lets get it changed"

So he sat and took my pride and joy apart with the Hardware Maintenance Manual as he had never seen a T60 before and replaced the base. He also found things not to be right inside, loose screws and the CPU not even screwed down!!! which I thought was atrocious. but anyway he repaired it and tightened all the screws and the CPU and I thanked him and he left.

I thought to myself I am dissappointed with the quality of these new Lenovo breed thinkpads but at least they still have the service backing them.


Recently though, I have just had a letter from IBM UK saying here is your Invoice we want £500 for the repair to your machine.

We want approximately £14 for the base part and the remainder labour charges

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I have contacted them about it saying this is ludicrous and I shouldnt have to pay for something that wasnt my fault and their response being " lenovo arent aware of this problem"

I have welcomed them to inspect the machine again to see there is no abuse and in fact pride the fact as to how I have looked after it but they dont want to know. They are literally bullying me for this stupid sum of money.

What do I do?

I hope someone can shed some advice.



PS I have uploaded the Image of the crack that was on my old base here for you guys to take a look at, sorry about the poor photo my camera isnt so great

img]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3476 ... ti2.th.jpg[/img]

[eyecon82]

did you sign anything that says that you will be charged? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't pay the bill

[Truthfinder]

You need to resolve this billing issue as if you don't, they won't service it again............. If your warn. is just about up, they no need to worry............

However, you beed to get it resloved as others may have this problem in the future and Lenovo must understand that as consumers, were will not stand for this kind of poor customer service.

Best of luck !