The saga with my X60 tablet & solectron is FINALLY over.

[aphex]

It's been a long few months to say the least, but I am very happy to say that Lenovo stepped up and did the right thing by giving me a full refund for my x60 tablet.

I've owned an IBM T41 in the past and couldn't have been happier. The first one I received back then was a dud, so they replaced it without issue within 2 days... And it went on to serve me well for nearly 3 years.

My x60 tablet was quite another story..

Bought my x60 tablet back in June and started having problems a little over 1-2 months in. Each one of the following numbers is a trip to the depot;

1. Sent it in to Solectron for a broken fingerprint reader and a grinding CPU fan, came back with the LCD bezel split in two (middle right side) and no at all fix for the fan (they did fix the fingerprint reader though)

2. Sent it back to fix the cpu fan and the bezel, bezel and fan were fixed but my keyboard was broken (it would hit buttons without me pressing anything).

3. Sent it in to fix the keyboard (and to check the mobo - to figure out where the problem was coming from), came back with a fixed keyboard and a chunk missing from my lcd bezel (looks like they either dropped it at the factory, or from the lackluster packaging inside the shipping box. The box I use to send it to them fits the laptop a snug as a bug, it cant move. Meanwhile, they ship the laptop back to me in a box that is WAAAY too big, with a good 2-4" on either side of the laptop to slide around in..

http://www.iiki.org/outgoing/thinkpadchunk.jpg

4. Sent it in again to fix the chunk, received it back a few days later with the chunk repaired, but now with a hairline crack in the same location (are the tightening the screw on the bezel too tight?) In addition, my fingerprint reader stopped working again and the keyboard started acting up here and there.

At this point, I had already been escalated two levels up to a personal CS rep. As much as I wanted to like this laptop as much as my previous T41, the sheer amount of problems made me despise using it.

I requested a refund (even though the laptop was 7 months old), and much to the surprise of myself and even the CS rep, the higher ups granted it and just today I received a full refund check in the mail.

I do hope to one day do business with Lenovo again, but i've been a bit scarred by the experience from this laptop. I think my situation is atypical however, just a bad combination of an unfortunate defective laptop and an incompetent repair company (Solectron).

My one bright point from all this was how wonderful the Lenovo/IBM cs reps were. After being escalated, I was always given a direct line to the different reps I spoke to and could call them and either reach them right away, or would receive a call back within the day. They were all a pleasure to talk to and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs, a very pleasing thing when your going through so many troubles.

My one word of advice? Absolutely, without a doubt, spend the extra money for on-site service. I know many manufacturers use Solectron (not just Lenovo), so I will NEVER buy another product that needs to be shipped to them again.

Sorry for my long rant, now that this drama is over I thought I would share my story... I sure hope no one else suffers the problems I've had to deal with, but I'm glad it was all resolved in the end.