Lenovo's BAD policies - IBM was never like this!

[garyt01]

I just received a new X300 with larger battery, 2 meg Verizon wireless and GPS. The unit came in with the WiFi drivers screwed up. Every time I shut the computer down I would have to go back into the driver through the control panel to turn the wifi driver.back on

Lenovo would not help me with this since they stated it was a software problem and I would have to pay $99.00 to obtain software support. I explained to several people that the unit was only two hours old and was shipped to me with this problem. I had installed nothing on the system yet! After over two hours on the phone and being placed on indefinite hold when I asked for a supervisor I finally decided that Lenovo was not the company for me, I am now stuck with a $400 restocking fee for returning a defective computer. Guess what my ner passion in life is?


mod edit: split into new topic

[FragrantHead]

Guess what my ner passion in life is?

Macbook?

[shfawaz]

I just received a new X300 with larger battery, 2 meg Verizon wireless and GPS. The unit came in with the WiFi drivers screwed up. Every time I shut the computer down I would have to go back into the driver through the control panel to turn the wifi driver.back on

Lenovo would not help me with this since they stated it was a software problem and I would have to pay $99.00 to obtain software support. I explained to several people that the unit was only two hours old and was shipped to me with this problem. I had installed nothing on the system yet! After over two hours on the phone and being placed on indefinite hold when I asked for a supervisor I finally decided that Lenovo was not the company for me, I am now stuck with a $400 restocking fee for returning a defective computer. Guess what my ner passion in life is?


mod edit: split into new topic

Welcome to the wonderful world of Lenovo. Indeed ever since they took over from IBM many things have changed. However no matter what company sells you a computer, they have an obligation to make sure everything works right out of the box, pre-loaded software and hardware. Otherwise, they did not deliver what you ordered and you are entitled to return the product without penalty or cost.

You may want to try to do a factory restore, and be sure to let it load completely, and see if this fixes the wireless issue. The alternative to that would be to connect via ethernet, load the latest driver for your wireless card, install and try it out again.

Restock fees were never part of IBM's recipe for success with the Thinkpad, especially since most buyers had to purchase their Thinkpads sight-unseen given that purchasing or test-driving a Thinkpad locally was not an option in 99% of the country. I don't know how Lenovo expects to carry the IBM torch and continue the traditions that made the Thinkpad the most respected laptop in the industry by nickel and diming its customers with support and restocking fees.

[mgo]

I just received a new X300 with larger battery, 2 meg Verizon wireless and GPS. The unit came in with the WiFi drivers screwed up.Lenovo would not help me with this since they stated it was a software problem and I would have to pay $99.00 to obtain software support. I explained to several people that the unit was only two hours old and was shipped to me with this problem. I had installed nothing on the system yet! After over two hours on the phone and being placed on indefinite hold when I asked for a supervisor I finally decided that Lenovo was not the company for me, I am now stuck with a $400 restocking fee for returning a defective computer. mod edit: split into new topic

Have you gone over to http://www.lenovoblogs.com/ and told them your story? Might get some proper response from these seemingly more professional Lenovo staffers.

[garyt01]

Thank you for your comments. I wish I had known about Lenovo's business policies earlier. I have been very satisfied with IBM and took for granted everything had remained the same. I agree with you that a company has an obligation to provide a new fully working product to their customers. Lenovo’s people strongly indicated that their policy trumps any expectation I might have about receiving a fully working product. I was placed on hold for over 25 minutes when I asked to speak to a supervisor and never did speak with one! As a result, short of a class action suit, the only way to get rid of this headache is to pay the $400+ dollars and make sure everyone I know avoids Lenovo. I made sure they are a banned vendor within my company. I have signed on several Lenovo forums to warn others about their attitude and policies. Hopefully, if I can persuade just one potential customer to avoid Lenovo the restocking fee I am forced to pay will be a bit more tollerable.

[shfawaz]

Thank you for your comments. I wish I had known about Lenovo's business policies earlier. I have been very satisfied with IBM and took for granted everything had remained the same. I agree with you that a company has an obligation to provide a new fully working product to their customers. Lenovo’s people strongly indicated that their policy trumps any expectation I might have about receiving a fully working product. I was placed on hold for over 25 minutes when I asked to speak to a supervisor and never did speak with one! As a result, short of a class action suit, the only way to get rid of this headache is to pay the $400+ dollars and make sure everyone I know avoids Lenovo. I made sure they are a banned vendor within my company. I have signed on several Lenovo forums to warn others about their attitude and policies. Hopefully, if I can persuade just one potential customer to avoid Lenovo the restocking fee I am forced to pay will be a bit more tollerable.

Bottom line, if you didn't get what you think you paid for, call Lenovo, request an RMA obviously citing your reasons for the request, and make it clear that you have no intention of paying for a product that does not work 100% as it should and as it was advertised, nor were you offered a solution that didn't require additional payment, especially since there is an implied warranty in the good ole USA called "Warranty of Fit for the purpose intended". In other words, just because Lenovo personnel don't see it to be their responsibility to help you correct a problem that exists with a brand new laptop, there are laws that protect consumers against unscrupulous corporations who think they can simply thumb their noses and impose rules that don't comply with commonly accepted business practices and the laws of the land.

That being said, if you properly document your case (notes, names, dates, times, etc) you always have the right to file a dispute with your credit card (Visa, MC, Amex, Discover etc) citing issues with the quality of the product you purchased. Most credit card companies provide for this kind of relief in cases where you do not get exactly what you paid for and the seller/mfg. isn't willing to step up to make it right.

$400 is alot of money to walk away from, especially since you are essentially getting nothing for your money. Persistence, patience, and perseverence are key here. The squeaky wheel always gets the grease!

[richarddd]

Have you tried to do a factory restore?

[RaysMD]

gary,

I honestly think that you will have a perfectly fine laptop after you fix your driver issues. Maybe a clean windows install.

anyhow. LENOVO SUCKS! Their cost cutting is driving diehard thinkpad users crazy. IBM used to ship their laptops in two boxes. Now it's just one single box. If I'm paying $3,000, then you had better ship it in a better box. The prices are much lower for the typical T series. BUT, how much is this from Lenovo cost cutting or component prices being lower? I remember paying $2500 for a Thinkpad T40p. Now I can a fully loaded T60p for half the price.

[BillMorrow]

lets keep the non-productive lenovo bashing to a minimum, please and stick to the issue at hand..

if you want to bash lenovo, take it to: GENERAL ThinkPad News/Comments & Questions..

lets help gary either get his X300 working correctly or help him with advice about how to recover his full payment..

gary is correct, IF what he says is true and not the result of some trivial screwup when the preload was applied or at some other step in the manufacturing process..

i can not try to replicate his problem because the X300 i have (which, BTW, works like a champ and is 100%) does NOT have the gps..

but i don't believe that lenovo purposely sent a non-functioning X300 out the door..

and no where do i see which OS gary has on his X300..

[craigg]

Reinstalling the original OS usually takes care of this type of issue. If after completing the factory restore and you're still having a problem then you need to escalate the issue. I have received a couple of bad Thinkpads in the past few years and once I got to the right person they sent me a replacement laptop with a return label for the old unit. You have to stay calm and be persistent.

[craigg]

I disagree with this. I purchase most of my Thinkpads from Ingram and unfortunately they do double box. The problem lies in the extra shipping cost that I have to pay for nothing but a big box. On this X300 the actual weight was around 6lbs yet the dimemsional weight was 20+lbs. This resulted in my shipping increasing from $30 to $60. The double boxing provides little extra protection. Since most Lenovos are shipped direct from China ask yourself if you would be willing to pay an extra $30+ for a box if it were to come out of your pocket? The only advantage I see is for those in questionable neighborhoods where a Thinkpad box might quickly disappear

IBM used to ship their laptops in two boxes. Now it's just one single box. If I'm paying $3,000, then you had better ship it in a better box.

[RaysMD]

When IBM used to double box the Thinkpads, they only used an outer box that would just fit the inner box, thereby the dimensional shipping weight did not change. It only added 1 pound to the overall weight.

[SteveDC]

Yeah, Lenovo has gone downhill. But aren't the other companies worse?