Got a new defective T61P but they won't exchange it.

I just bought a new T61P from Lenovo.com
The LCD screen is defective.

I Just talked to Repair and they send me to Sales to ask for an exchange.
Back to Sales asking for an exchange but they send me to Repair an lo a behold back again to Sales.

I don't think this is fair.
At least I deserve a new computer as replacement no question asked.

This experience is horrible, what can I do ?
Lenovo sucks!

 

Be assertive and tell them you've already been to Sales or Repairs and you don't understand why they're making you go back and forth. If they don't give you a straight answer, ask for their supervisor.

 

Believe me I have told them that already but they kept doing it.
I guess I need the plan B and talk directly to a supervisor.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Will keep you guys informed on this situation.

 

What is defective about it? It is going to be hard to get them to do anything for light leakage or a small number of deal pixels (if you have one of those issues), which is unfortunate, but the way things typically are.

 

Isn't there a satisfaction guaranty period? A local dealer here exchanged mine when i figured the battery life wasn't sufficient for me.

 

I got backlight leakage AND the lower right corner is depressed inwards and look darker. Also the left lower corner is deppresed but is mor subtle.
Overall the screen has VERY narrow angles of views that must be a result of the screen not being properly installed.
I don't know you but in my 12 years experiences with Laptops LCD, this one pass as defective in my eyes.

 

Unfortunately NO.
Even the the TV Infomercial junk has some satisfaction guaranty period.
I bought mine with the assumption that they had one.

Lenovo is a Chinese company.
They have no idea what customer satisfaction is.
I'm done with Lenovo.

 

hmm...is there any local dealers near your area? I think it's worth it to visit them.

 

That ain't no defective LCD. how does not installing it incorrectly reduce viewing angles? If you see something, it's installed properly. The QUALITY of the screen is another topic.

 

Sure is a quality control issue.
Is obvious you have no clue how LCDs are made and what is acceptable and what is not.
Most LCDs are made of several layers that if are assembled/aligned incorrectly will result in poor image quality.

As I said I have owned several LCD laptops, and yes I know what to expect from normal functioning LCDs.
Most of the low quality ones leak backlight but I haven't seen anything as bad as this Lenovo one.

The cheapest Laptops BestBuy carries don't have these problems either.
BTW BB don't sell Lenovo.

Also is not only the backlight but the depressed Right and Left corners that make this an obvious defect.

Anyways I did called AGAIN to sales and talked to what I thik was a supervisor, at least she spoke English.
She said that she'll notify me in 48 hours if I qualify for a Exchange.

This is unfortunate since the T61P is a fine Laptop except for this problem and horrible customer support experience.
I was planning in migrating my programs to the new laptop in the slow month of December, but I guess that plan has just gone down the drain.

I also visited the "Happy" Dell forum and they DO have 30 days for return their Laptops without much pain.

Lenovo Sucks, plain and simple.
If I got the chance I would get my money back instead of another T61.
I'm sick and tired of this situation.

 

MOST IMPORTANT THING: make sure you get transferred to america. Lie if you have to. One thing that forces them to transfer it to the US from India is to say that you want to modify the order. Just tell them i want to modify the order and they will have no other option other than to transfer you. If he starts asking questions to what you want to modify. Just be like It depends on the information I received from that representative.

When you reach the US Just tell them the screen is cracked. Tell them that you plan on ordering another one right then and there. Those guys are very nice and he should issue you a RMA right away. Make sure they waive the restocking fee

 

Actually, it's only 21 days now but unlike Lenovo's return policy, there is no 15% restocking charge. I just went through a "customer service experience" with Dell regarding this 21 day policy on a laptop that I purchased as a Christmas gift.

 

This is sad to hear indeed. The 'P' designation, as I've come to understand it, used to mean it was the best of the best model in its class and one could count on getting a decent lcd and GPU at the very least. How times have changed.

 

Did you take pictures and email it to them? You stand a much better chance then because they will be certain your not blowing smoke.

 

they never asked me

 

p = Dedicated video

There isn't a special high end model where they chrome up the entire thing like a harley davidson. The closest thing to it is the Reserve with the leather wrap, but the only technical difference is the support, not the componentry.

 

p series is supposed to be for professionals, optimized for CAD and 3d design and whatnot.

It's not just dedicated graphics, the T61 can get that with NVS 140m.

WUXGA is also not available to T61, only the T61p

 

I feel for you man. Just went through the same process, its damn aggravating when they want to charge a 15% restocking fee on a DOA product.

Since this laptop wasn't for me, I gave up and going to send it in for repairs. Still bothers me though.

Never again Lenovo, never again.

 

you shouldn't have settled for them to charge a restocking fee for something that is damaged. no other store does that. Even best buy, who came up with this restocking fee business, doesn't charge restocking if the product is defective. It is only if you return it for no obvious reason

You could have escelated the situation up to a supervisor. talked with your credit card company, talk with the BBB, etc. You had many options

 

Thanks to all for your help and comments.
Well, I decided to call back again and they told me that I have only 2 options.
Return it with a 15% RF or send it to repair and wait for the best.

I talked to a supervisor that lied to me by saying that Dell has the same Return Policy. Complete BS, I just went and read Dell's Return Policy.
With Dell you can return with ZERO restocking fee if the product is defective.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~section=010

He also told me that BestBuy carries Lenovo and I should have seen one before buying.
Again BS, BestBuy has ZERO Lenovo, not Online nor B&M.

Oh and how about this one. I swear to God is a true story.
He told me that the repair takes 3 days turn around time.
Does He thinks I'm stupid or what !!!

So I guess I'm screwed with this Lenovo POS.

 

This is a horrible story. It inclines me not to go for a T61P at all (if the sad saga of the Lenovo Canada website weren't convincing enough). Has Lenovo lost it altogether? Are Thinkpads things of the past?

 

From Lenovo's web site:

Mobile workstations featuring lightning-fast Intel Core™2 Duo technology and the extreme graphics of the ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5200 or nVidia Quadro FX 570M video card.

Seeing as how the same "lightning fast" processors are available for both, that leaves the high end video card. There is no difference in construction. All of the T series models are supposed to be for professionals. WUXGA comes and goes, and currently isn't available on any model.

As far as this post goes, it doesn't sound like the machine is DOA, it sounds like there are some quality issues with the screen. I trust the repair center will take care of it. It sucks that it came out of the box this way, but things happen. Lenovo should be more responsive to these types of issues and help compensate the recipient accordingly. Unfortunately, with the configure to order system, there's no way they could stock a 100% identical system that is ready to ship in the event something like this happens.

Be sure to post back after you get your machine back. I've sent a number of machines in, and the round trip time is usually only 2-3 days.

 

Having been a long time TP devotee, I recently hit the Lenovo customer "service" (different issues to you but customer service was equally bad). IN the end I turned around and bought a Dell. Not only is the product superb, but the CS so far has been outstanding - it's been mainly questions about things not working rather than defective - stuff that Lenovo won't even help you with. I know Dell CS isn't perfect and there are horror stories, but Lenovo has lost me as a customer, and it sounds like many others too due to their CS.

 

The nightmare continues................!!
December 24th I called Lenovo so I can send the T61P for repair.
Everything was fine and normal and she told me that the 26th I'll be receiving a shipping box.
So I called earlier the 26th to check that everything was alright since I didn't receive any confirmation email or tracking number.
Well lo and behold another request for repair had to be made since the previous request for repair disappeared.
Now I have to wait another day and probably will lost my chance to return the laptop when it comes back from repair.

It sucks !!

 

I AGREE WITH THE POSTER:

I am Technical Support Analyst for University, my best tactics to get what I want is to scream my lungs of at the company representative untill they start to act.

So here is the best practise
1. Ask for the full name and employe number of the represenative
2. Tell them that service is unacepteble, that the meter should be resolved immidatly.
3. As for the floor supervissor.
4 If the person hags up call again, escalate the call imidiatly.
5. By that time they begin to take you serriosly.

BTW There is no problem with Lenovo per say. The tactics I have provided were tested upon dealing with HP reps. In the large corporation were technical support is outsourced, the issue of in departmental communication becomes a nightmare. A sales clerck for an example can be based in Guatemalla while the technical support in India. Both of these deppartments have no communication besides an email. The second issue is an accountability a sales clerck is accountable in accepting RMA, while he is not accountable while he transfers you to the technical support. Same goes for technical support. Only when you reach suppervisor, only they do they begin to take some kind of responsobility for their acctions, they are accountable for their acctions and problem ressolution....

 

Thanks for these tips.
Problem is I did them ALL with no results!!
In the end I have to send my T61P for repair.
I had to call twice since the first service request never went through.
That made me lost 3 days. Later I received 2 shipping boxes by DHL..
That gives you an idea how messed up things are with Lenovo.

It is probably in 2008 when I'll see my "fixed" T61P back.
The thing is that I'm not sure if by then I'll have lost my 21 days Return window.
I won't be surprised if my T61P comes back the same with not repairs done.
If that happens I'm definitely returning this thing.
And they better give me a full refund, or I will trash Lenovo in all the forums I can write to.
That gives you an idea how mad I'm with Lenovo and this purchase of hell.

 

Same problem here with the poor screen. Every other notebook I've used had a better screen and I wasn't satisfied with an inferior lcd. I asked to return it and have the restocking fee waived. I tried with about half a dozen reps including transfers. First rep was in India. Response was send it to service or you will be charged the 15% restocking fee. Next rep in India said the same thing. Next call was to India again. This time I asked to talk to a supervisor and somehow got transferred to Phoenix, AZ. I described the issue to the rep in Phoenix. He sounded understanding and even said a customer shouldn't have to go through this ordeal, but claimed he didn't have the authority to issue an RMA. He said I should to talk to a so called "escalations" supervisor and gave me a separate toll free number to call. By this point I was wondering where and when it would all end.

I called the number he gave me and reached a very surprised Lenovo executive in Toronto. First thing she asked me is who I was and how I got her direct number. I told her my story in brief and she still couldn't believe I was talking to her. She claimed to be a higher level manager at Lenovo based in Toronto who didn't deal directly with customers. I told here, again, the number I called was the toll free number the Phoenix rep gave me. By this point I was pretty sure I was talking to the wrong person as she couldn't get over the fact a mere customer had actually breached the walls surrounding Lenovo execs and I was indeed talking to her. Sensing this I asked her who I should call instead. She relented and said since I'd already been talking to her to tell her what the issue was. So I told her it was a poor screen and when asked went into detail about it. Screen is washed out. Viewing angle worst I've ever seen. Terrible backlight bleeding. Simply unacceptable. Her response was that the other reps were correct and I couldn't just return it- I needed to send it to the service center. Not giving up just yet I appealed to her one more time claiming I would even accept another new T61 as a replacement instead of a full refund. She said she'd like to believe the customer is "telling the truth"(her exact words) but couldn't without seeing the computer herself. A few more minutes of this, and I was getting no where. Strangely enough, after our 15 min call she asked me to give her the number I called and I did.

By this point I felt like I was done with Lenovo and just wanted to return the computer even if I had to pay a restocking fee. Three days later I call and speak to India and get transferred to an RMA rep. I tell him the story again, but this time add the (very) noisy DVD player as an issue which was something I discovered in the meantime. He said I'd still have to pay the 15% restocking fee. So I said the Lenovo return center inspects the returned computers, correct? He said yes. I told him they should inspect it, will see said issues really exist, and give me a full refund. Isn't that reasonable I asked. He agreed (very, very hesitantly) that it was reasonable and said he would note it- whatever that means. So, they received the computer yesterday and now I'm just waiting. Unfortunately, UPS took 5 days to deliver so I'm one day over the RMA 10 day period unless holidays(Christmas) don't count, but I'm sure they do. It never ends. My gut feeeling tells me either I'm getting charged 15% or they're sending it back to me...

Well, this was longer than I intended, gl with your situation. Point is buyer beware. If you purchase from Lenovo be prepared to pay a 15% restocking fee unless you have the time/patience to send it in for service first. Think about the virtues of buying from a company that doesn't charge a restocking fee. Most companies DO charge a 15% restocking fee so Lenovo is not the exception here. Companies that do not charge the restocking fee are the exception and should be noted for this.

 

Poor choice of words but your need to "jihad" the mofos at Lenovo by contacting the BBB of your home state, newspapers, harrasing corporate etc. go all out. you got screwed by them and you need to send a wake up call not to f with customers again.

 

I feel for you friend. I got stucked with TWO, not one, T61 and T61p.
Honestly, I wanted a new laptop, I FOUND a big COUPON CPP, some kind of it. I was so selfish, I orderd two, one for me and one for my big brohter. Now my bro does not want it, hehehe, I have TWO now plus the T43. Man, I love LENOVO SO MUCH, TOO MUCH!

 

what else can we do? I dont understand about the lemon law but Lenovo keeps shipping out defective laptop like t61 series and gripping off consumers!