January ship date on T61?

I just ordered a 14" T61 (non-widescreen, SXGA+) and was given an estimated ship date of 1/3/08!!

As you might expect, this is not acceptable. A few weeks or even a little more, OK, I'm not in that much of a rush. But 3 months?

A couple of questions:

* I saw lots of reports in this forum of lengthy shipping delays from Lenovo, but that seems to have been for T61p's. Has anyone gotten this long an estimate lately on a regular T61? And did it ship sooner than estimated? How much sooner?

* I ordered this at approx. 10:30pm Pacific Time on 10/12 (2nd to last day of the sale). Did anyone else order a similar box at a similar time? If so, what was your estimated ship?

* Should I assume that the date will move up? Will I get any warning, or will it just suddenly ship?

I'm thinking I'll give it a week or so, and if there's no better news, I'm gonna cancel and buy a Mac instead. But feel free to try to talk me out of that, those of you w/ more experience w/ these guys.

Thanks in advance, this forum has been a huge help in deciding what to buy. Hopefully I'll actually be able to complete the purchase!

 

I ordered a SXGA+ non-widescreen on 10/3. ESD was/is today, still no word on if its shipped... That's incredibly lame about how you got a date in 2008!

 

OK, so I called today, and it turns out that it was because I ordered the 9-cell battery and that's on back-order. So they switched it to the 6-cell battery (a bit of a drag, but not the end of the world) and it's now showing Nov 8, which is fine by me as long as they stick to that.

Customer service (who I called originally) and sales (who made the switch) were all great as far as I'm concerned, BTW. Quick, plenty courteous, and had their story straight. They should have contacted me about the lengthy delay without my prompting, but other than that I'm satisfied so far.

 

Someone must be pulling your chain. I configured a system and the lead time was 1-2 weeks for a 6-cell or a 9-cell battery. I seriously doubt they could be "out" of such a common item, as this battery is used for all of the T60 and T61 series boxes except the 14'' widescreen.

 

Dang really? I ordered the 9 cell too.... I hope that's false.

 

Hi Techfury,

I noticed you order a T61 SXGA+ on Oct 3rd also...I just talked to CS and they said it would ship on the 25th...I have a feeling it won't...but you should try calling them and see if they give you a similar response if you haven't already.

 

techfury, if you ordered back on the 3rd, I would assume that whatever stock of batts they have (assuming there really is a shortage, don't know why they would want to lie about that) would be earmarked to you ahead of me, since I just ordered last night.

If anyone else ordered a 9cell batt in the last few days I'd be curious to hear what you ESD is.

 

My story is a little longer. Yes, I've made several orders and all of them had nine cell batteries. I ordered on 10/4 which was due to be delievered on 10/23but then I modified the order to a 7800 processor which required creating a whole new order last week and suddenly the ESD was 1/02/08. I don't know if the problem was the processor or the battery.

That's an unacceptable total of three months. I cancelled the order and Lenovo was very understanding. They felt like 3 months was too long also.

 

stringbeans85, I just got off the phone with Lenovo. They said "by the end of the week". I got that same answer 2 weeks ago (but they referenced this particular week then), so at least it was consistent for me.

 

If you look back at my previous posts, you'll see that I said I would never order from Lenovo again. I had ordered the T61 the day it came out and waited something like 2 months and never got it.....but I am giving them another chance, we'll see

I ordered a T61p yesterday and was shocked to see the January 3,2008 ETA. I called them up and the rep I spoke to also said that the 9-cell was holding up the order. I had them switch to the 6-cell and now my shipping date is 11/22/07. Interestingly enough, the rep said that the order would probably ship the first week of November! I have to say, this reminds me quite a bit of my previous experience but I'm crossing my fingers (not brave enough to hold my breath though).

 

jdeluise, the only difference between your recent story and mine is that my shipping date on my order now actually shows first week of Nov. Since yours doesn't, I might wonder if there's something else in your system holding it up those two extra weeks.

Hopefully your rep is right. I wouldn't hold my breath either, though.

 

Thanks for the confirmation Techfury...keep me posted when your order ships..I'll do the same..hopefully well see our laptops soon

 

Not good. My ESD is now 1/3/08. Lenovo's getting a call today about changing to the 6 cell. No question.

 

Wow, no chain yanking afterall I went to the site today and you cannot configure with a 9 cell battery. The pick on the accessories page now says:

ThinkPad T60/R60/Z60m Series 9 Cell Li-Ion Battery [add $XXX.XX]
Selecting this option may delay your shipment more than 4 weeks.

Glad I don't need an additional battery right now.

 

Well I called Lenovo. Surprisingly, a supervisor told me specifically that I'm still on track to be shipped by Saturday and that the online system was wrong. They said to wait until Saturday before making a change if it has yet to ship.

 

Just got off the phone when lenovo order status rep they said something about the 14.1 SXGA screen being in low supply which is causing delay in orders. So ppl who ordered in early Oct should see delivery sometime in 3rd week of Nov.

I hope the supervisor you talked to Techfury is correct

 

Well I've been given 10/27 (this Saturday) three times consistently calling at different times... once two weeks ago, another last Friday, and again today.

 

stringbean, what's your ship date showing now on the website?
I ordered the 14.1 SXGA+ but when I called yesterday they didn't say anything about shortages with that, and gave me a ship date of Nov. 8.
Wondering if I should expect that to slip to end of Nov..

 

I spoke to another one today. They said that a new shipment of 9-cells arrived at the warehouse today. My order was still showing as on track for by Saturday, but they said the very worst case for me would be November 8th.

 

Hi mscholtz,

My new esd is 11/22/2007 I actually just called to see if I would get the same response and one of CS named Dominque said my order would ship on 10/25. Its pretty screwy over at Lenovo.

 

Yay, my T61p just shipped yesterday! That beat my estimated ship time of 11/22/07! I guess this makes up for my horrible experience I had the first time around...