Just received my T420 with wrong specs - Lenovo won't exchange or compensate

Has anyone had this problem?

I just received my brand new Lenovo T420 today, and it was missing the NVIDIA NVS 4200M GPU (I instead got the Intel HD 3000). I called both technical support and sales support, and both said they couldn't help me.

Sales support said I could only return the notebook with free shipping, but they cannot replace or exchange it (even though it is 100% Lenovo's fault).

Where should I be calling to get this resolved? Surely this probably happens all of the time and I'm probably just not talking to the right people. Anyways, I would greatly appreciate a response. Thanks!

 

That sucks, but they have a policy of not doing exchanges so what they're offering you (free return shipping, no restocking fee) is the best you'll get of them. Sorry.

 

I'd say just take it and ship it back for a refund with no restocking fee. Sure it'll take a while but at least you'll get your money back and you can reorder again.

 

If you return it, and buy another machine, isn't that the same thing? Or was a discount now not available involved? They should certainly honor that.

 

I think he means returning it for an immediate exchange from stock in a US warehouse. Reordering usually means waiting weeks again, sucks, but things like this happen from time to time.

 

I wouldn't mind returning and re-ordering, but my quote is now technically expired (since past 30 days). You think they would honor it past expirationin this case?

 

if they messed up, make them pay! It shouldn't be difficult to argue that.

 

I would think so. Print your order, so you have a copy of the order number. Call and ask to speak to Lenovo Sales. When you get a representative, inform them of your problem, and your wish to ship back the current unit. Then inform him of your order number, and ask him if he/she can beat the price, considering the hassle you have had to go through. If they cannot, ask them to match. Use a credit card for the order (not a debit card), so if you have any issues, you have dispute resolution with your CC company to help you. Get the representative's name, their employee ID, and your new order number, and give them an e-mail address to send your order confirmation to.

Also, politely request a prepaid return shipping label for your current system, since this is their mistake. You should receive one; I was sent one by Lenovo when they accidentally shipped me two identical T400 notebooks (I had ordered only one).

 

How do you know it doesn't have the nvidia setup? My 420 came today and it seemed to only have Intel HD graphics. That is until I let it run through all of it's updates (microsoft and lenovo) and then reboot. Then the 4200 appeared in the device manager.

Not saying yours isn't wrong, or that having to wait for a re-order doesn't suck...

 

Don't mean to hijack this thread from poor fatank, who really got screwed, but I'm about to buy my first Thinkpad ever - an X220 - and I am lately reading so many negative things about both their quality control (Lenovo's in general) and about their customer relations/support. They already have the worst return policies by far in the industry.

So I ask in the context of both the mistake and the inflexible resolution offered to fatank on his T420: is buying a Thinkpad something of a crap shoot and far from the high caliber product and company that it once was?

Thanks, and do push for the resolution you're entitled to, fatank, including honoring your price quote (or improving it, for your inconvenience) - unless of course the price has fallen.

 

@LoneWolf15:
Thank you for your suggestion! I'll most likely try that out and will update the thread with what they say.

@wkearney99:
I checked the device manager, and it indicated that I was running Intel HD 3000 graphics. Though, in my start menu and other places, NVIDIA does show up. I tried to enable some type of NVIDIA option in order to test and see if it actually was there, but I received an error saying that it cannot recognize any NVIDIA GPU. It very well could be present, but I didn't have any pending updates to install. If anyone has a suggestion of how to confirm that the card is in fact there, I would greatly appreciate it.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the users on this thread -- I appreciate all of your responses.

 

Have you checked the BIOS to see if you can switch to discrete graphics? If so, you have the video card.

Also if you reorder, I would consider just getting IGP instead of Optimus since the 4200M isn't much of a step up.

 

I think the nvidia software is just part of Lenovo's default software load for these machines. But I don't know that for sure. If they screwed up and loaded the wrong software for the hardware that would explain it too.

What does the text of your order confirmation read? Mine had a specific line item reading "0A68249 SBB NVIDIA N12P-GV OPGR1GB". Does that appear on your order? You could post your order text, that'd let us see if the right thing was actually ordered.

Make sure you run the thinkvantage utility and load both the MS and the Lenovo updates. That's what it took for my T420 to see the nvidia hardware. I can't recall for certain but I don't think my device manager ever showed '3000' as part of the name for the display device it recognized. I think it just said 'Intel HD Graphics', no 3000 part of the name.

 

@wkearney99:
You're correct -- it only stated 'Intel HD Graphics' (without the 3000) in the device manager. Also, the text from my confirmation email reads "0A68249 SBB NVIDIA N12P-GV OPGR1GB" as well, so the right part was indeed ordered.

The only thing that still makes me skeptical is that I tried to enable NVIDIA 3D Vision (I think that's what it was called), in which I received an error stating that it couldn't find NVIDIA hardware.

Anyways, I'll do all possible Lenovo and Windows updates and will report back with what shows. Thanks.

 

I got the same error about the card not being present. http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/568372-thinkpad-t420-owners-thread-37.html#post7606587

It wasn't until I ran both updates AND rebooted that the device appeared. Must've been some driver that got loaded during the updates that enabled the hardware.

 

The best way to tell for sure what you have is to start in the BIOS of the machine.

1. Power it off.
2. Press the Power Button
3. Press F1 when you see the Lenovo POST logo
4. Go to Config
5. Go to Display
6. Cursor down to Graphics Device and hit ENTER
   
   If you see NVIDIA Optimus, you have what you wanted. You can run the machine in one of three modes.
   
   
7. Select Discrete Graphics
8. Press F10 to Save and Exit
9. When you see the Lenovo logo again, press the power button to power off.
10. Power back on.
11. Login to Windows and lets things simmer a bit.
12. Re-install video drivers.

 

My optimus-configured T520 arrived without Optimus enabled in bios. A little sloppy of Lenovo, I thought! I just discovered it by chance.

Despite the abilities of the Sandy Bridge Intel gpu, having the extra gpu of the Nvidia coupled with the optimus system is excellent. The extra gpu and its drivers enhances the existing Intel gpu. I don't see a downside. The Nvidia Quadro NVS4200M is very similar in performance and driver quality to the ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 in my old W500 - and it was a great gpu. If you are are seriously into CAD, photography, or games, then definitely it is not an appropriate gpu...

 

I can confirm what Thor wrote, I see the NVIDIA Optimus as the default selection. There are two others in the submenu, Integrated Graphics and Discrete Graphics.

If you don't see the NVIDIA Optimus choice then it's reasonable to assume the hardware isn't actually present. If you DO see the option then it's OK to feel a little stupid. I was all ready to be pissed off when I thought mine wasn't present either....

 

After all of the Windows updates, the NVIDIA GPU is now showing. Thank you to everyone for their help!

 

You made no changes to the BIOS? They don't normally ship set to Discrete.

 

Heh, told ya. Glad it worked out.

But if you already called Lenovo about this and they didn't recommend that fix then I'd be a bit concerned about their competence. I mean, really, how hard could it be for them to walk someone through the BIOS or how to do the updates?

 

well, to be fair Lenovo should not be shipping a machine that needs updates just to function as advertised... updates are fine... but this optimus software etc should be there by DEFAULT.

it's kinda like shipping a machine with no driver for your touchpad... or web cam or graphics processor...

 

Given the nature of updates I can't say there's a good answer. The time between what it takes to setup and test an install image for production is probably longer than releases of updates. As in, by the time they make the image there are already updates being made available online.

The initial setup process, however, DOES present you the option of getting both the MS and the Lenovo updates. They just make it easy to skip that option. At the very least it'd be helpful if they put up another dialog box that warned you not to skip that step. I skipped it on mine because I was eager to get to trying out the machine. Once you allow those steps to complete the software does fully enable all the hardware.

 

TOTALLY agree with this. This really sounds like a line problem in China. Someone isn't following instructions.