Lenovo Support has jumped the shark, be warry of new T400s

I've had nothing but troubles since I received my new T400 on Thursday. Something happened during inital setup, whether WIndows Update or something has has caused it to hang and not boot. Woked for hours to try and get faulty lenovo system restore to work.

Anyway, 5 tech support calls, several calls with sales...and a lot of wasted time. The consensus from Lenovo tech support is that they haven't been trained to support T400.

All was fine. I'm in the mist of trying to return mine as I leave for a business trip and vacation, and won't be able to deal with the laptop now for several weeks. I needed to get an RMA, so I can drop the machine in the mail Monday morning before leaving town and I experience...
*Insert your favorite nightmare customer service support here*

I'm fine with sketchy customer service, it's become status quo in the low-markup computer hardware industry. But something interesting and new happened to me tonight and it's a new turn in poor service...

Since they close at 5 pm, they couldn't continue to support me on the return call. I'm pretty tolerent of many things, but to say, oh, we're closed now, it's 5:05. You need to call back tomorrow is COMPLETELY unacceptable. Why the heck did they even take the call if they weren't going to complete the support of the call and finish it? This has angered me more than all the wasted effort I put in to get their machine to work.

There were also two instances this weekend where they were supposed to call me back, but never did.

In the past, I've never had such issues with Lenovo, but maybe this is the new SOP going forward, and I'd like to caution potential buyers about purchasing a new T400 at this moment. Don't get me wrong, it's a sweet machine, but until Lenovo can figure things out...I'd save your time (though, odds are you'll get a perfectly working machine). Just go read the forums at the Lenovo site for many others having issues with restore and tech support.

BTW, here's one discussion about the system restore which is very buggy that I've been getting help with from the fine folks here on this forums...all of whom are more knowledgeable than Lenovo support: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295863

If my caution keeps just one person from delaying their order, or getting one of the sweet new Dell e6400s instead, then I've done my job here.

 

Thanks taude - I had my T400 order all printed out and ready to call in on Monday using an employer-associated discount. However, I have seen similar complaints about Dell laptops. I originally started out excited about the XPS line but have seen nothing but heat-related complaints about them.

This will be my first post-corporate job laptop for a new consulting business and I am so confused about all the complaints about all the available laptops that I have put off buying one for two weeks now.

 

Taude, to be clear, your complaint is with software and not hardware, correct?

DWW, if you want great customer service, I'd recommend Apple. Their products are expensive, slower and get incredibly hot (i.e. they're notebooks and not laptops), BUT they are well-made and featureful. Every single component is top quality and not a millimeter is wasted in design.

 

I do think the hardware is fine...but since it can't boot into anything, and it cant be recovered by me. And Lenovo needs to have it sent in to them to have their techs look at it...it could be hardware. But it doesn't really matter because they want to look at it, whether it's hardware or software.

(I don't really technically know enough about the hardware security system on it, or the fingerprint reader, etc...which could be causing the problem.)

 

@DWW. Yeah, I'm sure all the manufacturers are probably having issues with their new platforms that they are ironing out. I believe it's more a result of a new product than anything.

I'm only holding ill will towards Lenovo because they told me to call back because it's after 5.

Oh, also, I only mentioned the e6400 because that was the other laptop I was watching carefully and waiting for...

 

@nicodemus -- and btw, I guess this comment falls into hardware. I'm not totally satisfied by the LED screen I got. It really looks like my laptop circa 1999. But, as someone stated, it could be a driver issue.

 

1999? How so? Viewing angles or are you talking about the bluish tint?

 

Well after reading all this , Im happy I ordered a T61. Is 3 weeks average to wait for a T61??

 

Well, I have viewing angle issues, though I guess that's standard for the type of panel (from what I've read).

I have blue tint, too, which I might be able to profile to being better and acceptable. But then I have to figure out about the discreet vs discreet graphics settings for tweaking them out. All in all, I look at the screen, and I think WOW, this looks just like my Dell Isnpiron 9000.

Oh, and my blacks are very gray, so that provides the whole washed out look.

 

Sounds like you definitely got the Samsung panel (like me). You have two options: 1. repolarize to glossy 2. figure out some way to break the lcd under warranty and get the LG panel

 

Something very similar happened to me with sales this week. I called, got put into their queue with the messages that repeat every 30 seconds, then after about 25 minutes of being on hold a chap comes on the line and says they are now closed, I will have to call back tomorrow. WTH, you leave me on hold forever then come back and say you're closed. Not good. If you don't intend on answering the calls they should never be put in the queue. This T400 is my first experience with Lenovo and I've been less than impressed.

 

Before the T400 came out I had been in the market for my first notebook
for several months, looking at the Dell Vostro line.
After reading Kevin's review, I decided to get the T400 instead, although
I have not ordered it yet.
Now I come back to this site after two weeks of not visiting and see all the negative comments on its display, etc. and wonder if I should be looking at other brands/models.


One question, can you get Lenovo to send you the actual discs of the
programs that are installed? After reading about folks problems using the
backup, I am concerned. As I am not that computer savy!

This is a great site for learning more about the Thinkpads pros and cons!
Thanks,
Sean

 

Always look at the full spectrum of choices.

Also remember that satisfied users tend not to take the time to post on discussion forums. Are some people having difficulties? Certainly. Are they a significant portion of the user base? No way to know based on forum posts for reason of the first sentence. For each person with difficulties, there could be one, ten, or a hundred people with systems that work fine.

 

3: recalibrate your screen...

 

Well-built, well-supported, laptops simply aren't available at any price anymore. Waiting two weeks won't change this.

 

That's a matter of opinion. My t43 has been fantastic. It's very well built - I've had almost no problems, even after 3 years of heavy use. And the times I've called customer service, they have been great.

When I broke my keyboard, they sent me a new one no questions asked. When the USB port messed up, they sent me a box and I had the computer back a day and a half later, all fixed.

I've also spoken to customer service agents at all times of the day and night. I don't know if they have changed hours now (??), but a customer rep in Atlanta once spent 1-3am on the phone with me to help me after I screwed up the windows password and locked myself out of my computer.

Before this thinkpad, I had three Dells. I liked those computers as well, but my experience with their customer service was Horrendous. I never spent less than an hour on hold, and they never ever solved my problem. Going from Dell to Lenovo has been night and day for me.

Obviously, not everyone is going to have the same experience. It's too bad taude and others have had a crappy experience. But, don't forget there are those who are happy, they just might now speak up as much. My next laptop will definitely be another thinkpad. I kind of wish this one would die so I'd have an excuse to get a new one, but it doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down.

 

All tech support in all tech companies are far worse than before, since it's such a low margin business now. Try to learn some basic pc skills and with the help of such resource like this forum, you'll be better off than calling someone who is probably only trained to do "support" for like yesterday.

 

Unfortunately this is truer and truer everyday. It's not just tech support either. Every job from help desk to code monkey is like this nowadays to save cost and underpay. That's capitalism people.

 

Agree, It's pretty sad.

 

It is, however, a three year old laptop. The fact that notebooks built three years ago were built well says nothing against my contention that today's notebooks are poorly built.

Three years ago it wasn't necessary to buy a Thinkpad to get something that was engineered well enough to work out of the box and survive years of continuous use. These days, the idea of even top-end Thinkpads working out of the box and lasting through years of use is looking a little 'flexible.'

Poorly built hardware with limited useful lifespans is the price we all pay for lower sticker prices. I'd rather have the option of spending $2500 for a mid-specced 15" laptop again if it meant getting something that--like my vintage Inspiron 8100--is built well enough to last until the core hardware is obsolescent. But now the only choice even at the top end of the market is to buy something that has a high probability of falling apart before the CPU, GPU and RAM are insufficient for software requirements.

 

I'm not saying you're wrong. But the thing is, someone says something similar every time a new thinkpad comes out. "Agh! Everything has gone to sht! This one is sooo much worse than the last one!" Again, not saying you're wrong...but if I only read what people wrote on these forums, I'd think the computers were made out of paper mache by now.