Lenovo is not a good company to deal with

I would first like to state that I've had great luck with my T41 Thinkpad and feel it is a quality machine and because of that when I determined it was time for a new unit I first though of another IBM (Lenovo product). Today I terminated my order with Lenovo after what was the worst experience I've ever had with a company. Here is what happened.

22 Jan 2007,

I ordered a new custom made Z60t 14' widescreen in business black and high rez screen. I was provided with a confirmation email that my order had been processed with an estimated ship date of 5 Feb 2007.

The 5th comes and I check the status only to find that the estimated ship date had changed from the 5th of Feb to the 29th of Feb. I called my sales Rep (James) who said he would check into it and report bak to me.

James did call me back and said that a malfunction had occured between the sales order and subsequent order to build the machine and due to the malfunction the build order was not processed by the warehouse. I was told my order was now listed in "expedited" status which ment it was considered a priority.

The next time I checked the status of the order via Lenovo's site the estimated ship date moved to the 11th which I thought finally, some action. Two days later it moved again, this time for the worse to the 29th.

I called James (my rep) who was clearly distressed and said he would request a Customer Relations manager to find out what was going on. Enter April the C.S.R. who promised to contact me back / follow my order until I got it and never did. To April's credit she did email me back saying she opted to not leave a message with the woman who answered my cell phone! I have had my cell on me since I ordered the computer and there was never a time where my cell was answered by anyone other then myself in the previous 3 months.

Eventually Lenovo's order information page showed that the computer had shipped on the 13th of this month and I was promised I would get my new Thinkpad no later then 10:30am the 16th of Feb.

I was hardly supprised that there was no computer on the truck for me that day and expected the same on Sat and Mon (today). End result is that there was no computer so I called and left a message for James back-up who did return my call then patched me into, yeah, you guessed it, April.

April sounded as if I had woke her up from a nap and wasn't to happy about it. Despite the fact that she had previously said she had placed my order on an "Executive Critical Order list" AND that she would follow up, keeping me informed of the status of my order I had to totally go through the history with her which makes it obvious other then calling the status Exe crit order nothing had been done.

I asked about concessions and what I could do at which point she replied that she had already given $150.00 of the machine and that was all she would be willing to do. When I asked her how long it would take to submit another order and tried to tie her down for a time frame she stated with great vigor, "hey I have customers who ordered in Nov and still have not got theirs yet."

April then suggested I either order another computer or terminate the order. After that I took her offer on termination. After I hung up the phone I just sat there with my mouth open wondering if by some chance I had made a mistake and contacted a mail order porn company!

I thought of filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but after punching Lenovo up and reading that the BBB strongly suggests you not do business with that company I thought whats the point! Next step is to contact American Express and insure they don't try to pull some stunt on me. I've had and continue to have a great experience with my T41 but am certain at some point after that computer was built the company went through some kind of change because it's clearly not the same company I've dealt with previously.

I would urge anyone interested in going to the BBB site and reading what they have to say about Lenovo. Now I've got my I.T. guy shaking his head at me saying "told ya so".

Just thought I would warn the other readers of what my experiences have been. I'm going to spend the next week putting reviews of my experience on any site that will allow me to do so.

RWG

 

Lenovo bought the IBM and Thinkpad business at the end of 2005. I think the deal was finalized at the beginning of 2006.

 

Kind of a known issue: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=38577

Thankfully I ordered through a reseller and got mine in a week.

As long as people will be willing to put up with long wait times I doubt that we will see much of a change on Lenovo's part. They offer a great product with great service (once you get the machine )

 

Hey regularwhiteguy,

Lenovo screwed me too recently, and I opted to just cancel the order and buy from a different company rather than support them. I'm considering getting an Asus now, and maybe waiting for the V2 to come out. Here's a thread with some nice pics:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=105508

 

during the IBM times , they were much better.

 

Do they still sell brand new T43's?

I would love to own it and know the difference between an IBM and a Lenovo design.

I chose 2-business day shipping and got my T60 in 5 business days after clicking the Submit Order button. I'm very happy with the system. It's a shame some of you don't even get the chance experience the thrilling excitement of opening up a package from Lenovo and using a Lenovo Thinkpad for the first time. It feels darn good.

 

I am considering canceling my order and going with a reseller. From what I have read people either get their thinkpads from lenovo quickly or they end up with a horror story. I hate to think about ending up one of the horror stories. I am going on vacation for 2 weeks in 2 weeks and I really want to take a laptop with me It looks like some of the resellers can get you a preconfigured system in a week or less.

 

Subsequent to April terminating my order I did file a complaint with Lenovo via email and did get a tracking number for the complaint. It would be nice if someone actually follows through on this issue and resolves this issue. As I said in my post I have had a previous positive history with IBM and just love my T41. I will certainly post what IBM says when they reply be it good or bad.

RWG

 

Life happens. Could they have done better? Sure, but to say Lenovo is a bad company based on one experience seems a bit of a stretch. Every experience I have had with them has been positive. It is the same people regardless of whether their check says Lenovo or IBM.

 

It's a recurring theme that they're screwing people though, if it were just one experience then only you probably wouldn't even hear about it because that person probably wouldn't frequent Notebook Review. There are definitely issues with their customer service, otherwise I wouldn't have been treated like I was.

 

A few complaints in a forum do not make a theme.

 

BTW. It looks like the support quality is also very country or region specific thing.

 

you are right. I know one guy from Indonesia who received his vista upgrade in one day.

 

reguarwhiteguy, i've had the same experience with lenovo... is it possible it's the z61t in a particular configuration that is causing issues? this is the 6th thinkpad i've purchased in the last 3 months and it is the only one where i've had such a poor, unprofessional experience (by far the worst i've ever had with ibm/lenovo and i've been a customer for the last 15-odd years going back to the thinkpad 560).

surprise surprise, my case is also being handled by april. not a personal attack, but i've gotten much better customer support from the level 1 reps, i've had trouble getting april to return emails and phone calls.

1/10/07: spec out new machine
1/12/07: purchased, expected to ship on 2/5/07
2/1/07: order canceled (rep contacted me and said parts out of stock)
2/5/07: order rebooked for a new z61t, expected to ship on 2/19/07
2/15/07: call for update, rep says parts out of stock

at this point, i have no idea when the order is going to ship... i just got an automated email saying the 2/19/07 date was missed (obviously) and the expected ship date is now 3/19/07.

for a vendor that is selling a premium product at a premium price, i would expect a corresponding level of customer service... i miss the old ibm.

 

Correct a few complaints on a forum don't make a theme. Zaz is correct. However, consistant poor performance does make a pattern. Lenovo has certainly established a pattern of poor customer support. Just as Zaz has obsessive compulsively posted over 12,000 times in this forum in 3 years. Zaz, the drug you need is called Luvox and is off patent. Generic is fluxoxamine. Xanax may also help you with your need to post on average 20 times per day.

 

Well, if you bothered to look at my profile, which it is apparent you did not, you would see my average posts per day is 13, not 20. Rather than respond to what I have to say, you choose to attack me, which I think shows your maturity level.

When you sell as many notebooks as Lenovo does, there are bound to be a some problems. The people here are just a drop in the bucket of the overall picture. People who have a complaint about their notebook tend to be more vocal than those who do not. The vast majority of Lenovo customers are happy campers as Lenovo annually leads the PC Industry in customer service.

Does that excuse Lenovo from what happened? It does not. It does however correspond to my original point which was sometimes things don't always work out they way they are intended. Instead of taking it in stride, you come on here and b!tch, posting broad generalizations of how Lenovo is a consistent poor performer or how since IBM's PC division was taken over by Lenovo things have gotten worse, which you have no way of backing up. Furthermore, you are probably not qualified to make those statements. Comparatively, if you to look over in the Dell or HP forums I think you will find many more complaints poor customer service and workmanship.

It's finally getting a little saucy in the Lenovo Forum. I like it!

 

happy and satisfied lenovo user here

not all are given the equal opportunity that all wants.

 

ZaZ,

You are quite correct in stating that a few complaints on a forum do not necessarily make a theme! In fact, your statement that those who have suffered poor customer service tend to be more vocal is spot on. The vast multitudes who have not had a problem tend to be substantially less vocal!

Unfortunately, the internet (email/IM/forums) tend to bring the worst out in us humans when it comes to behavior. In fact, there is a name for this: Online Disinhibition Effect! People use the anonymity provided by the internet to flame first, think later! We end up saying things online that we would probably never say in real life face to face with the person.

I could go on and say many things about flamers, but that would make me no different from them. So all I will say is, keep up the good work ZaZ!!!

I bought my Z61m in November (delivered in December post Christmas) and since then I've been a happy camper!!!

 

I've had such a good experience with my T41 I'm not willing to 'give up on the brand for life'. I'm just pissed that they treated me like I was trying to return some mail order porn and that the person who swore that they would follow up until I signed for the package clearly didn't.

I did some looking around this am and found that Lenovo is loosing serious market share in the U.S. (where I'm from). I'm happy that those is Asian countries are getting their machines faster and know Americans tend to expect a higher level of customer service and don't generally accept the "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude from a business. If someone at Lenovo calls me back and says they could have done more for me and a better job then I will give serious thought to ordering another Lenovo as that was my first choice. If nothing has happened by the time I get my credit on the card I'm going HP.




http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20936&hed=Lenovo+Americas+Exec+Steps+Down

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1967850,00.asp

http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193700009

 

Here is the UPDATE.

Head Customer Resolutions Manager just sent me an email saying if I wanted to order another computer the estimated wait time was 2 to 3 weeks and other then the $150.00 off offered for the 1st Machine taking twice the time to even build there would be nothing else offered.

Didn't even offer to put my new order back on the double top secret Executive Critical Order list.

Only thing missing from this whole thing was a Pie Fight.

To my Sales Reps credit I believe he did everything he could to help me out but his hands were tied.

I guess I'm lucky I'm still alive as people who voice their concerns in that part of the world are known to be intruduced to the business end of aTanks tracks. HP here I come....

 

Regularwhiteguy,

What about checking out Asus? Have you seen the details for the upcoming V2?

 

I will check that out klezmer41, thanks for the pointer.

Here is my final UPDATE. I'll post the actual response I got from Lenovo. I removed the names as I wouldn't feel right about people fighting my battles for me. The big hit IMHO is that I had to initiate the trace w/ the shipper because even after emailing the tracking results to my Resolutions Manager she honestly thought I would get the machine today! WOW! Notice how the ultimate Mgr suggested that he felt I was trying to squeeze Lenovo and was being a preadatory customer. Be warned folks.

___________________________________________________

Mr. Johnson,

Thank you for your feedback.

Regards,





02/20/2007 04:02 PM

cc
Subject RE: My Thinkpad order w/ you....







April offered me $150.00 after it was established I would not get my computer anywhere close to the estimated time of arrival. Your cost on an extended warranty is peanuts compared to the $150.00 so don't try to suggest I was a predator trying to take advantage of a simple mistake when on record that was all I wanted. How many days subsequent to the initial order on 22 Jan did the warehouse get the actual build order?

I fell through the cracks of a system and after I could see that the ETA was far extended from what it first was I asked for an extended warranty on my T41. Doing what you say you are going to do would serve you well. If a customer had something go wrong you stay with it and follow up until it's resolved. I would have expected you to adopt a different attitude given it was "my money" to buy "your product".

It's pathetic that you would suggest I wanted to turn this into how I could beat up Lenovo when I asked for so little and had to initiate ALL contact, repeatedly with my resolutions manager to the point of having my sales rep ask her to call me or answer email. I also initiated the trace with UPS after being told it would be done as soon as she hung up the phone on Monday. You don't need to tell me you do things on your own time, you've demonstrated that by your open support of a lack of action on my behalf.

Just stick to pie fighting, you are better at that.








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To:
CC:
Subject: RE: My Thinkpad order w/ you....
From:
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:31:38 -0700


Mr. Johnson,

I've reviewed all of the emails between yourself and James, and somewhere along the line it was evident that the situation turned from interest in receiving our product to how much compensation you wanted/deserved. Lenovo is not in the business of offering compensation for customer complaints, we're in the business of delivering a quality product. By looking at the order you were initially quoted a 2-3 week ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). From my understanding April offered you $150.00 prior to the expiration of the ETA, which in itself was honorable.

You notified April on Monday 2-19, that you would like the credit applied back to your account, so from that point she started the process of crediting the account as you made it clear you had no intentions of waiting for another product. April contacted UPS on Tuesday morning and found that you had already initiated a tracer. We apologize that we did not initiate a tracer within your timeframe, and for that we apologize. We have offered to place another order to fufill our commitment, however we are unwilling to offer any additional discounts.

You should see the credit applied to your card within 3-5 business days.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,



02/20/2007 03:13 PM To
cc
Subject RE: My Thinkpad order w/ you....2AX4YF cmt case









Have April do what she said she would do yesterday and Terminate my order as well as credit my card. Matt, a company who heralds itself as a Mfg. of premium computers sold at a premium price should render customer service that reflects that.

I had informed April on Monday morning that UPS informed me that I would not see the package Lenovo contracted them to ship as it was "stolen". April knew this after I educated her and said she was going to contact UPS after talking to me and "for sure" by the end of monday I would have an email from her that she had started to issue the credit on the card.

I called the UPS Hub yesterday right before they closed and asked if anyone from Lenovo had contacted them about my package. UPS told me it wasn't even looked for because NO ONE HAD INITIATED A TRACE! Yeah, that's right Matt, UPS does not actually look for a lost package until someone requests a TRACE and being that once again April didn't do what she said she would do. I initiated it. Something I've had to do on everything that James wasn't empowered to do! After reading your email that April had made you aware of my situation I had to laugh. Seriously! Why don't you contact UPS and have them read the notes of WHEN APRIL determined it was time to report my package as not being delivered.

Within 5 minutes on the phone with UPS yesterday I was more educated in the policy of "your" contracted shipper then the manager who Lenovo assigned to my case. Again, I had to report this issue back to Lenovo and the person who promised to follow through on my order believed I was getting the computer yesterday because of ignorance on the common practice of UPS to reflect only the last scan on an item and if not delivered to automatically update the rescheduled delivery field UNTIL a TRACE is requested! Why don't you contact UPS and educate yourself on how UPS works and conduct some training with your "Managers"!

My order was tied up with internal mistakes by Lenovo and for that I was offered $150.00 off the price, ok. Now Lenovo's contracted shipper never delivered my order and the best you can offer is $150.00 if I re-order another computer and the estimated wait time is again 2 -3 weeks! All I requested was the extended warranty on my T41 and that would have been fine with me. April told me that some people who ordered computers in Nov still don't have them. Nice to know how little you think of both my time and money! Have it your way Matt.

I'll let you and April continue your pie fight and nose honking. Just please issue the credit on the card and realize that you've taken a devout IBM / Thinkpad customer and drove him off due to your gross incompetence and that of the manager under you. My Sales Rep had more on the ball, at least he promptly responds to emails and does everything under his power to do.

Regards,








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To:
CC:
Subject: RE: My Thinkpad order w/ you....2AX4YF cmt case AX2060
From:
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:45:54 -0700


Mr. Johnson,

April had made me aware of your situation prior to the unit shipping. At this time, Lenovo is only prepared to offer you $150.00 off of your current invoice. Lenovo will not be offering any additional discounts, etc, off of the order.

By all means we apologize for UPS losing your package, and we can certainly rebook a no charge order for you, however at this time the current ETA would be approximately 2-3 weeks. Please let us know how you would like to proceed and we can either rebook a new order, or credit you for the amount you have been invoiced for.

Regards,

 

In all honesty, I don't think any company would just "give" the customer extended warranty on a previously purchased product.

They want you to buy a new product. They offered you the extra $150 discount in order to keep you as their customer. (which in my opinion is very considerate)

If you aren't going to buy from them, they obviously aren't going to give you anything.

 

My T41 is still under a service contract and I was contacted by Lenovo a couple months ago to see if " I wanted to extend it".

They offered me a discount only after on the day of my estimated ship date they informed me that the build order was never communicated to the warehouse due to a malfaunction of their systems. Since I was offered to extend the warranty by Lenovo and the retail cost was approx $100.00 minus the actual cost was peanuts and that was all I was asking for.

 

They won't be making any money unless you buy something from them.

-$100 for them if they just give you the extended warranty

vs.

you buy a $1400+ Thinkpad, they give you $150 off on it, and they still profiit
a couple hundred bucks

 

#$%^ Lenovo after the way they treated me. Really check out Asus, the upcoming V2 looks like a good T60 substitute. The build quality of Asus is usually pretty top notch as well. Here's a recent thread, scroll about half way down:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=105508