Lenovo lies about ship dates

On Apr 4 I ordered an Ideapad y500. Ship date was listed as Apr 9. A few days later I called and complained. The rep said she would have my Oder expedited. It got "expedited" all right. Today I checked on line, and the order status has now been "expedited" to a ship date of May 15. On their sales website they say that new Y500 orders will be shipped on May 1. So beware. If you order a Y500' it likely will not ship when they say it will. The order shipment will likely be delayed for weeks. I will not ever order directly from Lenovo again and will probably cancel this order.

 

That's how you get the order expedited.

 

Actually, I should update this a bit. Had trouble typing the original message due to browser problems. I ordered the Y500 on Apr 4 and was promised a ship date of Apr 9. A few days later Lenovo changed the promised ship date to Apr 22. I called and complained, and the rep said she would expedite the order. Today the ship date was changed to May 15. If you order a Y500, I hope you can do without it until late June, because you sure as heck won't get it before then.

 

You forgot one small part, it's called an estimated ship date. It's Lenovo's best guess of when your notebook will ship, but nothing is set in stone. If a part or parts go low or out of stock, it gets pushed back. It's called just in time manufacturing and is one of the ways Lenovo keeps a lid on the price of the notebook you just bought.

 

Yeah they do, their shipping dates are "estimated" and are totally inaccurate. I was about to order a y580 and the shipping date changed from a week and change to "4-6 weeks". I asked the online rep if they had a more accurate shipping estimate, and they were vague. I also asked about expedited shipping and they said it doesn't effect the ship date, only the shipping time. Then a few days later the shipping date went back to a week or so, but I had already ordered my custom Sager which arrived in about 10 days.

Lenovo needs to be more specific about order build and ship dates. My reseller (LPC Digital) was sending me email updates throughout the process and I never was left in the dark. Looking back I made the right decision to not pull the trigger on the Y580, and I'm glad I shopped around.

 

You mad bro? LOL.

You probably ordered the model with the new GT 750M. I'm not surprised it's being delayed as that part has not been officially released yet.

Based on my experiences with their online order tracking website it might fluctuate wildly. I've had orders that were delayed 3 weeks and then when I checked again the next day it was pushed forward 3 weeks to it's original ship date.

Anyway, best strategy as others have pointed out is to call them and complain or cancel. Force their hand a little and see if you might be able to score some discounts or freebies along the way.

Such is the nature of ordering computers straight from the company's website and it's not unique to Lenovo. It's too bad that they have the best prices and deals. I would always recommend buying from retailers like Amazon or Newegg if pricing is similar because they are generally much better in this regard.

 

How so? When you buy a notebook, Lenovo gives you their best guess as to when it'll ship, but it's still a guess. There are things beyond Lenovo's control. When parts go low or out of stock, the paradigm changes and the ship dates get pushed back. Your choices are to wait or cancel and buy something else.

 

Thats normal on Lenovo , but whatever their products with the price and specs totally worth it !

 

I ordered the model with the older GT650, so that can't be Lenovo's excuse. Yes, they are a "just in time" company, which means they have very sophisticated software that knows almost in real time what parts they have in stock, how many orders they have for given models, and how long it takes to assemble a given laptop. That means at the time a customer orders a laptop, Lenovo knows within a day or two how long it will take to get it assembled and shipped. To say that an order will ship on April 9, then change the date to April 22 and later May 15 is a "bait and switch" sales tactic that can't be excused by "just in time" rationales. Their website currently still says that new Y500's will be shipped on May 1. How can that be when a laptop ordered on April 4 is now showing an estimated ship date of May 15? Lenovo is being blatantly deceiving and unethical on their website order and order update pages.

 

Don't order from them then, simple as that. You decide with your own wallet.

I don't know if your explanation is valid as I have no idea how Lenovo operations and supply chain work. But as I said before my experience with their order status website is that it fluctuates and is not very accurate. When I ordered the 170W adapter for my Y500 SLI the ship date changed 3 times and each time it was delayed/moved up 1 or 2 weeks.

 

Bangbangplay, how do you like the display on your Clevo W350ETQ? And the keyboard? I wanted the Y500 for those 2 features in particular but am now looking at other options. Thanks.

 

I think it's far more complicated than that.

 

On the flip side when I ordered my Y400 2 weeks ago it shipped 2 days before the estimated ship date. My new Y400 was estimated to ship last Friday but hasn't yet. So hopefully it ships soon. I am also waiting on my Pebble, and my Ouya....so estimations are never perfect.

 

Truth is, Lenovo is (or should be) known for their delayed and slow orders. They've been like that for at least the last two years. Your better off buying from a 3rd party who has stock, but you may pay $$ for it.

Anyone try ordering a Yoga when they first came out? That was a nightmare.

 

Mine shipped 12-13 days ahead of schedule, ordered april 3rd, received estimate of 15th, then it moved to 24th, but it shipped on the 11th.

 

mine was the first batch to have the 750gb 7200rpm hdd and when i ordered, its est shipping is more than 4 weeks. then i was like what the heck, a great deal with a hybrid drive, i bought it and got the laptop 2 weeks later. not bad for "more than 4 weeks" est shipping.

the only things i see in the net are complains that they got their order late or shipping took long. now it's time they get to see the good side.

 

Ordered mine on Sunday 4/14. Estimated ship on 4/15, shipped on 4/16. Fairly good if you ask me...

 

After praising my quick shipment of my previous Y400s. My new 750m Y400 has been sitting in "In Production" and the 4/13 estimated ship date has come and gone.

 

Beware and becareful when cancelling an order from Lenovo! It will still charge your debit/credit card and they won't give you your refund until the product is ship back or rerouted back to them.

 

Yep, I cancelled my 650m ultrabay when I exchanged my laptop for the 750m version, they put a hold of $250 on the account (pending transaction). Really odd they do that.

 

The display is beautiful, and turned out being better than I expected (since I bought it without having seen or handled it). The first thing I noticed when I fired it up next to my older Sony Vaio FW290 (also a Full HD display) was the display's obvious superiority. After copying files, preferences, etc I pulled up the same HD image on both screens. The Clevo's display (LG Phillips LP156WF1) offered superior color contrast, deeper and more realistic color, and just an overall better image. It also did so at any (lower) brightness settings, whereas the Sony's display suffered the lower the backlight setting. This is without any calibration on my part, and the only thing I changed out of the box was the brightness. It also displays a superior image than my external 22" HP monitor that I connect it to. I am actually now looking to upgrade that monitor to a higher quality 27" monitor. I opted for the glossy Full HD 1920X1080 standard display, instead of the matte upgrade which is the 95% color gamut display. I actually prefer glossy and the reflection of light doesn't bother me much and is still usable outdoors (at higher brightness settings).

IMO the keyboard is great. The layout is a little cramped because of the number pad, but I prefer having one. It of course isn't back-lit but I get by just fine without it. I mainly favored the W350ETQ over the higher powered P151EM and P150EM because of the 2 HD bays and slightly lighter and slimmer design. I am looking forward to the 13" W230ST for my wife and we are already saving money to put towards it. I like a blend of portability and power and now we don't necessarily have to select either one or the other.

 

They had estimated ship date at 10 days and then a few days later (when I was about to purchase it) it said 4-6 weeks. I decided to speak to a rep to get a more accurate time frame and she said she didn't know and that it would likely be 4-6 weeks. So I change my mind and buy a Sager instead. Not a week later the shipping date is back at 10 days. I am happy with my decision, but why didn't the rep tell me the real deal? Part of the reason I changed my mind is because of the vague conversation I had with the rep. She didn't appear to know anything.

IMO Lenovo plays around with promotions and shipping dates to create the illusion that there is either limited time or a limited supply. The "sales" never really end, although they want you to think they will. When buying my Sager I had the option to shop various re-sellers and have them compete for my business. They were all up front with build times and estimates and I received my notebook a few days before I expected it (no expedited shipping). Potential buyers don't want to play games, they want concrete information. Maybe my experience was rare, but I got a bad vibe from Lenovo.

 

I originally ordered my Y500, dual 750, from Lenovo.com on April 17th with an expected ship date of May 2. Yesterday April 22 I got an email saying it has shipped. So I should have it by April 29 - we'll see. Anyway it looks like Lenovo is shipping now with the dual 750's.

Joe Martin

 

I ordered my laptop 2 days ago with an expected ship date of the 24th. It was shipped yesterday (1 day after ordering) and should be here (according to tracking) tomorrow.

 

Did you order the dual 750M version? I ordered on the 19th and it still says "Released to Manufacturing" with expected ship date still May 2nd.

 

Nope, I ordered a Y400. Probably why I am getting it a bit quicker. I think most Duels are stalled. I'm hoping it is for the revel of the new ultrabay.

 

Ordered my y500 dual 750m on the 17th. It shipped today.

 

I got shipping confirmation today

 

Yes, they are definitely shipping DUAL 750s now. Mine will be here Monday Apr 29.

Joe Martin

 

I ordered a Y400 on the 22nd, estimated shipping was for the 25th but it was shipped today.

 

My brother just ordered a Y400 for himself. Estimated ship was 4/26. It shipped today.

Wondering if the Y500 duals are starting to ship. I remember hearing some long lead times on those.

 

It has already been stated, in this thread, that Yes, the Y500 dual 750m is shipping now and is being received starting today Thursday Apr 25. I'm getting mine Monday Apr 29.

Joe Martin

 

Yeah I ordered the y500 dual gt750m on Monday april22nd. The sale rep "guaranteed" me that it would ship on May 8th. The next two days the est. shipped date stayed the same, May 8th. Yesterday it suddenly changed to a ship date of May 25th. I thought this strange as the website itself says that the est. ship date is May14th.

Any ideas as to what I can do in regards to this? Should I just sit and wait it out?

 

My recent experience is similar and pretty horrible with Lenovo CTO orders.


Bought a t430s 2 weeks back and it still isn't delivered, ship or even assembled to my horror. Initial shipment was set on the 24th Apr, to be delivered on the 30th.

I bought a base speced t430s and on the last day of the estimated ship date, I was trolled with an order cancellation advice, saying that a product manager will contact me because the base speced CPU is no longer in production... Yes.. called, talked and given a revised order with a Customer number: US00000001. Should I believe this?

Only today, the revised order was marked "in production". It appears that the next mass shipment consolidation date is a week later . I am not the only one with a T430S order delayed.

The assembly line is incredibly slow and unorganised. As for shipments, they consolidate orders made within a week approx... cutting costs with the courier expenses (pretty clear) ... one week worth of laptops produced from north american orders probably sitting on the same flight... adds on to the delay, with no expedited shipping option available even at a price when you got the money to pay. I would agree its a bait and switch, this is also a commonly discussed topic on Lenovo community forums.

In contrast, with my experience with countless HP buys, when HP offers a season sale i.e. Thanksgiving or X'mas when they say 2 days shipping, they mean it. That's true accountability. Then with FedEx's realistic and efficient ETA, no complaints. You will get the order just in a matter of days. Its a CTO too.

 

Sorry to hear that, but you are over-generalizing your one-time experience. Moreover your claim that " one week worth of laptops produced from north american orders probably sitting on the same flight" makes no sense, as UPS not lenovo does the shipping.

My experience: I made two orders last year to lenovo and both come within the promised dates. The second one actually come with expedited shipping. Earlier I had a bad experience with Dell (the order took one month to ship, the first shipment was lost, but that happened during Xmas).

 

Not the only one. Check out the Thinkpad T series shipping 2013 thread on Lenovo's site. After the cancellation email's been broadcasted, I had to wait 40+ minutes to talk to a CSO.And when I called the post sales team it doesn't appear that I was the only one affected (T430S). I was offered 25% discounts off Lenovo outlet prices and within minutes of opening the page, many T430S were snapped up too. The demand was insane. Anyway, I wanted extended warranties and I won't settle with a 1 year limited warranty. Before prior to this incident, contacting the post sales team took just like a minute.


Side note,
There's something called "shipment consolidation", all businesses do it, all couriers services do it but the extent varies. I have used forwarders who using bulk DHL/FedEx shipments, they work in a similar manner.

Take an example, if it is a state owned mail company like there are in many nations, they do mass consolidation on shipments to create cost savings for themselves when sending items abroad. Usually these companies do not have their own aircraft fleets either and they engage with international delivery companies like DHL/FedEx of course.

Its only a matter of how many packages a company will like to put up on one shipment - relates to frequency (i.e. how many times a day/week) they offload the packages to their delivery partners. If you look at how the ship dates are estimated across different product lines on the Lenovo web store, you can already draw a conclusion with how often consolidation is done - not a baseless assumption.

It is nowhere close to a daily or even thrice a week type of consolidation (which is quite common for many large companies that sell products shipped from directly from a centrally located plant/factory), from the inference you drawn from ship estimates on their site. How other companies work with delivery companies for bulk/ or some call it "break bulk" services are really the same.

This will probably be my last ever Lenovo CTO.

Even on the Lenovo outlet shipment estimate, it is logical enough to conclude a 3 day shipment estimate meant:
- a product will ship within 1-3 days, depending on the schedule on when's the next shipment interval (clearly the outlet store is using a 3 day interval).
-Not all products will ship exactly 3 days after, but within 3
-Side effect of consolidation.

When it comes to such arguments that its the courier's issue, the courier's the bottleneck, its more like the other way round. The shipper's the bottleneck. FedEx, UPS, DHL are all very consistent and reliable with their shipment ETAs. They are clearly not USPS. They've got planes going around the world at fixed times and intervals, transport from facilities to hubs at a similar time once or twice a day. If you bought a lot of stuff from other continents you'll know. I'm not talking about countries like Brazil with customs that take a lot of time to clear at all either.

The large hubs (for connecting flights/transfers to trucks or whatever) of these delivery companies almost always reside in a country with an efficient custom. i.e. Hong Kong, USA. Not Brazil or Venezuela.

I don't know why practically everyone on the net come up with a conclusion that its the courier delaying the shipment in 101 types of different issues, clearly its a little misguided on the public perception of logistics.

Yes, I am mad because I am hearing a lot of lies. Different CSOs I call in the same department return me with different reponses when it comes to shipping too.

I got a same observation. When the ship date was sitting on the 27th or 28th Apr on the web store, the post sales CSO that put up the revised order "expedited" the ship date to 3rd May. I was supposed to get my order expedited as mentioned on the order cancellation broadcast email.

 

THe same thing happened to me. Ordered on the 23rd now saying est. ship date is may 25.

 

Well I don't understand what is going on, but I am pretty happy. Ordered y500 i7 SLI gt750m on Monday April 22nd. Estimated delivery was May 8th. 2 days later got pushed to delivery of June 3rd. Today it states that it has been shipped.... So hopefully I get it within the week. LOL Very exciting news, as I thought I was going to have to wait over a month to get this.

 

Congrats. ordered on the 23rd and still shows that one month wait for me. Hopefully it ships, I really cant wait a month as i dont have a computer.

 

From the posts on RFD, it looks like all orders placed after April 22nd are going to be delayed for a month. Must have been a sh!tload of orders to back it up that much, ouch. That said, my order on the 19th was expected to ship on May 1st but shipped earlier this week, so there's still hope that you guys will receive it sooner.

 

I dunno, like I said I ordered mine on Monday April 22nd, and as of today i got a email stating that it has been shipped. I checked the status and it says that a print slip has been made and that it is awaiting UPS pick up i believe. Once it gets to a UPS warehouse the info will be updated.

 

Yeah, that's why I said after April 22nd..

 

Quick update, some people placing orders on the 25th and 26th have received shipping confirmations!

 

AWESOME!!!

Just a quick question, again I ordered mine on April 22nd (monday), and received a shipping confirmation email yesterday April 28th (sunday).

It states that a shipping label has been printed but that it has not yet reached a UPS facility.

Has anyone who has ordered on the 22nd or after actually "tracked" their packed to see if it had left the warehouse or was in route to somewhere?

Thanks

 

Ordered on the 23rd and still didnt ship yet, still shows the one month delay :/

 

Hi Alex any luck on this?, BTW what was the estimate shipping date mentioned on their website when you placed an order.
Did you check with their sales representative whether it can be pushed, the thing is even i am planning to order one T430s todat, provided it gets shipped \ delivered to me in newatd Delaware by 14th may, i think i am being too ambitios on that.......anybody to comment ??

 

So you want Lenovo to process and ship the T430 in about 2-3 business days and UPS to deliver it in 4-5 business days? Ha. Good luck with that. The company serves thousands of customers and won't be able to process the product that quickly unless it was in stock and wouldn't need to be made. Also, my Y500 took (I think) 5 business days to be made and processed and 4 business days to be shipped. Perhaps you can pay for overnight shipping?

 

You won't get on 14th may. Outright lie. look at my post. If you're interested in knowing more, read up the lenovo website's T series shipping thread 2013, the other guy who's supposed to get the shipped at the same batch with mine hasn't even got his unit assembled. We bought mid apr. Mines shipped because i complained immediately to the CSO the other guy didn't.

To say that orders created later would ship on the time estimates is complete blasphemy. Bait and hook is true.

Sent from my GT-I8190 using Tapatalk 2

 

Lenovo isn't intentionally lying or deceiving you.

Their order fulfillment process isn't sophisticated enough where they can reliably predict an out-the-door ship date. And they aren't losing enough sales from people who care about a few weeks difference in ship dates to fix the problem. If it costs them more to fix the problem than the problem is worth, then it won't get fixed.

It sucks. But if it really bothers anyone that much, then don't buy Lenovo.

 

What I meant was simply the delivery estimate on the web store vs the reality.

I don't have to elaborate but if you were to look at these:

• time your order was cancelled
• Email promising an expedited shipping for your loss
• The order gets set for a post sales team or ''product specialist'' follow up that promises an expedited shipping (which is totally untrue, you still get UPS Worldwide Expedited instead of UPS Worldwide express)
• Consider opportunity costs to: (a) Cancel & Re-order via web relying on the web estimates, (b) wait for the replacement order, (c) Cancel & Get a Pre-configured, (d) don't get a Lenovo
• Look at the web store for the same config on that same day, ship dates on those products - you'll laugh. This has been repeatedly pointed out by different customers around the net

You'll know what I'm talking about if you were in the exact situation finding all leads into the issue. I shall not elaborate.

Yes, it sucks. Especially for a business grade product where people are really needing the computers for productivity.

Its simple and true, if people need CTOs to be delivered on time (many OEMs provide ''worst case scenario'' dates, unlike Lenovo), get a standard config Lenovo instead of a CTO if you'd like an higher probability of an on-time delivery.

If you insist on a CTO, other OEMs will offer more timely deliveries with better supply chain management and better logistics partners.

i.e. HP+FedEx > Lenovo+UPS when it comes to CTO. This comes from actual purchase encounters.

All part of the issue.