Lenovo vs. IBM Laptop Customer Service

Hi,

I've got a long in the tooth IBM T41 and have been looking at the T400. But...in looking at the customer service reviews for the T61 on cnet.com, I've been horrified at what I've been reading about Lenovo's customer service. I suppose that I've always been a little skeptical about cnet's user reviews, wondering if they're penned by competitors. Where can I go to find an unbiased review of Lenovo's current customer service?

I had a four year on site service agreement with IBM that served me admirably. I had the motherboard, LCD screen and touch pad replaced on my T41. One technician repaired my machine at my work place and another came out to my Parent's home in northern Illinois when I was visiting them and needed to do some mission critical work.

Any responses would be most appreciated!

 

The on-site support tends to be better than the depot repair, not just for Lenovo, but for most manufacturers in my experience. If you need it to work, that's probably the way to go.

I would take the complaints here and elsewhere with a grain of salt. People with a gripe tend to be more anal and complain much more vociferously than those who are happy campers, which most customers are. That's not to say everything's perfect or there's no room to improve. I haven't seen any of the new machines, but the T61s I saw seemed very solid.

I think one of the main issues with the computer industry in general is the price points at which notebooks/PCs sell at is way down, yet people expect service like they paid $3k. Chances are if you buy a new notebook, you'll hit FatWallet or SlickDeals looking for the best deal, which is totally understandable. If you buy a T400 it'll probably cost a lot less than a similar T41 bought five years ago. They got to make that money up somewhere.

 

I agree with ZaA. In hindsight, I wish I spent the extra $80 and got some onisght support. Everything happens quicker that way, and in my past experiences (mostly Dell), the on-sight tech were usually outsourced companies that were quite knowledgable, and I was able to have good discussions with the guys who came to fix my computer.

Also agree about the thin margins. We get what we pay for. It's like going to Vegas. Odds are that you won't need the service, but it really sucks when you need it, and it's like dealing with a two-year-old. Especially when tech support and customer service start playing tennis with you (as Lenovo's been doing to me for almost 3 weeks now.)