Lnovo support/service = Horrible

Quite simply the worst experience I have ever had with a company. Issues galore with my this new T400 and zero support. The specialists that advise on these machines are not available after 5pm Pacific time or weekends (the only times I am able to contact them). The tech reps on duty will not assist. I bought this machine for the Lenovo name and supposed 24/7 support, both of which are worthless to me at this point.

Please think twice before giving this company your business.

Fingerprint reader not working
System Restore will not run
Optical Drive excessively loud
(amongst other issues)

 

Ok, as I've said in other similiar threads about various manufacturers, I'm sorry you've had such issues, but because you are having these sorts of problems, does not mean everyone (or even the majority of people) are having these issues, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad company.

I would step up your efforts and set aside the time where you could call them before they close (even take some time off work, or set your alarm clock early if you must), and ask to speak to a supervisor if the rep isn't dealing with your particular situation to your satisfaction. Be polite, but firm and to the point, and most usually a company will be willing to work with you reasonably (here's a hint: especially if you are within the return period ).
Good luck!

 

First, I never claimed to know of the experiences of others, nor did I call Lenovo a "bad" company. My post was a personal anecdote meant as a cautionary tale.

Second, I am aware of options such as setting an early alarm/taking time off work, etc. Thanks. The greater point here, however, is that I purchased a product with 24/7 technical support and this has turned out to be untrue. I will, of course, continue to be firm, clear, and polite as necessary to undue this awful deal I have gotten myself into.

 

It's just that I've seen many of these kinds of threads, where people are running and crying to any and every one not to buy from [insert company name here] because of a bad experience that one person had. I understand it's frustrating, but going around telling everyone not to buy from someone because of one person's issues is well, pointless in my opinion since you're not asking for advice, just complaining. Not everyone has such issues, and I'd dare say, the majority of people don't, or those companies would be in a real world of hurt.
Good luck on getting your issues straightened out, and play the "if this isn't resolved I'll return it for a refund" card and see what happens.

 

quite frankly, return the product if you're dissatisfied. I recently returned my machine. I loved it but the LCD had issues and I really get pissed if I spend a bunch of $$$ and I have to send it for repairs. That said if you're within the 21 days then return it and get a refund or get a new notebook built.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. Fortunately i've had only fantastic tech support from lenovo. I've spoken to reps at 2am several times, and they have solved my problem each time. To say they simply 'won't assist' you doesn't make much sense to me... (i don't doubt your story, it just seems odd to me)

 

Did you pay the 15% restocking fee? If not, how'd you get around it?

 

Yeah, seemed pretty odd to me as well. I have spoken to six tech reps and three sales reps and nothing has been resolved. I have been told by both sides to call back on Monday (for the proper T400 techs and sales Supervisors).

 

If you're asking for help and I'm not sure if that's what you're doing, it's always a good idea to give as much information as possible. Saying "Fingerprint reader not working" or "System Restore will not run" gives little insight to the problem. I would assume getting it fixed is your goal.

 

I don't know if some of you guys are on the payroll or what. I'll say it again, my experience is meant as a word of caution to those considering Lenovo machines. That's what this forum is for. Perspective buyers will read some good, some bad and then make a decision. I tried to mention my issues succinctly in the post, of course I elaborate when speaking with tech reps. The fact of the matter is I have a greatly diminished opinion of Lenovo's service and support. My goal here is nothing more than to share the story with those who are interested.

 

+1 just return it then. there are always dell and hp and... more.

 

Then return it, eat the re-stocking fee and go buy a Dell or HP. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. By the way if you think Dell or HP are any better, you've apparently not spent much time in their forums.

There's a couple posters here like you each week. I doubt anyone's going to listen to someone who just comes here to complain without doing it in a constructive way. It probably won't effect anyone's purchasing decision either way, which means it's all been for naught.

Questioning peoples motives, people who come here on a voluntary basis to help, is probably not the path to winning friends and influencing people.

 

Has anyone ever had to have their laptop replaced (IBM/Lenovo) one?
I still have warranty on mine until next year

 

I am at Day 16 of what they say is my 21-day limit to return my new dead-on-arrival T500 Thinkpad.
It took several days for them to agree that I have the machine, and that it is under warranty.
It then took repeated phonecalls before they agreed that it wouldn't boot, no matter how many times I pressed F11, F1, Thinkvantage or whatever key.
They then said I needed recovery disks, but there was no such thing.
A further call got a supervisor who said oh yes they had recovery disks, and he had ordered them to be sent to me.
Five days later, another call, and it seems the recovery disks and/or my thinkpad model no longer exist in this universe, so nothing was sent out, but if I call tomorrow they will give me a DOA number, so I can get a refund.

The question is: Has anyone successfully received a refund from Lenovo? Or has anyone successfully obtained recovery disks for a T500? Is there a way to return this doorstop without them denying that it ever existed?

Is Lenovo a legitimate company, or am I the biggest sucker in the world for having ordered from them and given them my credit card number?

Any hints on how to proceed to obtain a refund successfully would be most appreciated.

About to return to Dell, where at least they admit their laptop exists, and send replacement parts (lots of them, in my case, 5 years ago!).

 

If they truly deny that your laptop exists then why haven't you simply called the credit card company and told them to stop payment to Lenovo? Since they never sold you anything according to them, you arent obligated to pay for anything right?

That being said im sorry that is going on, someone on lenovos end doesent have their stuff together but people make mistakes and I am sure they will fix you up right in the end.

 

Well I got some feedback from them after calling them in the morning during my busy schedule. I dont think they've charged the 15% restocking fee. Anyway, my case was exceptional, the machine had gone for depot repairs within a few days of being delivered. Secondly, the repaired machine had issues. Your issues don't seem to be hardware related except the excessively loud optical drive. If you're within the 21 day return window, do ask to return though I dont know why you'd be returning such a beautiful machine ( Yes all those Lenovo fanbois I liked my machine ). If you've got a good screen then just ask them to replace the DVD drive. I'm sure the tech support would do that and the fingerprint reader issue can be resolved by maybe installing updated drivers.

Quite frankly I'm a Linux user and I can see the latest and greatest hardware struggles with Windows XP or Vista. My T400 with Debian unstable rocked

 

+1 to Zaz.

You people do realize that the vast majority of consumers don't go out of their way to register on a forum and give a thumbs up to "Lnovo."

Sorry pal, better luck next time. You should check out Dell, HP, Sony, or Apple. They have absolutely no complaints regarding their support and service.

I predict you'll be gone in a week. Hope you resolve this issue!

 

I purchased an X200 last week (friday) and as soon as I got it home, I deleted all the recovery partions and formatted my laptop without first burning my recovery disks. I was intending to install a fresh copy of Vista onto my X200 without all the bloatware. The problem I had was the drivers that I had downloaded from Lenovo was not working. I rang Lenovo support on the same day and have explained my situation to them. They were willing to ship out Vista Business recovery disks to me for free which has already arrived at my doorstep this morning.

Lenovo support is not the best, but it's good enough for me

 

Wow, thats pretty good. They usually charge for them(I am assuming you got the discs for free?)

 

They do ship free recovery discs. I got it last time from my mbr error.
It came with 3 disc (depend on OS and system unit), but it's a preloaded disc.

 

I love my new Lenovo U330... I hated the customer service and the ordering process for that month before it arrived. It seems if you complain in this forum your opinion is written off as noise. After all, if you had a bad experience it's just your luck, yet on the other hand if they had a good experience they believe the company is perfect.

I do not believe Lenovo is a bad company. I do know that they treated me poorly and the several customer service representatives I spoke to were rude or uninformed. I do not care how many of you disregard my opinion because you didn't experience this. We have the right to report how we are treated.

Would I buy a Lenovo again? After using my new U330 I would say yes. Do i think Lenovo support is better than average? I do not.

 

From what I recall of your original post melcron, no one disregarded it. But since that post simply said, "My experience so far is that Lenovo is doing an extremely poor job." you appeared to be a troll and were called to task on it. It's unfortunate that you had a bad experience and no one is doubting that. But isn't it possible that many people (maybe more) have a good experience with Lenovo's support? If it was consistently horrible support, they wouldn't be a market leader. My .02.

BTW - I had to call them today and have an x200 that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow swapped out for an x200s. They did so quickly and waived the restocking fee. I was pleased with the support. It's not all sour grapes.

 

A troll who's previous posting you could look up and read? You can trace my opinion back to my first posting when I was deciding what to buy. I do know that many people have good experiences with Lenovo. They can post freely about their opinion of Lenovo. It just seems this community jumps at anyone who's posting about their bad experiences.

"My experience so far..." key phrase there is "My experience". I do not doubt they CAN be great... but from my experience they were pretty far below my expectations. I responded to the posts with adequate information to clarify my situation, I appreciate the apologies from this community but that does not fix the problems I've had with Lenovo. More than two weeks after I emailed Lenovo they sent a response saying they will respond to my email soon ;-) If Lenovo even attempted to accommodate me or apologize for the transaction I would hold no grudge.

As I said, despite my experience and the stress that followed I would place an order again.

As far as the quality of the final product is concerned I couldn't be happier. This is the best quality laptop I've ever used. Only issues I have may be fixed with future BIOS updates.

 

AFAIK the 21 day return period is a no-questions-asked period. Call up their sales and tell them what the problem is. Tech support has been screwing with you ever since you got the machine. Sales HAS TO HAVE your records. Tell them that you want to return the machine and are highly unsatisfied with the way things were handled and if you run out of your 21 day period lenovo is gonna be more difficult to deal with. Get the sales person extension number bug him.

On a side note, I would like to say that people like _____ on this forum are typical "fanboi"s of this particular product. Everytime someone has complained against Lenovo or problems with their products they jump at him. I'm sorry to say the least that they DONT have a balanced view. Just wait till the dead pixel express hits you or you get a mangled chassis and no / little support like how people in this thread have gotten. Then lets see if you still say what you say

 

Very few people would take the time to go through someone's post history.

 

Nice... you wouldn't spend 30 seconds to confirm the legitimacy of a user but you would spend much longer than that posting in threads reinforcing the reputation of the almighty Lenovo.

Prejudice: "An adverse judgement or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts"

 

You really need to untie the knot in your shorts, melcron. Obviously I did check your post history since I quoted your reply. My point was that most people wouldn't check your history before they replied to a post that smelled of troll.

Now, is this really worth your time bickering in a pro-Lenovo forum? If you want sympathy and support, I suggest you post this material up in the Dell forum.

/out

 

Because of course this is a place for Lenovo fanboys ;-)

The brand new U330 I loved is now missing a Q button that had previously just made squeeking sounds. Looks like I'll be dealing with customer support again. Hopefully this goes well.

 

I don't understand why people are complaining about you complaining. You have legitimate concerns. If you paid for 24/7 support, you should get 24/7 support. Some people suggested that you should get up early in the morning or take time off work to call lenovo. WHATT??! It is understandable that there are bound to be problems with people's computers but why should people lose money from work or lose sleep when it's Lenovo's fault that the problems exist? I would think that an expensive computer from the business line should have better support. Perhaps it is better if this forum is split up into three sub-forums. You can have a Thinkpad sub-forum, an Idealpad sub-forum, and a Service and Support sub-forum. That way, people who get irritated every time someone complains wouldn't even have to look at the posts and people who are interested can if they want.

 

may be consumer report is better than fanboy report =P

 

I just called Lenovo technical support about my broken button and they are sending me a box next-day shipping to send my laptop down to Texas to have the keyboard replaced. While I'd rather them send me a replacement key my experience was better then before.

 

I dont know if it's harder to change the keyboard on the u330, but when I broke a key off my t43 and they said to send the computer in, I told them I would change it myself, and they said fine and sent me a keyboard.

 

I wish they would have given me that option. I actually kept trying to get them to just send me the keyboard and they said "we don't do that".

 

Yeah, word up. I didn't get it either. Incidentally, what came out of my weekend challenges was an assurance that I would get a return call on Monday from someone willing (and maybe able) to help. The call never came...it's now Wednesday night...

 

This forum is losing its credibility. So people have had good experiences and bad experiences. I understand that people who have bad experiences will be more likely to come to this forum and complain. BUT as we can also see, that the "fanbois" on this forum are rejecting our legitimate problems as our faults or acceptable.

Ok so its acceptable when we're having problems. What about when you guys land up in the soup. Lets see what happens then. The point is that if 99 out of 100 people are satisfied and 1 person is unsatisfied, that person is suffering. From his point of view the service sucks while 99 people who have not had to deal with the support or have had the luck to deal with a reasonable quality support professional dont have anything to complain and hence dismiss that 1 person's problems as "one off incidence". Dont write off our issues with Lenovo so lightly.

 

I agree. If there are problems with just a few orders I would personally still like to hear about them. I can understand some orders being screwed up or other problems but what seems unacceptable to me is that many of the people who had problems have said that they called Lenovo several times without anybody taking their claims seriously or not returning calls that were promised. This is very disheartening. Problems occur with everything, but there should be an honest attempt to help remedy the customer's problem. I agree with Zaz and others that have said that other companies are not much better, if not worse. Perhaps this just points to the way that IT businesses are functioning these days, they are unable or unwilling to provide the level of service we want them to or remember them to have provided a few years ago.
That being said I am very happy with my machine but have not had to deal with support. Lenovo would be first on my list next time to choose a laptop from.

 

Is Lenovo perfect? Not by a long shot. I've had three ThinkPads in a row, but still wouldn't describe myself as a fanboy. My next notebook, whenever that time comes and it surely will, will likely not be a ThinkPad because of the change in the change in the return policy. I have no objection to people coming here discuss Lenovo's faults, but do it in a productive way so it helps yourself and others. That's why were all here.

 

ZaZ, so who decides what is productive and what isn't hmm? A guy who has gotten a bent chassis was complaining? There wasn't any need to bash him. He is entitled to get a good machine like the rest of the people. My luck sucked big time too. But I thought lenovo was all about the quality. I'm sadly mistaken.

Dont you dare tell me that Lenovo is not perfect. I was speaking with a friend yesterday and I was surprised about how much certain aspects are blown completely out of proportion. You guys can complain endlessly about "flex" in the keyboard. The machine is made out of plastic for cryin' out loud. Its not titanium. Go buy a block of titanium if you dont want flex.

The bluish tinge on the screen too was blown out of proportion. If you guys are so much about the quality and picky over such hardly noticeable things then why doesn't dead pixel or a slightly bent chassis bother you?

I'll tell you why because when someone comes here complaining about how utterly disappointed they are with lenovo, you guys decide to jump him. If it were to be all about quality then you would've been up in arms * against * lenovo rather than defending them and making excuses.

 

anyone else up for pooling our money and buying someone a dell?

 

I think he's agreeing with you...so you think Lenovo is perfect?

 

arsenic004, its called "pun". All along he was defending lenovo and now all of a sudden hes changed his stance on the same company... So coming from him seems to be just lip service. If he truly believed lenovo wasn't perfect then he'd rather be with us ganging up * against * lenovo for treating us in such a shoddy manner.

 

What changes have been made to Lenovo's return policy ?

 

Though some of the claims are questionable, this is constructive:

This is not:

See the difference?

 

ThinkPad's return policy used to be 30 days no questions asked, but because people abused it by for example ordering three or four machines and keeping the one they liked and sending the rest back, it has now changed to once it ships you cannot return it without paying a 15% restocking fee.