My first and last Lenovo purchase ever! X201T

In case anyone else is considering buying a Lenovo, I wanted to share my experience.

I ordered my x201t online using a limited time promo on the visa site. After submitting my order I received a confirmation email indicating the configuration of the system and the total amount of the order. A few minutes later I received a second confirmation email again listing all the items ordered but with a total charge that is ~$250 more. The cost of each item was correct, and if you added them up there was no way they amounted to the total shown (it wasn't a tax or shipping charge).

I immediately called Lenovo and after being bounced around and after sampling horribly indecipherable accents from Russia to India to China, I was finally able to explain my situation to someone. They didn't know what was wrong, but to make sure it was nothing funny in the ordering side of things, they canceled my order and placed the order themselves through their system using the same promo I had used. It seemed to work and I received a confirmation email with the correct amount and thanked the sales rep for their time. Of course, 2 minutes after putting down the phone, I received a second confirmation email indicating the mysterious +$250 amount again.

At this point, way too tired to be spend another two hours on the phone trying to explain my situation to people who barely spoke English, I decided to send a detailed email including 4 screen shots (of the promotion, the online order summary showing the total including shipping and tax when I submitted the order, and screen shots of the two conflicting confirmation emails).

No one responded for a couple of days, so I called again and explained the situation to someone over the phone who luckily was able to access the emails with the screen shots. He said it was clearly an error on Lenovo's part and would be corrected. I left it for a few days and then called back to check what the charge was for the order and found that it was still the incorrect amount.

Exhausted by even the thought of trying to explain the situation over the phone again, I fired off another email mentioning the name of the sales rep who had said he would clear it up. This time they got back to me and sent me on a fools errand of contacting the credit card department saying there was a credit card issue. This of course involved the joy of talking to Lenovo customer support people, and through an incredibly thick Russian accent I was able to make out that there was no issue with my credit card.

I emailed Lenovo again, and this time got what sounded like a legitimate answer. They said the incorrect amount was just a hold authorization and that I would be charged the correct amount when I was actually shipped the laptop. Satisfied, I let the matter drop. Now they've shipped the laptop, and I've of course been charged the incorrect amount.

Really, really pissed at the Lenovo purchase experience. It's now been two weeks since I've brought the incorrect charge to Lenovo's attention and I've been repeatedly assured, over the phone and email, that the issue is resolved and I'll be charged the correct amount and of course I'm now stuck here with the mystery charge.

I'm giving them one last chance to sort it out before I dispute the charges with VISA.

I don't care how good the build quality on a Thinkpad is, nothing is worth having to deal with these guys.

 

File a claim with the BBB. They have no legal power to help you, but most likely a US based Lenovo person will be able to help you. There's also some Lenovo people here (unless he stopped coming) and on the thinkpads.com boards that can help you.

I had a similar experience with the Lenovo sales/CS people and price matching. I had it fixed by filing a BBB complaint.

 

The Visa promo is not integrated properly with Lenovo backend systems (and Lenovo backend systems are not integrated properly with Lenovo website, of course). I did try this route once, and as soon as the amount came back incorrect, I immediately called Lenovo the following morning and canceled the order. Lucky for me, I spoke to a lady who spoke English well and sounded really nice, too, hmm... She canceled the order, got my order details and passed them to another person to create a new order for me.

I really feel bad for your case. I hope everything will be straightened out to your satisfaction. We customers deserve much better service for premium prices, but I guess Lenovo cares more about "millions of systems shipped" than "millions of customers truly happy". Not there yet, baby.

 

Wow! It gets better.

In my last email to Lenovo I told them if they did not resolve the issue promptly and fully I would dispute the charge with Visa. I quoted the assurances they had given me in their emails that I wouldn't be charged the incorrectly higher amount.

Anyway they responded to my email by saying that I would need to call them to have the charges adjusted. When I called them I immediately referred them to my initial email which included all the screen shots and explained the situation (a trick I had learned through having to explain my situation over the phone at least four times already).

Fascinatingly, my emails have all been mysteriously deleted today, including all of Lenovo's responses and assurances. The sales lady I talked to said it was very rare for the emails attached to a file to be deleted like that. Seems like at the mention of disputing the charge with VISA, some lenovo sales rep is trying to cover themselves by destroying any evidence. I've of course kept detailed records of my interactions with Lenovo sales reps and copies of all emails, but the sheer perfidy involved in deleting emails is just sickening.

I'm a law student and I work at a Bay St. law firm. Lenovo definitely isn't going to get away with this.

 

Wow..this is one of the horror stories we all hear about. I've never bought such a big thing over the online shop just because of stories like this.

Good thing is that you have screenshoots and the option of disputing the charge with VISA. Hope everything will be sorted soon.

 

Or... you could do what I suggested and get it resolved?

 

You're right, filing a complaint through BBB is a good first option. It seems they resolve most disputes within 30 days, so you always still have challenging the credit card charge open as a last resort (must challenge within 60 days of issuance of statement).

Personally, I've spent way too much time on this already so I'm hoping lenovo settles the issue without having to resort to other means.

 

They should. I know they seem bad, but the US staff in my (and others on the boards) experience has been pretty good. They should be able to take care of it. It took them less than a week to help me out.

Hope it goes well for you.

 

While I have empathy for your plight, it's just a laptop, bro. Though close, it's not quite the end of the world. I mean is $250 one way or the other going to make or break you? You can always dispute it or get it fixed after you get the laptop. I don't know that the BBB is a good option before you even get your notebook. It's too bad you're going to miss out on what is a great tablet.

 

The same tablet is currently offered with a 20% discount, so if that comes close to your deal maybe wanna try that? It's around $1040 for the base configuration before taxes with BLACKFRIDAY coupon (that's with i5 UM CPU)

 

TL;DR

Post a less dramatic, shorter version on Lenovo's forum in the General Discussions board's Order Issues thread. Someone will probably help you, but do remember that it's a major holiday right now. Have a little patience.

Order related customer service concerns - Lenovo Community

 

Thanks for the tip! Although it seems really odd that I'd get better service from a forum than from a customer rep directly.

Sorry if I've been overly dramatic. This has just been the worst purchasing experience I've ever had.

I've had to spend about 6hrs on the phone with Lenovo over the last two weeks, being made to feel like I've done something wrong because I don't want them to steal $250 from me. And every time I contact Lenovo they confirm that the charge is incorrect but only give me false assurances that my issue will be taken care of and that I won't be charged. It has been two weeks since I notified Lenovo and nothing has been resolved despite their assurances, and every time I contact Lenovo I have to infuriatingly start at square one.

There is no way any consumer should be treated like this.

 

Mark pretty much has his hands full on Lenovo's forum, so he just drops by here and TPF now and then. Much more efficient to try to get him (or more likely Cleo or Jamez) to help in a situation like this one by posting a succinct message there.

Well, it's not a staffed support channel with Lenovo employees assigned to answer all questions, but there are a few Lenovo employees who try to help out on big issues that the community can't help with like an order problem. There's never a guarantee that they'll solve any particular problem since there are a lot more of us than there are of them. Make sure you use the same username you used here for consistency.

 

UPDATE: Lenovo sales reps submitted a "credit request" to the credit department. It should take a week to go through, so hopefully this resolves the issue.

 

Glad to hear that!

 

My experience has been that companies that make quality products often lack in customer service. This isn't something I've just noticed in the computer field, but rather a broad trend over all product niches. I don't know why it's the case, and I can't give you hard statistical evidence, but it is something I've noticed.

In any case, I find the Lenovo products to be worth the trouble of the occasional order fiasco. As long as I go into the purchase expecting the chance of some horrid disaster, then I'm not so distraught when it happens.

Honestly, I'd rather deal with some grief and get a Thinkpad than to talk to Susy Sunshine at Dell and then end up with a Dell at the end of the day.

I will also note that I've learned to avoid some of the hassle by buying used when possible.

In any case, I hope your situation works out.

 

@discreteuniverse, your observation is quite correct. Those company that manufactures a quality product (focus on customer service), probably have very little competition within that segment. i.e. like Ford's model T 100 years ago.

Computer field have high level of competition between manufacturers, so a balance must be struck between product quality, pricing, design, marketing and customer service quality.

This is also why IBM did not do so well as market competition intensified, as it is mostly a product focused company and not a marketing focused company....

 

...In other words, profit margin.

Renee

 

True. A 'lessons learned' for me personally.

 

I agree that at the end of the day, the most important thing is getting a good quality system, but a bad purchasing experience can very much sour you on a system no matter how good.

I think the days of companies like Lenovo getting away with poor customer service are numbered. I have great respect for the Thinkpad line, but I would have canceled my order in a second during this ordeal if I hadn't already purchased an SSD that I couldn't return (and couldn't be used in the Sony VAIO Z I was going to get instead).

I think most consumers in my position would have canceled the order ( this guy with a similar situation canceled his order an bought something else).

 

Just remember, the Lenovo engineers have nothing to do with the sales and management people.

Thinkpads are kind of like alien technology invented by the wise and powerful Ancients (engineers). Unfortunately, the Goa'uld (sales and management) have horded all of the technology and you must get past them in order to obtain some for yourself.

 

Nice Analogy, SG1

 

Well, it's been about 3 weeks, and I haven't received my refund. I'm filing a complaint with the better business bureau.

As a cautionary note, if you place an order with Lenovo and receive 2 conflicting confirmation emails and one confirmation email quotes an incorrect price-- cancel your order immediately.

• Don't just cancel your order and place it again through a sales rep over the phone to confirm that you didn't do anything wrong in placing the order (I still got overcharged)
• Don't listen to sales reps who tell you not to worry because you will be charged the correct amount when the item ships. They are lying (I was still overcharged when it shipped despite email assurances to the contrary).
• Don't listen to sales reps who later say they are returning the overcharge to your credit card. They are lying.

Just cancel your order and buy your thinkpad used or from another retailer (YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH LENOVO!).

 

Without criticizing Lenovo, my experience with Dell has been that I talk to Susy Sunshine AND end up with a quality product. The key (as it is with Lenovo) is to go through the business division.

I'm highly impressed with the current Latitude E64xx line. I think the ThinkPad's Trackpoint and keyboard are a little bit better, but the Dell is still a solid machine.

As for sales, the last time I went direct, I ordered a 20" LCD (back when they were expensive). The resolution turned out making it a little smaller than I hoped, and there was one stuck pixel, so I called sales. They sent a shipping label, I sent it back for free, and got a 24" LCD instead. When I mentioned I had previously used a coupon code for 20% off, they checked; since that coupon expired, they used a 15% coupon ongoing plus took $50 off, and I ended up getting slighly more than 20% off on my lovely 2407WFP.

I don't think quality and customer service are mutually exclusive. I do think that while Lenovo's ThinkPad line is good, they seriously need to work on their logistics, including customer service, their shipping process (they need a better just-in-time model similar to Dell), and an improved website that works properly across IE, Firefox, and Chrome. I also think they need to work on improving some of Solectron's depot warranty service processes.

 

Given that Dell and Lenovo both contracts out much of the assembly to Contract Manufacturer like Quanta, Compal, Foxconn, etc, the J.I.T. system can be readily shifted around to suit the needs of either company.

J.I.T was a really good model in Computer industry for a while, but that was during when the price of many electronic parts were expensive. Nowadays most of the parts have dropped in price, and ordering parts in bulk can be a real cost saver. This is what Apple has used to its advantage, by ordering lots of parts and offering only a limited range of upgrades to its laptop.

The problem with Lenovo is there seems to be disorder within the actual organisation, and most management tries not to step on other department's toe to avoid any conflicts. As most of these people are drawing a salary and there is no point making suggestions about things outside of your job description, thus risking a turf war with everyone else for no real gains.

Dell on the other hand is run by Michael Dell and he is attached to the company for obvious reasons, so is Steve Jobs to Apple. These CEO have more than just monetary reasons to run their company well, it is their life's work and the success of these organisations are what defines them to the public eyes.

 

I feel sorry for what you have gone through (and still going through).
Do you think this was caused by Visa deal?
Or you think this can even happen to normal deals?

 

I suspect it has something to do with the visa site. Or, at least I hope it does. It's obviously a systemic problem, because it was reproduced both when I placed the order myself online and when I had the sales rep place the order for me over the phone. Whatever server sends the first confirmation ([email protected]) seems to accept the visa promo, and the second confirmation server ([email protected]) while accepting the prices totals it wrong.

It begs the question whether a company should really be selling stuff on the internet if their system is so buggy that they can't get something as simple (and important) as charging the correct amount down? It is a legitimate question, especially if their mechanisms to handle incorrect charges are so inadequate as to frustrate all reasonable attempts at having the situation remedied.

 

Lenovo refunded the overcharge to my account.

First notified Lenovo of Overcharge: November 10
Finally refunded Overcharge: December 13

Happy to have my money refunded, but it was far more difficult than it should have been for something so glaringly obvious.

 

Lenovo backend information systems are a mess. Integration of random growths since the IBM days is nowhere near complete after all these years. Well, global PC business is much much more than just shoving electronic components into a black box.