My horrible experience with Lenovo...

Okay, I've been looking for a new laptop for awhile now... After studying all of the brands I settled in on Lenovo and it has been one of the worst decisions I ever made. Nothing but trouble and headaches since the moment I got my laptop.

The first model I ordered was a 15.4" T61, with T9300, 160GB 7200RPM, Vista Ultimate, 1GB Memory, 1GB Turbo Memory, Intel AGN, WSXGA+, Intel X3100 and Bluetooth. Almost immediately the system started crashing and getting BSOD's. After about a week of trying to let the system "settle in", I couldn't take the crashing anymore and call Lenovo trying to return a DEFECTIVE laptop. So, in their great effort to help me work this out... what do they do? Inform me that I have to pay a 15% restocking fee to return this piece of junk. I wasted about 5 hours on the phone going back and forth with this idiots doing all sorts of tests and arguing about the fee. Finally, in the end, I was able to get them to waive the restocking fee, but had to order a new laptop.

So I'm thinking okay, I got a piece of junk, but Lenovo is going to take care of me now. Wrong.

I just got the replacement laptop this week and now I have a faulty DVD burner and a horrible screen. This has definitely been one of my worst buying experiences ever.

I am a reasonable man... Lenovo messed up the first time around, which was annoying but understandable considering how many computers they make. But after giving them a chance to fix it, what do they do? Completely fail.

Good bye Lenovo, you just lost a customer for life.

 

I'll buy your faulty ThinkPad from you for $100.

 

I've heard rumors of Turbo Memory being the reason behind BSODs.

 

You need to provide more specifics. First off you said that you were getting crashes with the 1st computer. Its very possible it was related to Vista. Did you try a clean install following one of the guides on this forum(ex: Stallen wrote a great one)? Also there have been BSOD issues with the Turbo memory and there are ways around that as well(new driver install or disable card). Did you try anything related to this?

With the second machine. What was wrong with the screen? How was it bad? I am assuming it was quite different than the 1st machine's screen? With the DVD burner. It should have been covered under warranty. Did you contact Lenovo about getting it replaced.

I don't mean to belittle your issues. Lenovo seems to be very inflexible about the restocking fees and returns, especially due to screen compliants. It seems all the companies have very bad CS and quality control these days(some units are great and some have many problems). If you just tough it out and try to get Lenovo to fix things under warranty, you might have great machine. Though it might take some frustration.

 

Hello,

Yes, the first laptop did crash very often, to the point that it couldn't be used for work/productivity. I did read the guide by Stallen, which was very nicely done, but I just didn't want to get into anything like that - Vista should come installed in working order. In regards to Turbo Memory, yes, I did update the drivers. In fact, I had updated everything on the computer both from Windows and Lenovo. Besides those updates, I had installed Kaspersky 7, Firefox 2 and NBC direct (to stream NBC shows; it is provided by NBC); I didn't really do much to the laptop, as I was kind of "babying" it.

With the second laptop, there are a couple of hardware changes; No Turbo memory, XP Pro instead of Vista, and 2GB of memory factory installed. With the first laptop, I was left sort of confused about all the complaints about Lenovo screens I read posted online - it was bright, clear and had good contrast. On the second laptop, the screen is dim, hazy and lacks any contrast. It is honestly pretty bad to look at and I can understand some of the complaints now. The DVD burner will be of course covered under warranty, but I am not interested at this point in getting the laptop repaired. I just want to return it. And no, I haven't contacted them yet about the second laptop.

I have lost all faith in Lenovo, so I don't have enough confidence in them to "tough it out". If I do that, I will be beyond my 21 day return period and might end up with a $1,200 paper weight. Unacceptable.

And I don't feel you are belittling my issues; you are perfectly entitled to ask questions about them.

The way I look at it is this, Lenovo messed up, I gave them a chance to fix it and they didn't. So to hell with them, I'll take my money somewhere else.

 

send a little copy of your experience along to your sales rep, let them know what tech support is doing to their future.. Maybe won't help you, but it might. Lenovo's are still good machines, for now.

 

"Its very possible it was related to Vista."

This is total BS.

I've had two Lenovo laptops with vista and they have been totally solid. The second a T61p has had two versions of vista on 32 and 64 bit AND has had turbo memory on it. The systems were everybit as stable as OR more stable than XP.

 

Sorry for your bad experience. I don't see how Lenovo can enter into the consumer market being so inflexible. I am surprised that they even did an exchange for you. The reason I said "tough it out" is that I doubt you will be able to return the machine in your "return period". They will charge you a 15% restocking fee. With Lenovo there really is no return policy at this time. Can you post what specs you got with the machine your ordered? What screen res/type did you get? I love the design of the Thinkpad but I don't like the way Lenovo is running things, I wish their return policy was more flexible.

Also, have you tried contacting Mark Hopkins? He is a very helpful Admin on the Lenovo forums. You might want to PM him and explain to him your issues and dissatisfactions.

 

I have been hearing more and more stories about TS from lenovo lately. it seems like they are going down

 

After obtaining defective notebooks three times in a row in three months from HP I'd have to say I have you beat.

My recent ideapad notebook purcase from Lenovo was defect free.

 

Fire Snake,

Thanks. I'm here too.... just a low poster and sometimes lurker.

All,

We are in processes of changing over these scripts and policies. Defective systems will not incur a restocking fee, however the user will still need to contact service to verify the issue, and see if the issue can be easily resolved over the phone.

Anonymous52090,

Given your experiences, I'll understand completely if you are just ready to be done. However, I hate to see us lose customer who really wanted one of our systems. If you need some advocacy, you can reach me here, or on the Lenovo forum as Mark_Lenovo. If you would like some help, please share your recent sales order number with me via PM and I can go from there.

Apologies for the experience thus far,

Mark

 

I have noticed this too. But it also appears that more people seem to be ordering them. One of the things I got out of my statistics class is that when people freely respond to things such as forums about notebooks, there is volunteer bias. That means that either someone a) Had a good enough experience to share, or b) had a terrible experience to share. Most often, people post their horror stories. I'm not trying to belittle your problems either, my friend, but to those who are thinking that this may be a warning sign to stay away from Lenovo, you aren't hearing the stories of other satisfied customers.

Good luck with your problem.

 

Wilso119,

Good point, and often the case, especially in static link, opt-in surveys. The data get's skewed to the negative. The default forum culture is to share problems in hope of solutions - that's certainly the way the majority of the computer forums tend to go. There are positive, speculative discussions around new product introductions, and then the balance seems to either be fixing issues with the box, or the customer experience (sales, service, support).

The positive of talking out problems is that solutions can be found, immediate or longer term. In the OP's case, something specific for him should have been done / or could be done. In the longer term view, seeing multiple customers stub their toe on some unfriendly policy points is reason to reconsider the policy. A benefit of the forum is being able to "see" that experience point.

 

The one thing Lenovo can do, especially on their Thinkpad line is remove the junk, and fix their Thinkvantage utilities.

On all major laptop manufacturers, not doing a clean install is opening yourself up for headaches... I regret not doing it to mine, but I know XP and the Windows' registry pretty well that I got it exactly how I wanted it.

To the OP:

Did you ever run memory diagnostics? Either Lenovo's PC doctor boot disk (don't run it in windows), Memtest86+, or Prime95 tests? Bad RAM is a biatch, and I myself got a bad stick on my brand new z61m that was crashing my laptop after it had time to heat up. It took a few days to get it fixed after I called, but that was because it was Friday and Monday was a holiday Otherwise, from my experience at my work, its a next business day turnaround for FRUs, and usually a business day turnaround to resolve issues that are sent into the depot.

 

Is there a number I can reach you at Lenovo, maybe an extension from support?

 

I had a similar experience with my Lenovo purchase. I've posted the details in the past. Suffice to say, my Z61t was the worst electronics buying decision I've ever made.

It is true that virtually any piece of computer gear nowadays is a crap shoot...so much for statiscal QC (if it works after final assembly...ship it) and little or no burnin. However, Lenovo does seem to be singled out for bad customer service moreso than other brands. A cursory glance at the other forums yields the usual litany of hardware/software issues but I don't see the consistent posting about incredibly bad customer service that I do see here on this forum.

My purchase was nearly two years ago and things with Lenovo only seem to have deteriorated in that period of time. While they're not the total answer either, with XP support going away and Vista being a total piece of crap for my purposes, my next machine will be MAC...I've had enough of PCs and Microsoft.

 

Meh, I've bought 2 thinkpad within the past 2 years and they've been great to me. I also helped deploy 1,400 x41 tablets at an old workplace and they have been holding up great.

I have a friend that bought a x61s and she loves the thing.