One month and counting on a t61 order

OK, this has now reached the point of being ridiculous. I ordered four t61 thinkpads August 29 and here we are on September 29 and they still haven't shipped.

They are plain vanilla thinkpads with the exception of an upgrade to 2gb of ram and a 9-cell battery.

The first ship date listed when ordering was 9-7, then it slipped to 9-16, then 9-29.

Now, I understand shipping delays and can deal with it, but the thing that has really got me bugged is that on 9-18, Lenovo called me and told me they were shipping on 9-19.

That's right, they called me. I hadn't even called them to check up on it.

So, no shipment occurred on 9-19, so I called them on 9-22 to ask about it, and they told me they were shipping no later than 9-26.

I could have bought these things locally for a little more and would have been honest about things.

 

That's really frustrating. It's bad enough to wait a week in anticipation of a new machine.

It probably doesn't help to know, but I think it's because of the batteries... there are a few battery types which have individual ship-dates listed at "more than 8 weeks".

So, regardless of whether someone's waiting for just-released machine or one that's been available for a few months now... I think the batteries are the major problem. It would be nice to have some indication when ordering -- "hey, this battery will add a month or more to your ship date!"

 

I am sure it is because of the battery, as well.

If they hadn't called me, I probably wouldn't be so annoyed, but why raise your expectation and then not deliver?

And, it's worth noting, that Dell actually does inform you when ordering that a certain part is likely to cause a delay. It's a shame Lenovo cannot do the same

 

The exact same thing happened to my brother as well when he ordered his X61. There was a shortage or batteries and it ended up taking 8 full weeks from ordering to when he got it in his hands. Lenovo does tell you that some components are in short supply, but not all of them. Their website has so many errors, it's not even funny.

 

Try contacting Mark at www.lenovoblogs.com, I'm sure he could help you speed things up.

 

Much better to contact him in the forum than on the blog.

 

If I were you I would confirm that Lenovo can still build you a T61.

My dad's company ordered a couple T61ps a few weeks before the new W series came out. After a month shipping delays, they got a phone call from Lenovo last week telling them that they no longer had the graphics card for their order, and that they would have to cancel and reorder some W500s.

They are getting a good deal now, maybe the same thing is happening to you.

 

Thank you for the pointers to the forum.

Today, the page was updated with a new ship date of October 13!

Again, this is after I have been promised twice they would ship.

I called this morning, and the customer service person a) assured me that the t61p model is still available, and b) that it would ship "the week of October 8."

I asked if it was indeed the battery, and they couldn't tell me. I asked if I could swap out the 9-cell and drop in smaller batteries and they said they would have to cancel the entire order and start from scratch.

This is now obscene.

These are practically stock t61s !

Needless to say, these are probably the last Lenovo's I purchase.

 

Yes, frustrating indeed. The delays are hard to predict. I ordered my machine with a 9 cell battery when(not sure if it is still true) the 9cell batteries were in short supply after the battery plant burned down. I was expecting to wait like you, a month or so, but I was in no hurry. Surprisingly my machine was delivered to me in 10 days. I was quite happy.

Also as you found out, they can't change your order in any way. They cancel and reorder which would make you wait longer. It's probably too difficult for them to amend the order and easier to delete and recreate.