Should I just cancel my order (if it isn't already canceled)?

I placed an order for a Thinkpad laptop on Tuesday. I listed a different shipping address than billing address (my billing address is my home, but I can't have it shipped there because I am away from home 12 hours/day, and on multiple occasions, I have had packages intended for me be delivered to the wrong address or just disappear. I don't want to take that chance on an expensive laptop!). The shipping address I listed was a relative's home about 3 hours away from where I live - she lives in a secure building and would be home to receive the shipment, and I'll be seeing her in the next month and can pick up the laptop from her.

I paid for my order using a debit card linked to my bank checking account. By Wednesday morning, my bank account already showed the laptop transaction "in process," and the cost of the order was already deducted from my available balance.

I received an email from Lenovo sales on Wednesday informing me that my order could not be processed unless the shipping address was on file with my bank. The email instructed me to call my bank and then reply to the email within four days. I called my bank twice, and both customer service reps I talked to stated that I could not have more than one address listed on my account. I could change my address to the shipping address, but then my billing address wouldn't be correct anymore.

I called Lenovo twice and spoke to two different customer service reps. Both had pretty thick accents, and I had a hard time understanding them and figuring out whether they understood me. From what I thought I understood, one said that my order would not go through (unless I wanted the laptop shipped to my billing address), and the other one put me on hold for a while after I explained my problem and then came back on the line and said that everything would be fine and that the order would be shipped to my intended shipping address.

I also replied to the email Lenovo sales sent me twice (which had my order number and other information in it) - the first time on Wednesday evening, the second time on Friday morning, explaining the situation with my bank and asking if the order would still go through. I received no reply.

As of this morning (Saturday), the transaction has disappeared from my checking account online, and the money was added back to my available balance, but my order status on Lenovo's website still says "in process." I tried calling Lenovo's sales phone number, but they are closed on weekends, and I won't be able to get a hold of them until Monday.

Should I assume my order has been canceled? If it hasn't, should I just cancel my order? (I don't have another form of payment that will allow me to add multiple addresses, with the exception of Paypal, but even if I use Paypal, the money would have to be withdrawn from this same debit card linked to my checking account that allows me only one address.)

 

It is good that the amount has been added back to your account. To me, this is key. If I were you, I would immediately transfer as much cash as possible out of that account, into another account, presumably a savings account that you already have.

The Lenovo website takes a while to reflect the order status maintained by the "backend" systems. In any event, I suggest you call Lenovo again on Monday to cancel the order, or to confirm that it has been canceled.

To combat frauds, Lenovo requires that the shipping address be the same as the billing address of the payment instrument, which, in your case, is a debit card.

 

Thanks for your reply, Kaso.

Do you think the fact that the transaction didn't go through on my debit card linked to my checking account is indicative of the order being canceled from Lenovo's end?

I've done some thinking about this, and I think I'd like to cancel this order anyway, if it isn't already canceled on Lenovo's end. The laptop was due to ship March 17, and I'm getting kind of impatient. There's a fairly comparable HP Probook I'm eyeing on Amazon.com, and with my Prime account, if I ordered today (or even on Monday) it would be shipped and arrive at my relative's house on Wednesday (and I could pick it up when we see each other next weekend). I don't get penalized for canceling a Lenovo order before it ships, correct?

 

First question: Yes. But I would call Lenovo on Monday to make sure.

Second question: Correct. No penalty (before the order goes into production).

 

Thank you again for your reply, Kaso .

 

"Both had pretty thick accents, and I had a hard time understanding them and figuring out whether they understood me."

One thing I should say about Lenovo is that almost all reps have accents and are difficult to understand.

Renee

 

Try calling to modified your order, the sale rep that pick mine up was 100% US born American.

 

If I were Lenovo I would also cancel your order due to the differences in addresses.

If I were you I would ask Lenovo for certified shipping. I was not at home when mine came in, and the UPS guy brought the laptop back to the UPS location and I had to go pick it up. I would also leave a note on my door for whoever comes not to leave packages outside.

 

Ugh, what a mess.

Last night I ordered an HP Elitebook on Amazon. With my Prime membership, it shipped this morning.

This morning, I planned to call Lenovo to cancel my order if it wasn't already canceled. As soon as I was going to call them, I checked my email account and found that my Lenovo order had shipped! (The estimated shipping date I received last week was March 17.) I called Lenovo and talked first to general customer service and then to the sales department.

I explained the situation to the first guy I talked to (general customer service) said that he would try to cancel the order from his end. He put me on hold for a while and said he tried to cancel the order, but he's not sure if it worked. Then he transferred me to sales.

I explained the situation to the sales guy (the first Lenovo rep I've spoken with who seems to be a native English speaker), and he said there was nothing he could do because the order has already shipped. He advised me to accept the order (or in my case, advise my relative to accept the order) and then call the returns department to try to return the item without the 15% restocking fee that I would definitely be charged if the order was refused upon delivery.

As of this morning, my bank account has still not been charged for the order. To my knowledge, my bank has only my billing address on file, since they could not add the shipping address to my account. (I have enough funds remaining in my account to cover the Lenovo order, and have sufficient money left over.)

Any advice? Has anyone successfully navigated through a situation like this before without getting screwed in fees?

(The two notebooks that are getting shipped to my relative are an HP Elitebook 8440p and a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 14. I definitely do NOT need both of these, and of the two, I'd rather have the Elitebook.)

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I do not understand. Lenovo always "charges" the customer's account (in most cases, a credit card) at the time the product ships out of the factory. The charge did not occur while the order status is shown as "shipped" - how could this be?

(In the case of credit cards, the first transaction against the card is an "Authorization" for the amount when the order is approved, and the final transaction is "Capture" of the same amount when the order is shipped.)

"I have enough funds remaining in my account to cover the Lenovo order": I would not leave that amount in your checking account if I were you.

 

The Lenovo withdrawal from my checking account was "In process" on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the transaction totally disappeared from my account on Saturday. My account updates pretty quickly - like when I go the store and buy something on my debit card, there is usually already an "In process" transaction on my online banking account an hour later, and it is finalized within 24-48 hrs. The purchase I made last night from Amazon is already "in process," as are the purchases I made in a few stores yesterday.

So as of right now, I don't see any evidence to suggest that the Lenovo transaction has started being processed at my bank (unless it has just started).

I will call my bank and ask them what I would be charged if Lenovo tries to process my order but I have insufficient funds (if I were to order a transfer from my checking to my savings account right now).

 

Did Lenovo effectively withdraw money from your checking account? (You noted that the amount had been put back.) If Lenovo did not, that is its problem, and you should not leave "enough funds" in your account - to prevent any withdrawal.

If Lenovo did, then the transaction was normal: your Edge order has been processed and shipped.

 

No, as of right now, the money for the Lenovo order has NOT been withdrawn from my checking account.

I just got off the phone with my bank. The bank rep I spoke to says that Lenovo has still not initiated any transaction. She offered to transfer the remaining funds from my account to a savings account I have at the same bank. I assume if I did that this morning, and Lenovo tried to charge my account this afternoon, that I would then get charged a fee from Lenovo for having insufficient funds? I don't want to needlessly complicate this situation and get charged all kinds of fees.

The bank rep said that my bank could contest a charge, if and when it starts being processed. Since Lenovo has not charged my account at all right now, there is nothing to contest.

This is really bizarre.

 

Protect yourself while Lenovo sorts out its own problems. Hang on to the email that says Lenovo cannot process your order because of mismatched shipping and billing addresses.

 

I have that email, as well as all the emails I sent them last week enquiring about the status of my order which they never responded to.

Do you think I should still transfer the money from my checking account to my savings account right now? Would that possibly stop the shipment of this laptop, or just get me more fees and more problems?

 

OMG, please protect that amount! (I can initiate account transfers on-line, instantly.) As I said, in the normal scenario, the charge always occurs at the time the order is shipped. If Lenovo somehow shipped "your" notebook without charging your debit card, its systems have problems.

 

Thank you for your help, Kaso. About an hour ago I authorized the transfer from my checking to my savings accounts. My checking account now shows an effective balance of ~$100, which is obviously a lot less than the Lenovo computer costs! I will be in touch with my bank for the next few days to see if Lenovo has attempted to charge my account. Any other advice?

 

You are not alone Mina. I'm in UK and and had a stressful experience ordering my W510 with a debit card. Briefly, I ordered from Lenovo UK online, paid and receved email which didn't list all the options I specified. Next day I called CS and the person I spoke to could not confirm details of what I ordered and suggest I cancel the order, I agreed and waited 4 days for the money to reappear in my account. The money appeared in my account so I placed another order. Next day I received email stating my first order had shipped. I called and was told "The system should not have allowed first order to be shipped, apologiues but you will also be charged for the 2nd order which would be refunder later. Luckily they got their act together and I wasn't charged twice and I'm happy with the machine

 

It's the morning after shipment and I've now received a UPS tracking number, but inputting the number into UPS's tracking module yields a "UPS could not locate the shipment details for your request. Please verify your information and try again later." message. Maybe the delivery has been stopped? I will check again later today.

Meanwhile, the transfer of funds from my checking to my savings account has been finished (yesterday it was pending), so Lenovo cannot withdraw the payment for the laptop from my checking account.

Any advice on what to do from here? At this point, I don't know if the laptop will be delivered to my relative or not, but if it is, I would definitely return it. I would like to avoid paying fees (especially the 15% restocking fee!) because I've tried to contact Lenovo several times about this but have never received a response to my emails and I keep getting told different things on the phone.

 

Refuse delivery. Should be real easy if it's signature required.

 

The sales rep I spoke to yesterday said that if I refuse delivery, I will absolutely be charged the 15% restocking fee. If I accept the delivery, then I can contact Lenovo returns and negotiate a return without a fee.

 

Mina, I am in a similar situation, I will be monitoring this thread and sharing any unlike results. Unlike you though I went and used Bill Me Later as a form of payment. Lets cross our fingers and hope it all works out!

 

dmarti, I'm glad I'm not the only one!

This morning, the tracking message from UPS has been updated to "A label for this shipment has been created, but UPS does not yet have possession of this shipment. Once we receive the shipment, the tracking status will be updated." Today is also listed as the "shipped/billed on" date. My plan is to call Lenovo early this afternoon to see if the cancellation may have gone through. I need to pay my gas&electric bill using my checking account, and I will need to transfer more funds to it in order to pay this bill, so I can't hold the balance at $100 indefinitely.

 

Update:

So the Lenovo charge DID show up on my checking account this morning as "pending," meaning that I am now overdrawn by ~$700. I immediately called my bank to ask about what would happen, and this is what they said. They can't do anything about it while it is still pending, and by tomorrow, one of two things should happen:

1. (most likely) My bank will reject this charge and charge me a $25 non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee. The customer service rep I spoke to has put a note in my account, and she advised me to call back tomorrow morning and assured me that the $25 fee would likely be waived because I called to explain my situation this morning.

2. (less likely, but still possible) The Lenovo charge will be "hard posted" and Lenovo will get their payment (my bank will cover the ~$700 I don't have in my account today). In this case, since I called today and explained that I already requested to cancel the order two days ago, my bank will open an investigation into this charge and hopefully find in my favor.

And, I just checked the tracking of the package - it is in Shanghai, China, and "in transit," due to be delivered next Tuesday.

What a mess. If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it.

 

Mina like you i called and emailed Lenovo to cancel yet I show the shipment and tracking from UPS Global tracking the laptops trip from China. My pending charge was reversed and is not showing at this time against my Bill Me Later account but customer service @ Lenovo assures me that the order has been cancelled. More updates to come I am sure.

 

Just got off the phone with Lenovo again. They claim the laptop has already been paid for, and reiterated the same thing that the guy in sales said on Monday (that I should accept the package, then call the returns department to negotiate a return without a restocking fee).

I asked this rep why Lenovo would ship the order to a shipping address that's NOT on file with my payment information, why my 4 emails to Lenovo have never been answered (sent to [email protected], by the way, which have all included my order number and full name), and why they charged my account TODAY when the order was listed as shipped two days ago, and she had no answers to give me.

 

Mina after several attempts on my end to look into the plight of my cancellation, I just got the following email from Lenovo:


Dear David,


Thank you for contacting Lenovo.



We apologize as we cannot cancel your order at this time. Your order shipped on 3/08, under the UPS tracking number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
In case you want to return the package, please accept the package, do not open the box and call us to return for full refund + shipping charges. Please do not refuse the package to avoid 15% restocking fee.



If you have further questions or concerns, reply back to [email protected]. You can also contact us at 866-42-THINK (84465) option number 2, or via live chat at
Lenovo - Lenovo Chat and a customer service specialist will assist you.



Once again, thank you for contacting Lenovo.

 

yeah just take the order & call lenovo to tell them you have some issues with your system. (just find out existing know issues & tell them to avoid 15% restocking fees). I am ONLY suggesting this because in your situation it's lenovo who is at fault to keep sales/return department in India. I hate when they don't know most of the time what to do...simply idiots..

 

I'm glad you got a response to your email; it's unfortunate that your order couldn't be successfully canceled and now you have to go through the hassle of returning it. Did your order also ship way before the expected ship date?

 

Yes it did. I'll report back of my return attempt. But now I have some hope for a resolution. Thanks and good luck Mina!

 

May this thread end in peace.

 

Well, my bank has given Lenovo the full amount of the purchase, and I am now ~$700 overdrawn. I called my bank and opened a credit dispute case.

This horrible experience has totally denigrated my opinion of the Lenovo brand.

 

Latest update:

My bank issued me credit for the cost of the laptop while they are investigating this case.

I just checked the laptop's tracking, and the laptop is now being shipped to Whittsett, NC, presumably to the Lenovo warehouse there. They better not charge me the 15% restocking fee after all this crap.

 

your bank will most likely find the following excerpt on lenovo.com:

link: Lenovo - Shopping help - Payment, pricing and promotions

while i agree this has been a seemingly frustrating experience, a lot of headaches would be saved by customers locating and reading the terms and conditions before purchasing.

 

Unfortunately, Lenovo's ordering process can be a complete pain should you encounter an issue. It's one of those things where criticism is deserved. I've never understood why there seems to be so much chaos compared to Dell.

That said, one piece of advice I can't stress enough. Never pay with a debit card. Always uses a credit card. You're not relying on some amount of funds that needs to be there in your bank account, so there will never be a risk of overdraw. Also, there's almost always a better dispute resolution policy in place with a credit card than a debit card.

This recommendation goes regardless who you purchase a laptop from. As for shipping/billing addresses, it's always good to check that with your bank before you order. I don't know why your bank doesn't allow for a second address on file, but I'm guessing that's because it is a debit card, not a credit card. I have a second shipping address on file with my credit card company so I can ship to work (40 miles from home) so that equipment I order won't sit outside on a stoop all day.

In addition to keeping that e-mail on file, whenever you call Lenovo, make a note of what employee you talked to (name and ID if they have one) what time the call was made, and what was discussed. In this case, the important call is the one from the representative that said the order would not go through.

Finally, I'd have waited to order the HP until you were certain everything was over with your Lenovo transaction. It's nice to have something quickly, but if you're on a tight budget, better to wait until you're sure one transaction is settled before going to another.

 

So today I talked to two people in the Lenovo customer service office who assured me that a credit for the full amount of the laptop was issued, dated yesterday, and I will be getting my money back in 5-7 or 8-10 business days. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the case.

 

I got my refund for return W510 without any drama.

 

Woohoo, my refund now appears in my checking account as a finalized transaction (it appeared as pending on Sunday morning). I am so happy that this situation is resolved.

 

Glad it worked out.

Moral of the story: Use a credit card and provide ample lead time for delivery.

 

Out of curiosity; why did you return it? A defect?

 

She had buyer remorse (changed her mind) after ordering it but before it shipped.

 

Or, in my case, never order anything from Lenovo again. Between incoherent customer service reps, contradictory information, and all-out rudeness (the last sales rep I talked to), this was one of the worst customer service experiences of my life.

 

I guess every manufacturer has horror stories like this. My return/refund of my E6410 from Dell's outlet was painless, although it was a preconfigured model and I'm assuming your purchase was CTO.

 

While I agree with Mina that her changing her mind should have been a painless transaction, customer service these days has been thrown out the window.

I see poor customer service EVERYWHERE I go. Online or in person.

For instance, I went o Lowe's to get some fertilizer. The garden section of the store was packed with buying customers yet they store hadn't bothered in the winter off season months to PM the cash registers and scanners so the buying experience was fast and painless.

It's just the whole attitude towards customers has changed. Companies just don't give a darn anymore.

 

Throughout this process, I have been extremely impressed with my bank's (State Farm Bank) customer service throughout this process. Their office is open 7 days a week from 8AM-8PM (CST), and every employee I've talked to is coherent, friendly, and willing to listen. While this process has left me with an extremely bad impression of the Lenovo brand, it's left me extremely confident and satisfied with my bank .

 

Mina, I'm glad the whole process ends well, especially your bank making you a more satisfied customer. Way to go!

-Kaso

 

REI and Nordstrom are the only two companies I can think of that consistently give me a great experience every time I go there.

 

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but I have a very similar issue except I canceled before the laptop was being built and the rep told me I'd receive a confirmation email within 24 hours (which I never did). Assuming the cancellation was completed, I ordered another laptop. Today I received an email saying that the canceled laptop was shipped so you can imagine the W'TF face I had. The bigger problem is that I don't have the sufficient amount in the account to pay for the laptop. So to prevent Lenovo from charging my account, I closed my debit card. Will Lenovo still be able to charge my account? There's no pre-authorization or anything in the online statement.

 

After making a cancellation I would monitor the order status until it shows that the order is cancelled.

John