Strange things happening at the depot

yep..its cheaper to spend money on a new mobo and have some 'kid' swapt it out than have a high level computer engineer inspect it and dx the exact problem

 

I wonder if there is not a point you are missing?

"its cheaper to spend money on a new mobo and have some 'kid' swapt it out"

To whom?

It certainly is not cheaper to Hellbore.

 

Yeah fortunately for Lenovo they aren't getting billed for my valuable time that I am wasting not being able to use my computer

I guess the good news is that they sent it to a "more experienced" tech and when I just called to check again, they said they have now "put a rush" on the repair.

I just hope they don't rush TOO much and not do a good job...

 

it's cheaper for the underwriting company that sponsors the warranty..probably lenovo in this case...learn to read around the lines please before posting such absurd responses

 

Learn to know what absurd is, because what i said was not. Your comment was straight American "buisiness think".

 

Hey guys we're all on the same side here lol...

 

Well, it is smart business from the large business stand point (profit-making)..it affects the consumers...example: hellbore

Now i never said that is right to do that...i just mentioned the way it is, and it sucks..especially for the consumer

want to take a chill pill?

 

Not only that... no everyone here is a guy.

 

now im confused

 

Hellbore: "Hey guys we're all on the same side here lol..."

I was agreeing with you and letting Hellbore know that not everyone here is a guy.

 

Hey this is the Internet, how should I know? I can't exactly lift up your skirts and see who is male and who is female

 

I am a male and wear a skirt.
i got it at lenovo outlet.
I ried to cancel but it came anyway.

 

Hahaha!

Well at least there is humor to distract me from my sad thinkpad-less existance...

 

there's nothing better than good humor

 

Hellbore, I had a very similar experience with the IBM depot which ended in me just demanding a full refund and ordering a Clevo. I think the big problem is the phone tech's inability to accurately transcribe what your problem is. The depot couldn't effectively work on my machine because techs had written down things that indicated entirely different problems than what I had actually said.

 

Yep the phone tech who entered in my problem description was dumb, he didn't even sound computer literate at all.. He also wouldn't let me talk, he kept interrupting and trying to tell me these problems I was having were "normal". It was really hard to convince him to send me out the box to have it repaired. Then, the description he put on my case was not what I told him. It's like he put whatever he wanted, instead of what I actually told him.

I don't know if I can get a refund any more, it has been more than 21 days since I received the machine. It has been 7 days in the depot. If I had known it would take this long I would have asked for a refund 7 days ago instead of sending it in. At that time it would have only been 19 days so I could have just demanded a refund. Hindsight is always 20/20 I think I can still get a refund though if I talk to the right people and describe the problems I have been having with the repairs.

I already spoke with the complaints department today to file my complaint, because one of the depot hotline guys I spoke with was helpful and told me that was the best thing to do. He said I should get my complaint filed right away because it would help expedite the process of getting my money back.

I'm extremely dissappointed, especially since the prices have come down since I ordered this machine, if I could get my money back and order a new one I could get a better deal.

However, I keep hearing that if you order one right now, you'll have to wait weeks or even months due to major parts delays. It seems I can't win.

My other option... which I initially wouldn't have considered but is starting to look REALLY good now... is to see if I can get a refund, and buy from some other company (HP for example, an 8510p or 8510w). That is getting to be a more and more attractive option. I'm not sure I want to do business with a company that does such a poor job handling warranty repairs.

 

All in all, what I am reading here is really scary. I'll find out tomorrow.
It's going to be a really busy weekend with all of the installing

 

You can. Keep after them or file a BBB report and after a few days they get their act together.

 

Yes, my rebate is coming down the line almost 2 months after I purchased the laptop. If you convince Lenovo/IBM that it's their fault that you didn't return it within your 21-day window, then they will still take it back.

Next time you call IBM, ask for your case to be escalated to Lenovo Customer Relations, and it will be taken care of. They aren't particularly responsive either but it will be done.

"I'm not sure I want to do business with a company that does such a poor job handling warranty repairs." This is exactly why I went the route I did. Even if they sent me a whole new machine, which they offered, I knew I could end up in the same situation all over again.

 

It's just kind of a lose-lose situation for me because I didn't want the HP, I wanted the T61P, but I can only deal with so much incompetence before I give up on them.

Fortunately the HP is a good alternative because it is pretty much the same quality and performance.

 

"Even if they sent me a whole new machine, which they offered, I knew I could end up in the same situation all over again."

Of course this is so, but the probability of it happening is really small.

Hellbore, I think you need to go up the chain. Stop dealing with the techs because you won't get help there. You need a sales advocate or customer services. I don't want you to get an HP either. Honestly, I've looked at HP and they are about 6 to eight months behind Lenovo in their technology and the systems they are offering.

 

Maybe you could get a "lower end" (smaller hard drive, less memory, etc.) T61p off Ebay (I think Renee found a T61p to her liking on Ebay) and then spend the saved money on upgrading the machine yourself? I can tell from the thread you definitely have the knowledge!!

 

One thing you can do is check you local lemon law. I am not sure how many "fixes" they tried on it, but afaik, most states consider it a lemon after 3 documents problems or repairs

 

If they haven't shipped it back and forth three times for the same problem yet, I doubt you could count the three part swaps at the depot towards any lemon law, unfortunately.

 

Hellborne,

Don't hurt. I did find a really nice T61p (new and in a sealed box) on ebay and the price was lower than the employee price.

I still think that some well written letters to lenovo would get you results you want.

 

Well here's my regular bad news update.

As of right now it is 4:40 PM (their time) and they have not even updated the status of my repair since Friday. They didn't make any progress Friday either.

This is ridiculous. I think it's time for a refund and to never do business with Lenovo again. I will make sure to warn anyone who asks me about how bad their repair service is.

They probably think 1 customer doesn't matter but if they keep doing this to their customers they are going to find out pretty soon that it adds up.

 

I'm sorry this is going on for you. As it turns out, I'll get my chance to experience it almost first hand. The system I purchased is working flawlessy but.... it's not the system that the purchaser ordered.

He ordered a t61p with WWAN. There is no WWAN in my system, instead I have turbo memory and the two are mutually exclusive. I'll be really curious to see what Lenovo does in response to having shipped the wrong system.

 

Hey guys, sorry but I made a mistake in my last post...

They actually haven't posted an update since THURSDAY. I wonder if they didn't even work on it Friday or today?

However, I did receive some information from someone else, there is a Mark Hopkins who is from Lenovo's Social Media department or something like that. He called me and said that they assigned my repair to some higher level tech who goes around from job to job working on the more difficult issues, or something like that. The guy hasn't looked at my machine yet though, it's supposed to be next on his list I guess.

What I don't understand is why Lenovo needs to have a special go-to guy look at my machine, how hard can it be to fix? Why can't they just keep replacing parts until they have replaced anything that might be bad? Are their regular depot techs so inept that they can't deal with my problem?

I wish I was a fly on the wall and could see what could possibly be causing so much trouble with my repair. Wouldn't it have been easier and quicker for them to just junk the machine and send me the new one?

The excuse I was given was, well we can't do that because it was a custom configuration, we would have to give you a refund and have you re-order again and wait in line for 2 or 3 weeks again.

That is a ridiculous policy, for a customer who has been put through this much crap already they should be able to put my order ahead of those of new customers. I ALREADY bought and waited for this machine, they shouldn't treat me like a new customer!

Just keep piling it on Lenovo...see what happens...

P.S. - This Mark Hopkins guy was polite and everything on the phone, but I can't help but get the impression that he's a "damage control" guy whose purpose is to try and make me stop complaining about Lenovo online. He said he saw my posts on the forums. I appreciate him trying to help but it does seem a little disingenuous especially since he hasn't achieved any results for me and my machine is STILL stick in depot hell. If he said hey, we are going to make this a priority and ship you out a new machine and NOT make you wait 3 weeks with a new order, that would be something. Saying hey, I'm sorry, I really want to get this fixed, but you are still getting nowhere... that isn't worth much. He's supposed to be calling me back in a few minutes though, I'll see what he has to say.

 

Same thing happened to me I just took the refund, trust me take the refund, then figure out what you want to do....

 

I better not say what I want to do, there might be children reading this

To all the haters out there like Madmax, etc... all you who were complaining about Lenovo... You were right, I was wrong and you were right. I feel like a fool for defending them. Maybe it was karma. I defended Lenovo against the flamers, then next thing I know, the same kind of experience happens to me. Now I know it's true because I have experienced it.

By the way - This Mark guy promised to call me back in 15 minutes, it has been over 30 minutes and no call back yet. Can't anyone at Lenovo be trusted?

 

Why not give them a chance to fix it fist?

 

How much longer would you suggest I wait? Another week? Two weeks? Four?

How many weeks would you say is fair to allow them to do a simple parts swap?

Why is my case so special when other users with the same problem have had their machine back within 3 days?

Do you realize it has been a week and a day already, and they haven't even addressed the issue I sent it in for, they have been working on a new issue that appeared after they started working on it? The machine won't even post now, it's in worse shape than when I sent it. The current issue is the machine won't post, and according to their system, that has been the same status for 6 days now!

 

I agree its ****** up. If it was me I would wait until next Monday and try and forget about it in the mean time, if its still messed up then I'd try and use it as leverage to get 20% off another machine or just take my money and run (to another company).

 

"How much longer would you suggest I wait? Another week? Two weeks? Four?

How many weeks would you say is fair to allow them to do a simple parts swap?"

ASk them. ASk them for a concrete schedule and Plan on how they are going to proceed and by when. When martin Luther King was doing his political action, he would ask, "how many and by when?" You know "water is wet, rocks are hard".

 

I just don't see why they are having so much trouble fixing the issue, my BS-meter is in the red right now. I really think there is something they aren't telling me. It is virtually impossible to communicate with the actual techs who know what is going on, there is a pretty thick wall protecting them from customers apparently.... I wonder what they are doing to my machine...

 

Don't you think I tried that? They don't do that... they won't tell me when anything will happen. Mark Hopkins did end up calling me back, only to tell me that he wasn't able to get in touch with the tech who was assigned to this case. He couldn't tell me fore sure if this tech was even going to work on my machine today or tomorrow or when.

Hell, when they ordered a part for my laptop and put my case on hold, they couldn't even tell me WHAT part had been ordered, or WHEN they expected to get the part!

It would seem Lenovo is very evasive and doesn't commit to anything for the customer. It's always guesses and speculation.

 

Well I got word back, since it has taken this long they are just going to send me a new machine with the same specs. That might take a while so they are going to let me borrow a loaner machine meanwhile.

I have been fighting with myself mentally over this issue, part of me says, screw them, make them pay, get your money back and run, buy some other brand.

However, I am pretty picky and I bought a T61P becuase that's what I wanted. I think if I buy a different brand I would always feel like I had been forced to compromise and buy something other than what I wanted.

Anyways... I guess I'm going to stick with it. I just hope the new one doesn't have the same problem.

 

WOW a loaner machine I didn't even know they did that..

 

Yeah I don't know how common that is but I think it's a good idea if a repair is going to take a long time.

It would probably be pointless in most cases because the repair turnaround time is usually 2 or 3 days.

 

Well, hopefully this all works out for the best. Odd, there's a finite number of parts in the machine, I am surprised they could not resolve the issue. I'm with you, though, I bought the machine for a reason, and I'd probably want the same machine back -- and working -- not cash and having to start all over again.

It seems like SVGA screens have been shipping pretty quickly so hopefully your wait is short and the system is appropriately expedited.

 

Remember, Builder = Lenovo, Service = IBM, Depot Repair = Solectron (at least in the US and probably elsewhere). You're talking to a different set of liars now

 

If you give them a chance to fix it, and more likely than not they probably wouldn't have fixed it, then it will be almost impossible to get your money back, and you will be in the cycle of solectron (sending your computer out numerous times etc). Take what they give you so that you can A. Buy a thinkpad again and hope that you don't have the same problems. B. Buy another brand etc.

 

So now I'm nervous. I got my T61 (delivered) the last week of July. Great machine, worked fine. Until the hard drive died three weeks ago. Tech support was great, but they suggested they send me a new HD. They did, I replaced it and returned the defective one. (DHL was great and prompt) Had to wait a week though to receive recovery discs (I know, I should have had them from the get go ) Set the system up and everything was fine - until yesterday when it just froze. Got boot manager error status 0xc00000e9. Couldn't get in through BIOS either. Could this be motherboard or HD again? Called Tech. They want me to send it in. Aaargh! Luckily I still have my cheap, dependable but hot Averatec (which cost less than half of this thing, has never given me a problem in 3 years, but doesn't look anywhere near as cool ) to hold me over. I just hope I'm not getting into the same situation

 

I just don't understand why they can't put you in the 'front of the line.' what kind of ordering system do they have?

Hellbore, I would file with BBB with this. I would try to milk it as much as possible....I know you ordered an ultrabay battery online that didn't work out for you....having lenovo give you one is the LEAST they can do

 

Lenovo can't even cancel orders

 

Yeah I don't know why they haven't offered me any incentives like that. I have heard of other people who had to re-order being offered discounts or freebies. That definitely would have made me happier about this whole situation.

 

It's time to ask then!

 

Yeah I will ask. My time is worth something and I have spent a lot of time so far dealing with this issue. It is lucky for Lenovo that I can't send them a bill for all the time I spent troubleshooting the problem to make sure it wasn't a software issue, then sending it in and dealing with the depot repair people. The company I work for charges $200 an hour for the time I spend on our customers. The main reason I bought a Thinkpad in the first place was because I thought I would get the best quality and the best and fastest repair service. I'm a senior in the Computer Systems Engineering program, an officer in the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and carrying a 4.0 cumulative GPA while also working in the computer industry doing programming, IT, and hardware tech work. Between my classes, my job, and my extracurricular work, I really don't have time to deal with a defective laptop that they can't seem to repair. It has already negatively affected my school situation.

 

Is there a turnaround time listed in their warranty, From when I use to work for a warranty some states had a set time listed that if your item was not fixed the company was pretty much at fault.
I agree file a complaint with the BBB against Lenovo and the warranty company

 

Welllllllll I don't necessarily think it is time to file a BBB complaint yet, I will have to check the fine print but I don't think they have violated the terms of the warranty yet.

I have dealt with the BBB before and they aren't very helpful unless there is a very clear violation of some kind. I don't think we are there yet.

I have read about much worse horror stories on these forums, I don't think my case has gotten THAT far out of hand.

Plus, the BBB can't do very much. For example, earlier this year I had my windshield replaced and the company who did the job damaged some of the chrome trim on my vehicle and replaced it with ugly black rubber trim. The company denied this. Fortunately I had photographs from before the installation. I filed a complaint with the BBB and the windshield company pretty much laughed it off.

What did get results, however, is when I reported the situation to the Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. They send the windshield company an official letter stating that they were investigating this consumer fraud issue. That REALLY lit a fire under their butts! Before you could say jack sprat, the windshield company went from ignoring me, to calling me to schedule a complete windshield replacement with chrome trim. That's what I call service lol...