The greatest machine doesn't matter if you can't get help

I was so excited when the Fed Ex man brought me my new Lenovo! I ripped into the little box like a kid into a Hershey bar, and I was sucking in sweet anticipation as I held the little critter in my hand. The power! I felt like Superman the first time he realized his power. When I finally docked it like some vessel in a far away galaxy, and fired it up it screamed like a little micron on steroids. WOW! I was nervous. I’ve had a few laptops now; an old tank ThinkPad, a Toshiba Satellite Pro, and my last one was a Dell Inspiron 8600.

All my previous experiences with laptops had been relatively good. IBM for starters had been great. Toshiba had also preformed well. But in spite of how Dell has often been portrayed, my experience was fantastic, and every issue that came up was resolved quickly and professionally. Well my new Lenovo messed up in less than a week! It happens. I work in IT and I had at least had the chance to enjoy some of the PROS of the x60s! It is FAST! The battery power is awesome! The keyboard is nice! The fingerprint reader is cool! But the real test is how one is treated when the crash comes and tech support is needed.

At Dell the Indian people truly tried to help. It was as if their lives depended on it! CONS: When I called Lenovo for help I was transferred to Georgia. Was it in America or old Russia? The tech had an accent so thick, little south, little young, but I thought I caught him after he had maybe had his wisdom teeth pulled; maybe he still had the gauze in his jaw. I could hardly understand a word he said. Well it took crying for a manager to be transferred to the “Mobile escalation line”. Finally, feeling like I was getting somewhere, the first manager (if he really was one) was as lost at helping me as my dog. He said he would call me back the next day, and since it was late I agreed. He NEVER CALLED BACK! I called back. So when I told the second manager who I had talked to the previous day he said he couldn’t find his extension. He finally got him on IM and after he had made me wait half an hour on hold he told me he would have to call me back. So I had to call that evening to talk to a third manager who at least told me that there was a SECRET HIDDEN image on the hard drive which would hopefully restore my system back to its original state. After all this trouble I truly thought this was some means to just get rid of me for another day, maybe to give them an opportunity to hire some competent help. I hadn’t raised my voice throughout this entire series of calls. I never cussed out anyone even though I felt like it. But I did break down and ask if I could get a copy of the restore disks since none came with it. I told him I had another question, and after he got my address he hung up on me.

Being an IT professional I have quite a few people that trust me to enable them to enter the information highway. I get asked all the time what computer is best, which this and that is easier, etc. I’ve trusted the CNET editors so far but this is a total roadblock!
A great machine with lousy support is like trying to drive with a car that has no fuel! This experience tells me to push it back to China!

 

Not sure if you mentioned it, but did you even use your recovery partition and the thinkvantage recovery program?

The few times I have dealt with tech support with IBM have always been decent. Sometimes it has been hard to get in contact with the first person I spoke with, but the new person has always been able to get up to speed quickly on the matter.

Also, what is with the caps on SECRET HIDDEN image? If you are in IT like you say, you would know that recovery partitions that are kept away from the operating system/users access are pretty common to prevent corruption or contamination. Lots of places over the years have used them, but some take the dumbed down route of making it a folder in c:/

 

True, it's like having TMobile in San Francisco - the staff is all polite whenever you call them about drop calls and weak signals, they give you a whole bunch of free minutes, but what's the use of the free minutes if you have no reception to make the call to begin with?

 

I'm sorry. I don't care if you work in IT or not. If you are not savvy enough to know that computers/notebooks now a days come with restore partitions, then I would not be asking you for advice. Reading the instructions will explain how you can burn the restore partition onto cd's.

 

well, his last one was a Dell.. Thinkpads are thinkpads. Think-pads, thinkpads. Thinkpads.


Thinkpad.

 

hehehe nice thread.. oh how i enjoy such stories

 

1. Sorry to say that your experience is contrary to the ones I had. They send me a new keyboard and a power supply with no trouble at all. I worked in Dell and Dell too would not have done this as effortlessly and would definitely had asked to ship the replaced items back.

2. Personally I would say, if you compared your Inspiron with the previous Thinkpad you had and was happy!!!.. that in itself says something very negative about your ability as an IT guy... Now, I am not questioning your ability here, but simply stating that for anyone who has actually used a ThinkPad with its wonderful ThinkVantage tools, comparing it with an Inspiron and being happy with the Dell is preposterous. I can understand if you are the kind who knows little of computers and have never used the advanced features of a ThinkPad, but for an IT guy, such a statement is ludicrous.

I recently got to work on a new Sony VAIO that one of my Sony fanboy friend bought... Till that time I had thought the Sony may be competitive, but just a few minutes of using their tools was enough to make me realize how inferior those were to the ThinkVantage tools.

In short, your experience and in particular, your knowledge about computers that you claim is as questionable as the statement that the earth is flat

 

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the story and appreciate all of your comments. I suppose it wasn't made so clear from my writing. Did you actually think that I don't know computers today come with restore partitions? Of course I knew about the option to restore my system. Do you think I'm gonna just restore my computer every time that I have a problem? Regardless of those of you who question my IT ability, most issues I am able to solve on my own. A support professional should have been able to readily assist the problems I experienced with my x60s. Maybe I just had some back luck. It’s quite possible that I was simply spoiled by Dell. I’m sure that there are those who are very satisfied with their Lenovo experience; however I am not one of them.

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

I love my x60s. If you are not happy with yours, you can return it to Lenovo. They have a very liberal policy. Pick up a Dell, and there ya go. Problem solved.

 

True, your post was indeed a lot suspecious. In particular, the Inspiron comparison was what got me as I have inspirons all around me and can myself see no logic in comparing it with a ThinkPad.. they are in two very distinct and different league.

It is indeed a pity if your did experience all these hazzles. As I said, I had called them up to replace my keyboard just because I did not like the feel of it (it was a CHICONY keyboard), a power supply that was fried by my own missuse and one issue with Access Connection (AC). The service I received was immediate when it came to hardware issues, but the software one involving AC took about 4 calls, but my problem was such and it was warranted.

Well, all I can say is that if you do get your issues resolved, you most probably will be much happier than buying a Dell. I know in my case, I will never buy a Dell... not after being thoroughly spoiled by the ThinkPad

 

I'm sorry but I never liked dell..
http://www.michaelrighi.com/2006/05/19/dells-spyware-response/

 

You are the exception. In PC Mag's last reader's poll, Lenovo service and support was ranked #1...and their domestic support center in Atlanta (manned by IBM personel) is generally considered the best in the biz.

 

I love my Thinkpad and believe everyone here also would…. come on akoffman, you must be kidding, right?

 

What exactly "messed up", we actually might be able to help you if it's not a hardware related issue. Not that that's better than Lenovo helping you, but you're kind of vague here. Furthermore, it would offer insight as to how badly Lenovo is treating you if we knew the problem you're dealing with.

In regards to the Georgia tech support, all of the ThinkPad tech support comes out of Atlanta (at least during the day) so a few folks there will have a Southern accent.

 

Want to hear some Dell stories?

1) First time I encountered Dell customer support was when my XPS R450's hard drive died. I spent like 10 hours on the phone before I got a replacement. The replacement came (both hard drive were Maxtor) and that died after a few month of use. I bought my own Quantum drive but couldnt install it. The Dell support told me it couldnt be done. Took me forever to find out that the chipset Dell used on this PC is incompatible with the Quantum drive.

2) My Dell XPS B1000. This was like a $3000 PC. This time Dell used Seagate hard drives (smart move lol). However somehow the graphics card failed. I spent hours on the phone "debugging" the computer when I knew exactly why when I ran apps that require 3d acceleration the PC will give a beatiful BSOD.

3) My mother's Latitude C400. Hard drive died twice and the hinge just disintegrated.

4) A Dell Axim X30, flawed design cause the pin on the connector to break. Dell is like "we know nothing of such an issue".

4) My Dell 2007FP LCD had severe banding issue. There were TONS of people complaining about it on Dell forums however the customer support is like we know nothing of the issue, the LCDs are throughly testing before leaving the factory. Come on, give me a break.

5) This was a few weeks ago. Called Dell regarding my Dell Latitude X1 overheating. They put it down as a safety hazard. Alright safety hazard maybe I can get a quick replacement. Now I called Dell 3 times each guy told me a different shipping time. By the time I last called (when I was about to go abroad for vacation) the replacement wasnt even in the system yet. LOL.

Want to know why I kept buying Dell? Because I get crazy discounts purchasing through my parent's company. I guess when it is cheap enough I can stand all of this.