Thinkpads in Brick and Mortar Stores

Ok, so I'm in the research phase of laptop shopping. I'm probably looking for a business type laptop and the lenovo z61m is toward the top of my list.
My question is, where in the heck can I find these things, or any thinkpad, in a store. I want to be able to touch, feel, see, pick up, etc something that expensive before I buy it. I live in Dallas, TX and I can't seem to find one store in the whole freaking metroplex that keeps any kind of thinkpad on display. Of course, I could just be overlooking something. Does anyone know of a place, anywhere in the country, that keeps thinkpads, especially z61m's on display?

 

I said when I was buying mine, and I'll say it again, in case someone at Lenovo is listening: This is a problem.

It's all well and good to trust that everyone who ever owned a ThinkPad will buy another one, but once in a while you might want to attract new customers, too. And that's a lot harder without any presence in stores. My local Office Depots sell only the N100 series.

I never would have bought a ThinkPad had I not found this site. And I'm sure most buyers don't find it.

Chris

 

An addition to my original question:
If there are no places to check out a thinkpad before buying, what is Lenovo's return policy like for custom web orders? A quick scan and search of their site revealed nothing about it.

 

College bookstores sometimes have a selection of ThinkPads. Lenovo's return policy has recently changed. It used to be 30 days no questions asked though would have to pay shipping. Now I think it is 21 days. You may be charged a 15% restocking fee depending on the circumstances and probably your arguing skills.

 

That 21 days is only if you don't open it - they told me on the phone no returns. I was not happy about that. I ordered anyway (a Z61t) but it might be my first and last Thinkpad. I'm hoping I'll love it. I did get to try one out at Office Depot. They had a T43 so I could see what the keyboard was like. I was so impressed with the keyboard especially that it sold me on a Thinkpad. I could have tried one down in San Diego at UCSD - they sell a bunch of different Thinkpads. Anyhow, I get my Thinkpad in about a week - We'll see - I hope I'm not making a huge mistake. The guy on the phone was pretty much like - hey too bad - once you turn on the machine it's yours unless, of course, something is wrong with it. I did get the 3 year all-inclusive warranty. Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind if you think it's the right thing to do - I thought the Thinkpad looked like the best laptop I'd seen in a long time. I had just gotten to demo a Dell M1210 and the keyboard and screen were not good, in my opinion. So I'm looking forward to this Thinkpad.

 

Yeah it sucks you cant see them, and this is why lenovo is losing market share!

On the other hand, they're good at handling dissatisfaction. If you don't like the keyboard, they're pretty good at replacing it, according to the testimony of many users on forums. I got my hard drive replaced becaause it was missing some drivers and the recordnow & intervideo s/w... they let me keep the old HD so now i have two 100gb SATA drives.

I just got an RMA to return mine without hassle, tho i may keep it. I think the restocking fee is a judgement thing to discourage ppl from taking a test drive who aren't serious. My guess is that is if it's your first return, you'll have no problem returning and no restocking fee. But habitual returns will invoke the fee.

 

I think that if Lenovo would make a deal with Best Buy (as it was announced they did but I haven't seen it) people would see the difference in quality between a Thinkpad and just about any other laptop out there.

I'm glad to hear good stories about being able to get support from Lenovo - that's probably one of my greatest concerns right now. And I'm hoping that my Thinkpad will work right out of the box and that there will be no dead pixels.

 

You're likely to find several R-series notebooks on display at any MicroCenter (in Dallas that would be in Keystone Plaza across Central from TI).

You can extrapolate the fit and finish of those to the differing form factors T, Z and others.

 

I too reccomend a University bookstore. Mine here at Duke has T, X, and Z's all available to touch, and take home from the store. I guess it helps to be right next to Research Triangle Park, though. Buying a part from IBM usually takes less than a day to arrive.

 

Staples, OfficeDepot, OfficeMax... one of those carries thinkpads, I dont remember which. I think its Staples.