X1 Carbon Shipping Thread

What's an EPP code? How can I get one? I'm trying to order mine and all the 10% off coupons disappeared and my phone bartering has only yielded me a 5% discount.

 

The 10% off coupon is for signing up for Lenovo's newsletter. It's a personalised code emailed to you.

EPP is for business buyers (?). Barnes and Noble Gold for academia, at least, it's what is says when I log in. IIRC, I needed a .edu email address to sign up. Try anyway. Code USXDISCOUNT works for both.

 

I've refrained from posting/griping about my original order date and the amount of delay up until now, but after my estimated ship date was pushed out yet again today I am wondering if anyone else is in my situation.

Original Order Date: 22-Aug-2012
Original Estimated Ship Date: 03-Sept-2012
Current Estimated Ship Date: 14-Oct-2012
Config: 4 x i5/256GB/8GB + 4 extra power adapters + 4 USB 3.0 Docking Stations


The extra adapters shipped out on 26-Aug-2012 and the Docks shipped on 12-Sept-2012. I got the same general email as everyone else on 12-Sept-2012 promising that *all* X1 Carbon orders would be shipped by the 24th of September. Sometime after getting this email my estimated ship date was updated to 28-Sept-2012 (last Friday). A significant overall delay but I was happy to see it looked like the notebooks would actually ship this time based on reports of other forum members and simply the fact that it had already been delayed so long. Also, through this entire time I have been in semi-regular contact with a competent sales rep who has been checking on my order (as much as is actually possible) and was happy to offer me a concession for the delay.

After receiving no shipping notification over the weekend I checked my order status this morning and it's now been updated to 14-Oct-2012! I've been very patient through this process, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. Worse is that you literally cannot rely on a single thing anyone from Lenovo says.

 

Almost identical situation... tried to cancel a week ago and got the run around. Got on with a rep again this morning and tried to cancel again. Lenovo has lost all credability... they have become a complete mess. This is what the rep said again this morning

Are you kidding me... "not a guaranteed process"?!?!

Cant wait until this nightmare is over. Good riddens Lenovo.

 

I have the same configuration as you leg0las, however I ordered a day after you did. I'm not computer-less so I'm a little more patient than some, but I must admit this entire ordeal has been a real eye opener. I had no idea Lenovo's customer relations initiative was so poor. As a small business owner myself, if I treated my customers half as poorly as Lenovo is treating the lot of us, I would be on my rear-end so fast it's not even funny.

I don't use Twitter or have a Facebook account, but has anyone tried those avenues to voice their ire?

 

My 9/13 i5/8gb/256gb (replacement order for 8/16 that was cancelled, but on "critical build list") is in Kentucky today. Delivery should be Wednesday.

 

I posted a message on their Facebook account about my frustrations, and someone at Lenovo gave me their email. Emailed my details to them on Sept 9, heard nothing for a while and sent a follow up email on the 14th. Got this message on the 16th:

"I have sent a chaser to our customer services management team.
I totally understand the frustation, will get back to you asap."

I didn't really understand what a chaser is, but I waited in good faith. Absolutely no reply from them, just an email saying my order shipped a few days ago.

Looks like Marc from Lenovo (who also responds to the Lenovo forums site) has started to reply to people on Facebook, so I'd definitely give it a try. Just don't expect much to happen. If anything, it's a good way to get a rant off your chest

 

I have the same situation with you too. I ordered it one day later. The ESD was postponed a couple of times and now is Oct-14th-2012 (it was Oct-9th-2012 a few days ago). I called them, the customer service (in India) can't really help anything!!!!!

 

Anyone order recently? What kind of estimates are you getting? November?

 

Ordered 8/16
i5/8GB/256GB

Moved from 10/9 earlier today to 10/10 per Order Status contact to the latest of 10/14 when I checked a few minutes ago. Left message with sales rep and his supervisor on Friday regarding the continuous delays since 8/16. Sales rep said he would call right back after he got off of a telephone call. Supervisor said he will call back within 48 hours. Also spoke with supervisor of the order cancellation section who said that he would determine the cause of the delay and get back with me on Friday or Monday during business hours. Not one of these people have called or emailed me. I can't believe that any business operates this poorly. Something must be going on with this product that they don't want anyone knowing about.

 

Wow and I thought I had it bad... ordered 8/19 and its due to arrive on Wednesday. Same config

 

Ordered 8gb/128gb on 9/26... currently "Released to Manufacturing" with an estimated ship date of 10/11

Probably doesn't help anyone trying to guesstimate a 256gb though.

 

I'm not against a 128gb version. My X220T has 160 GB and I have some large SD and microSD cards I can work with. But I'm thinking I might as well wait until Windows 8 at this point. I want the ThinkPad Windows 8 image.

Any idea whether Lenovo will release Windows 8 on their ThinkPads at launch or will there be a delay?

 

Same config and order date here. Mine is being delivered tomorrow. Did you ever call and have them remove the dongle from your order?

 

Yes. My original order was canceled on 8/29 and reentered without the dongle. I was told that I would not loose my place in the production line and that the order was placed on the critical list. I am just glad that Lenovo does not supply medical devices.
I have given up with dealing with India order status as I just keep going in circles with the reps over the Ethernet dongle issue. Even though they admit the dongle is not on the order they still say that the order is delayed due to the dongle shortage. I even tried dealing with a supervisor in India and after waiting 6 days he finally responded and only said that my order is delayed until 10/14 due to the Ethernet dongle. Give me a break.
Now the factories are closed in China due to the National Holiday. They will not start back in production until 10/8. I can imagine that I won't see a shipment date until much later than the 14th.
I am now dealing with a supervisor in the US that is trying to help. I won't know more for a few days.
I am glad to hear that you are getting yours soon. I hope that you have none of the reported issues (rubbery track pad, protruding bezel, doa, etc.).

 

My order status online still hows October 14th, but my sales rep has now given me a "firm" ship date of October 10th. I'm hopeful, since through the entire order process I have asked for a firm ship date from the sales rep and he has always avoiding calling any ship date firm. I was also able to get an additional 10% discount as a concession. I'm invested in these laptops and will be waiting it out.

 

Pretty much same story, but my 2nd reorder (had to do it twice due to a credit card change) was on 9/13.

 

Just unboxed my i5/8gb/256gb from my 8/17 order.
BOX:It came in the sleeker box within the standard lenovo cardboard box.
Dongle: NO DONGLE though it was on my build
Crapware: lots
Screen door: Can see it but not really an issue.
Bezel gap: Its minor and I don't think they could suck the plastic closer to the screen without more adhesive.
Trackpad: not loose though it doesn't look 100% centered.
Drive space: 180/215GB on C: and 3.41/13.6GB on recovery Q:

Going to talk with them to understand why we were all told the delays were for the dongle... and then it doesn't even show up with it. What other constraint were they having?

Laptop came without a charge so I had to plug it in. Yay, a 90W brick... and square so I can't utilize any of the other bricks laying around my house. I was hoping all bricks moving forward would be the slightly lighter 65W but guess 90W is needed for rapid charge.

 

Looks beautiful! Congrats. Lots of negative going on in this thread. For a more positive note (hopefully!), I ordered mine on 9/27 when it said on the ordering site the ESD to be 10/9. No changes so far. Still currently says 10/9 and released to manufacturing. We will see when we get closer to. I won't get my hopes up. Haha. FWIW it is just a standard i5/4/128 with no dongle. Will keep posted.

 

Delivered. i5/8gb/256gb ordered 8/16, re-entered by Lenovo 9/10, re-ordered 9/13.

 

After 6+ weeks of waiting, I have finally received my X1 Carbon. i5/8GB/256GB. Delivered yesterday. Overall first impressions seem VERY positive. Will have more to say in the owner's thread once I tweak it for my workflow.

 

Mine arrived Tuesday (i5/8gb/256). I am mostly very pleased, though the screen door effect is very noticeable. I do have above average vision, though (20/15 after LASIK). The build quality seems excellent and I don't see any bezel or trackpad issues.

The only source of disappointment is battery life - it's AWFUL. I'm talking 3.25-3.75 hours doing typical web browsing, HD show watching, etc., with the screen dimmed to what I consider a very low level. It's to the point where I might've ordered something else if I'd realized how truly bad it is.

 

After testing for a week.

I think tweaking gamma solved screen door effect, I don't see it.
I haven't tested battery life yet.
Ubuntu 12.04 works much better than Windows on this machine. I have removed all partitions to reclaim ssd space.

i5/8GB/256GB, 08.14, 09.20, 09.27

 

I ordered the same configuration a day prior to you and they are now saying my machine will only go out on the 14th, to arrive by the 20th. Nothing like 2 months of waiting.

 

I ordered the same configuration on 8/22, and have the same shipping/delivery dates as you on my order status page. Seems unreasonable to have to wait 2 months, especially when they indicated a 1 week shipping timeframe at the time I ordered, but I don't feel like bothering with asking for another concession (already obtained a 5% concession last month). The initial excitement/anticipation has waned greatly, but I still need the laptop to replace my wife's aging T400.

 

Sorry, I ordered mine on the 14th of August.

 

Called today. Put in a rush order to cancel my order. Bought the same normal config (i5/4/128) off JR.com for about the same as I paid on lenovo.com with EPP, (didn't charge me tax on JR). 20$ overnight shipping vs 8$ for ground. Bought it at 3pm today. Shipped out within 90 minutes and UPS says it will be here before 10 30am tomorrow. Will report back w brief review of machine.

 

An interesting development.

My i5/4GB/256GB Carbon ordered on 8/21 has still not shipped. Yesterday, however, I received this e-mail:

Genesis? An unknown giftbag? Anyone else get this?

 

Ethernet dongle?

 

Maybe it's everyone's Ethernet dongle that was removed from their orders?

 

I'm dying to see what the Genesis Edition X1C looks like! lol

 

Just received the following email. My 8/22 order is still showing 10/14 ship date, and 10/21 estimated delivery date. This is for the 8GB/256GB config. I hate Lenovo.



Dear XXXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your recent Lenovo order.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to ship all or part of this order number XXXXXXXXX. You are a valued customer and we are working to ship your order as soon as possible. However, if we do not hear from you within the next 5 days, Federal regulations require us to automatically cancel the remainder of your order. If you would like to keep your order open, just send us an email by clicking the link below:

PLEASE KEEP MY LENOVO ORDER #XXXXXXXXXXX ACTIVE - I AGREE TO THE DELAY
Please do not change the recipient and the subject of the email before sending it.

Should you have any concerns, or if you would like to modify or cancel your order at any time, please call Lenovo Customer Service at 866-428-4465. Please include your Customer number and Order number in any communications to help us serve you more quickly.

 

I didn't realize order fulfillment was required, by US law, in 60 days.

 

I'm getting upwards of 6 hours with screen about 70% brightness.

 

what is your config? This could make the difference. I've heard that 8GB RAM could drain the battery faster.

 

i5/8gb/256gb

I was doing general configuration, software installs, windows updates, web browsing, playing around with all the bells and whistles like keyboard backlight, fingerprint reader, etc... Not watching HD movies, but keeping it busy.

 

I ordered one with the same config, but am still in long waiting....

5-6 hours of battery life would be decent, and with a half hour recharge while you are taking a rest, you can work for another 4-5 hours.

 

I have a t420s and the X1 battery crushes it.

 

Today I worked on LaTex document on Ubuntu 12.04 (kernel updated to 3.3.6 because of frequent crashes on 3.2) and it run for more than 6 hours. Firefox, Chrome, Dropbox and Darktable running in the background. Screen 50% brightness.

 

I ordered 9/3 and I'm still even waiting for an ESD. I actually ordered from a reseller here in Switzerland.
I can't wait much longer, I'm already checking my status page 100 times a day. This sucks Lenovo!

Most of the devices are awesome and I especially love the Thinkpad line but in terms of customer support they are one of the worst companies I've ever had to deal with. Although the only real experience I had with them so far is a completely unanswered email request.

 

Well this weekend I decided to install Windows on my X1C just to see what it was like.

Previously I had Gentoo Linux on it. I would say I get at least a 4-hour charge out of it. Last Friday I forgot to take my power supply to work (my "work" spare hasn't arrived yet). So I had to run it the whole day on battery. I plugged it into an external monitor to I could turn off the LED. I do software development and also run virtual machines while working. It lasted for about 6-7 hours. I did put it in suspend mode on my lunch break.

I don't notice the "screen door" effect on Linux. When I put windows on it, I think I was noticing the screen door effect. It was barely noticable, but moreso than on Gentoo Linux. Now that I am back on Linux, I actually do notice it (now that I know what to look out for) when the screen brightness is turned down, but it's not so noticable at full brightness and even when it is noticable you (I) have to look for it. I have the original X1 and I'm much more pleased with the Carbon's screens; the colors bleed less and the blacks are black (not to mention no screen glare).

One of the reasons I wanted to try Windows is that I wanted to set up the fingerprint reader: something I was not able to do in Windows. Firstly, let me say their interface for "Windows Home Premium" is yucky. I didn't enjoy it at all.. and it's also slow. When I was able to get to the fingerprint config tool, for some reason it could not activate the fingerprint reader. I don't know if it's a driver issue or a hardware issue, but not even the Windows install was able to drive the fingerprint reader. I don't really plan to *use* the fingerprint reader (I have it working on my original X1, but rarely use it). I just wanted to see it working.

As for battery life: well I didn't run the battery dry when I was using Windows, but I the battery meter (if it can be trusted) only indicated about 2.5 hours on a full charge. I thought it would say more under Windows, but it's actually less (Linux's GNOME Power Manager usually estimates 4+ hours on a full charge).

In summary, I think the X1 Carbon is a decent machine. It's screen is better and is lighter than the original X1. The battery life appears to be a little better. The main disappointments are that the fingerprint reader doesn't appear to work (in Linux or Windows) and the overall Windows experience wasn't pleasant (though I admit I lean towards Linux).

 

Fingerprint reader works perfect for me. Did you intsall all the drivers?

2.5 hrs on full charge? Something is wrong with your battery. I get 6 regularly.

 

So after two months of waiting and reading all of this feedback from unhappy owners, I've finally cancelled my order, and man does it feel good. Going with a base rMBP. Good luck to those still fighting the good Lenovo fight, but I'm done.

 

Ordered i5/8gb/256gb on 8/16.
Today I moved from a ship date of 10/14 to 10/24.
More than two months and no computer. And no answers as to why.
I might be able to have a new house built before Lenovo can assemble a computer.

 

I am in the same position. My config is the same as yours and yesterday mine was also moved to 10/24. I ordered on 8/22. So, I called and spoke with a CSR and was told it was due to a "parts constraint". I politely asked him not to insult me as this has been the case for months and is why my original order was cancelled (by Lenovo) and was re-entered (dongle issue) in order to ship. I'm quickly losing patience. I have been a loyal IBM/Lenovo customer for about 15 years. So sad...

I might feel differently if Lenovo had been up front from the beginning and said "we can't ship until November". At least this gives me, as a customer, the choice to wait it out (for the promised time frame) and not an unrealistic floating date.

 

I am in the same position too. I don't know what to do. My X301 is functioning very well. So I will just wait, though I am very sad about this. Because I don't like any other brands I had owned in the past.

 

On the bright side, there are some interesting machines being announced for the Windows 8 wave.

 

Is there a machine that you are permitted to discuss that may be a good substitute?
Thanks

 

You know the rules. If it's in the press and on the maker's .com site, I can talk about it. Otherwise NDA and employment continuation is in force.

Now that Lenovo and other makers have started sharing launch devices, there will be a steady stream. Especially with the pre-order nirvana Lenovo is going to start with the Yoga.

 

Wow. I wish I had discovered this thread before I ordered my X1 back on 9/26. My original ship date was 10/9, a little less than 2 weeks, which seemed reasonable at the time.

However, I received the following email on 10/3:

Then I received an updated shipping target of 10/24. Unfortunately that puts the shipment beyond my upcoming travel departure date, for which I had orginanlly ordered the X1.

Today I cancelled my order, which is sad because this would have been my 3rd "IBM" laptop.

I also feel like there are a number of new designs about to hit the market that may be viable competitors. I guess I'm now going to find out.

.....like this.
Lenovo launches laptop-tablet hybrids