not happy with my SL300 - want to return, they want to charge 15% restocking fee...

Well I recently received my SL300, and I am just not happy with it. Its not the same as any other Thinkpad I have used (i.e. much crappier feel), and its frozen up on me a few times, and overall it is just troublesome (issues with the mouse, freezing on boot-up, etc). Ive had it for about two weeks now and would like to return it for a refund, which eventually will go towards an R400 or T400.

The CSR says that I will have to pay a 15% fee if they okay the RMA. I told him if I had to pay the 15% that I would never do business with Lenovo again. He has generated some sort of case # and says I should be getting an email tomorrow from Lenovo. Apparently he says the only possible way they would waive the 15% is if I had already placed another order for a replacement.

Is there anyway out of this 15% restocking fee?

Thanks

 

Credit Card company. Also the freezing sounds like issues...so you could say you unit was not usable out of the box for you and you don't want to deal with their crap.

 

Only way to get a full refund is if it came DOA. My hard drive on a x200 died 3 days after I recieved it. They offer full refund to me, no hassle. But u must troubleshoot it with tech support first and get a case number.

 

What happens if the notebook died two weeks after I received it? Will they try and just send me a replacement, or will a full refund be offered?

Thanks

 

Try and ask. I guess you first have to try and troubleshoot it with them.

 

If you're replacing it with a T400 or whatever, why not place the order, then call back so they can refund you without the re-stocking fee?

 

Yeah, the SL series doesn't deserve the Thinkpad badge. The quality is no where near that of the R,T, W, and X series. Stay away from SL.

 

Yeah SL sucks. If you are replacing with another thinkpad and your computer was having issues there is absolutely no reason you should not be able to get a full refund, might just take some legwork though.

Just keep calling and asking to talk to higher ups until you can get the full refund, or credit if you plan on buying a new machine, get the R or T.

If that doesn't work then dispute with the CC company bc it is a defective product, bc of your freezing issues.

Good luck.

 

Lenovo's return policy is poor compared to others. It's why my next notebook will probably not be a ThinkPad.

In Lenovo's defense, notebooks have amongst the highest return rates. People drop a good chunk of change on one, then have buyer's remorse and want to return it. Lenovo in turn has to warehouse and sell, for less, the returned machines. It drives up the cost of the next one you buy.

 

Lenovo used to not charge for restocking, but that changed over a year ago. As far as I'm aware Dell still offers 30-day return on a Vostro SMB notebook with no questions asked, and they're one of the only companies I know that do this.

By the way, don't even think about lying and saying it was DOA or do something to try and break it, their tech support process is rigorous and they will have you send it in and they'll fix it before letting you do a return.

Upgrade to the T400 and do a return on the SL300, they'll refund the stocking fee then.

 

I have the SL500 and I love it for its low price
although it's not as hard as the A21M from IBM xD it's not bad especially for its price.
Make sure you clean install. I did a clean install to vista ultimate and I added the main drivers and it flies now. very very fast. and the fan is great, it will make a bit of noise when I'm doing heavy work on it and hot air comes out but when it's on battery at school there is no noise and cold air comes out.

All thinkvantage products will freeze on you one day Make sure you uninstall them all except the active protection one if you want. Power manager for the SL series doesn't have the threshold thing (not on mine anyways) so remove it because it will make your laptop stutter a lot. the issues from the mouse come from the power manager icon on the bar (for me and others anyway.. hope it will fix yours if you don't return it)