think twice before you buy S10-2! What's the point of warranty?

I am a MBA student coming from Hong Kong to London. Before I left Hong Kong, I decided to buy a netbook for my lecturers in the UK. Lenovo s10-2 was chosen because the version available in HK comes with 6 cell battery with international warranty and Lenovo Protection Service ( against accidental damage).

This is the first Lenovo machine for me. All was well and I was starting to appreciate Lenovo. Suddenly, the LED screen started to flick with white lines moving across the it, just two weeks after I bought it from Hong Kong.
Few weeks back, I called the UK support line who initially suggested replacement (because the purchase is less than 30-day old). However, when the agent found out that I bought the machine in Hong Kong, he said I could only get it repairs. Fair enough.

I packed the netbook the following day ready to ship it to the repair center. Being not sure about whether or not my proof of purchase was needed, I called the support line again. This time, the agent gave me a "friendly warning" or maybe a management of my expectations.

I was told that Lenovo believes that there is a 99.5% chance that these type of problems are due to “internal damages" caused by users! I was also advised that sending the machine in for repairs risk myself getting into paying 230 pounds (pretty much the purchase cost) to get the LED screen fixed because it is likely to be not covered by warranty. On top of that, I would have to pay 65 pounds even if I want my netbook back after inspection without getting fixed because again, 99.5% chance that "damages by users" would be concluded!

What's the point of warranty? Totally unacceptable. I only got the machine just over two weeks ago and used for less than 10 times!

Posted a message on Lenovo's official forum. One of the managers offered help. He sent messages to his UK counterpart but never heard back since.

getting nowhere on this..... I am going to ship my mchine back to Hong Kong next week or so. The courier cost would hopefully work out cheaper than the possibility of getting charged by your Lenovo UK repair center (for inspection but unlikely to get repaired).

It is such a shame. All my MBA classmates are looking into getting a netbook like s10-2 but I am certainly not going to recommend Lenovo, who assume customers would damage the machine without even offering a free inspection!

Afterall, Lenovo did a good job earning an unhappy customer who will have a mouth of bad words against them. They just can't accuse customers and could not care less!

 

Mark_Lenovo has been sick recently, also he is handling many other cases from various channels, everyone wants his help, but there is one of him. So i think you should send him a message, requesting some feedback about your problems. People after all just people, whether they are manager or not, they still needs rest and they can only do so much in a day. So if he is bit slow in getting back to your request for help, you should send him a PM to give a gentle reminder.

 

What did Lenovo Hong Kong Tech support say?

 

You just need to escalate it.

There is a coordinated effort by Lenovo depot to claim things are user caused and not repair. They have become a profit center, so this is one of their tricks. You just need to esclate, and they will cover it.

In the future I would
a.) go for the onsite warranty - it's cheap to add, very convenient, and skips this malarkey. The tech coming to you is paid to get the job done right the first time, and will come with the part.

b.) be honest

 

er...doesn't the lenovo protection scheme only cover thinkpads, and only in hong kong / macau?

http://www-07.ibm.com/lenovoinfo/hk/protection/index_en.html

it's not an "international protection scheme".

i believe you'd get that screen replaced for free in hong kong, but only in hong kong. other places, e.g. uk, depends.

as for the warranty itself, well, all i can say is i've never been disappointed by lenovo hong kong's tech support over the past few years, bringing laptops various thinkpads to them. they fixed all my problems, even cleaned my screen and gave me a new trackpoint tip! (because it's all black and hideous after prolonged use)

 

Send a tip to Consumerist.com, you might get some help there if Lenovo will not help you.

 

A lot of why they're turning into a profit center is probably because of users not being too honest, which I'm not saying is the case here. However I think it's degrading if they're doing what they can not to repair under these conditions.

 

the little note that came with the netbook mentioned something about this protection. But that's not really the point. The thing is I really did not "accidentally damaged" the machine so the international warranty should cover the repair (or at least the inspection?). The problem just started one Sunday afternoon when the machine was safely put on the desk for hours....when the machine was 10 days old.. (& less than 1 month from production date!)

Yes, I dun think Lenovo HK will have any problem helping me to fix it. The staff at the UK customer support actually said "If I were you, I will deal with Lenovo HK instead of UK. I think you get a better chance there. I know Lenovo UK, we will just conclude it's user's problem"......

What strikes me the most is what I heard. Imagine you bought a phone, it broke down the next day. You brought it back to the shop the following day, the first thing you heard is "Did you drop it? I think there's 99% you did. So I ain't gonna help"

Not to mention about Lenovo's quality control of the product in the first place....

Thanks for all the replies. I did appreciate Mark of Lenovo effort to offer help but he heard nothing back from the UK for over 2 weeks now. The screen problem just went worse to worst. So my safest bet is to ship it by Fedex to HK and get a friend to bring it to the UK during Christmas after getting it fixed.... fingers crossed!

 

Mark told me he has tried to contact UK's end again and see what more details he could extract on your behalf.

 

to be fair, from the shop's point of view, "Did you drop it?" is definitely a very valid and reasonable question. it is, dare i say it, their responsibility asking that.

 

yup, you are right. I should put it the other way:

"Did you drop it? I think there's 99% chance that you did. So I ain't gonna help"

 

regarding the personal damage questions, they always ask that, they usually give the worst part first, so people don't get a shock when they a huge bill.

But the laptop is not fixed by Lenovo per se, they are fixed by third party contract service companies, like Flexitronics/solectronics. So whatever the service report says, can be argued for and against, by escalating the calls, etc.