AVOID LENOVO: The Nightmare of Lenovo "Repairing" My New X300

Hello all,
About two months ago, I joined Notebook Review first to learn more about my soon to be purchased Lenovo Thinkpad X300, and later after I bought it to recommend the computer to others and help them make their choice. Here is my changed view of Lenovo, and my terrible X300 story:
After paying nearly 3000 dollars for a new X300 with 3 year accidental warranty from Lenovo in early August, I received what looked to be a truly awesome laptop. Unfortunately, the custom computer with 3GB of ram arrived with a bent case and broken fan from the factory. This caused the laptop to wobble on flat desks, and make the fan create a shrill "whining" noise in quiet rooms under load. Because I was moving to an apartment at the time, I kept the usable computer for 2 weeks and once I was settled I called Lenovo support, described the issues, received a box, and sent the computer back to the depot in about 2 days.
I used the EasyServ tracker to find that the computer arrived at the depot, and was on "Hold for Parts." I waited for three weeks with this status, using my 6 year old HP laptop, then called customer service to escalate the case number for faster service (I am an upperclassman in college who can't be without a computer for 3 weeks). The “Hold for Parts” status continued for another 2 weeks, when I called yet again to escalate. The woman who answered said the technicians “could not reproduce a wobble on their desk” (they would if they tried!) but claimed the fan had been replaced, and she promised she would expedite the order. I just wanted my laptop back, even with the wobble, so I agreed and two days later I got my X300 back an outrageous five weeks after sending it in.
I go to the mailroom to get my box back, when the mailman can’t find the box. Apparently, Lenovo finds it necessary to send repair boxes back with only a first name and no mailbox number to apartments with a thousand people in them. After we find the Lenovo box, I take out the X300 and see the computer wobble left to right (-_-), turn on the computer, and load Windows Vista Business. At the logon screen, the computer instantly blue screens. This never happened to me in a year of using Vista on any computer. The computer shuts itself off, and enters a loop of turning on and off. The BIOS freezes and resets. The screen won’t turn on, and BIOS POST codes start playing… a new one every time! “1-3-4-3.” “1-3-2.” “1-4-2.” “Oneeeee…” I try to enter the BIOS and the screen scrambles, like an old antennae TV. I hold the power button, and the screen turns off, but not the keyboard lights! It freezes at the Thinkpad screen, the Thinkvantage light blinks, a million different problems every time the computer is turned on! I have 8 separate videos, of 8 different start-ups, along with a photo, and each time a new problem appears… Did it really take Lenovo 5 weeks to not replace anything and still %&^%$ up the computer this badly?
Naturally, I am incredibly disappointed. I call EasyServ support, and ask the woman who picks up the phone what they did to my computer if they didn’t replace any hardware. She opens my case file and says, “Oh let me check here… Ok… your computer sat on the shelf, our technicians performed a ‘PC diagnostic to ensure hardware functionality,’ we ordered the wrong fan part, then let the computer sit for 4 weeks, approved the repairs, and sent it back to you… wait, that doesn’t seem right.” No poop, lady! So, I get connected to about 5 different technicians with 5 different accents who want me to remove and diagnose each RAM stick myself and claim that the hard drive’s spinning is making the broken fan’s noise. HELLO! YOU WANT ME TO REPAIR A NEW 3000 DOLLAR LAPTOP YOU MESSED UP MYSELF? ALSO, THE X300 HAS A SOLID STATE DRIVE THAT DOESN’T MOVE YOU DUMMY!! “Oh, sorry, I was just guessing,” they would respond.
Eventually, the technicians agreed that Lenovo needed to escalate the issue. The first Escalations Officer named JR I spoke to was very nice and documented every issue I had with the computer and agreed that for a computer I personally had for 2 weeks, a 5 week wait for a broken computer was unacceptable, but the day was ending and he had to refer me to a higher-up the next morning.
The next morning, his supervisor, Ewell from Atlanta, gave me a ring. I could not believe the tone of this man. He calls me at 9AM during class on a Tuesday, knowing absolutely nothing about the scenario from the past 5 weeks. He accuses me of damaging the computer because I’m a student, telling me that JR doesn’t know anything about Lenovo policy, and what apartment number he wants me to send the “****” technician (his words) to repair the computer. After I tell him there is a security desk and the technician can’t simply come to my room, he threatens to close the case because I’m denying the service, and moaning about how people send “three year old” computers in trying to basically scam him out of new computers. Now, it was at this point I was going to explode. Long story short, after telling him to essentially watch his mouth, and that I was going to contact the highest echelons of Lenovo and the New York State Attorney General’s Office and consumer advocacy groups, he finally listened to the actual story and referred me to his higher-up. The next guy, Stephen, was courteous, had every detail laid out, and promised me a new computer that should arrive in a few weeks.
I was told by many that the Thinkpad name meant quality products and service. Unfortunately, my experience has been nothing but painful and I will have to recommend to others against purchasing from Lenovo, including their flagship laptop models like the X300/X301. I will report back here once I receive my new computer. Thank you.

PS. Attached is one of the many videos of the computer malfunctioning out of the box (this one is called “BIOS loads, Windows begins, Blue Screen, LONG beep, computer resets itself, no display”, and a picture of the computer’s screen scrambling after following a technician’s instructions to enter the BIOS, if you would like more of my videos just contact me.

Your feedback is much appreciated!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYG4_a_9ysE

 

wow...lenovo really f'ed up that time...
i hope your laptop gets fixed, i would have lost it if i had to wait that long

 

Wow, kudos for not giving up and pushing hard -- you paid $3000 for a laptop, so ****it it should work! Lenovo service has crumbled over the past 4 years...from 9 week order times (which is VERY frequent unfortunately) to poor warranty service. I'm really losing faith in Lenovo these days :/

 

Watch the potty mouth everyone. I understand people are upset, perhaps rightfully so, but that's not an entrée to use foul language or poor manners.

 

I totally understand your frustration, and thank you for figthing this. I myself purchased a T400 recently and it was just a horrible experience, and I have to say that I have never dealt with such a low quality/level of customer service. Needless to say, I have always wanted to get a ThinkPad so I just had to go through the process, but I have completely lost confidence in this company and probably would not deal with them again in the future, nor will I recommend them to anyone I know. The past times when this laptop manufacturer was touted as a producer of extremely reliable machines and provider of high quality service, i.e., before this manufacturer was acquired by a company overseas, is unfortunately long gone and I guess we all have to accept that and move on. Although a benefit of the acquisition was the decline in prices of these laptops, this is a great example of "you get what you pay for".

 

Man, that was painful to read. That is absolutely ridiculous. Congrats to you for handling the situation so well. I don't think I would have slept properly if this happened to me especially with the amount of money you spent. I hope you get a new machine as you were promised(I think you deserve one instead of them trying to fix the old one). Not only was your machine ruined, you were bad mouthed as well, totally insane. I think they wrecked your motherboard. That is a totally unacceptable level of service from a company like Lenovo. I think this is one of the reasons that people go for cheap goods these days, so that if something goes wrong atleast they aren't out a lot of money. But wheres' the satisfaction in that?

Please keep us informed of your situation.

 

Hey, I also had a problem with Lenovo warranty repair with my X61. It all started with a defective PCMCIA slot. Long story short, my laptop was "fixed" 4 times and each time it was "fixed" a new problem was introduced

I had my X61 for only 2 months and it had been taken apart and put back together 4 times. The last time was the final straw and I wanted my laptop replaced with a new one so I was put in contact with the customer complaint department. In the end they agreed to replace my laptop with a new one and upgraded my warranty to 2 years on-site. It's been 2 months since they agreed to send me a new laptop and I have not yet received it.

BUT, there is a rainbow at the end of this story. The reason it has taken so long (according to the Lenovo rep) was because they are having difficulty finding parts for the X61 so last week, I received a email notifying that they are upgrading my laptop to the X200! Not only that, it will come with the more powerful T9400 CPU, which isn't even listed on the website! I am now awaiting for the X200, which should arrive soon (I hope).

My entire experience with the customer complaint rep has been pretty positive. She was always cordial and polite and I can tell she was trying to remedy the situation and satisfy my complaint.

So hang in there!

btw, I'm was dealing with Lenovo Canada.

 

why not get a refund and step out of lenovo. hope you get the functional one by then.

 

f50gtr Sorry to hear about your nightmare.....the problem with shipping a computer even if sturdy as an IBM/Lenovo it still is susceptible to getting banged up and damaged during transportation, I don't know if the wobble chassis came out that way from the factory....but the shut down problem after the first repair sounds like the heat sink fan on the CPU may have been banged out of place a bit. It happened to me a couple of times when I shipped out to NY some PC I built equipped with heavy copper heat sinks....they were send back to me and upon replacing it with a lighter one things worked well.
What I'm trying to say is that just about everything can go wrong during shipping and it's best to always deal with the manufacturer on a brand new computer, send it back for a replacement and forget about repair centers.

The good news is that if it works well out of the box...it will likely be good for a very long time......My advice to everybody is to torture test the hell of it for a few days to expose any potential instability problems right away.

 

Sounds like you got a bum deal. I struggle with what to think when I see these threads. They do come from time to time. You're obviously angry, maybe justifiably. You wouldn't make a long post and videos were it otherwise. I don't know. I'm only hearing your side of the story. I know one thing, I'm glad I'm not a CSR. I don't know what this accomplishes. You'll get people fired up for a bit, but in the end life goes on. Every ThinkPad I've owned and person I've recommend them to has had nothing but positive experiences. I've never had a bad support experience, though I don't call often nor have I had an issue like yours. Seems like, after some ado, you're getting a new notebook. This does not excuse Lenovo for anything that went on here, but be happy your journey is coming to an end. Sure, it sucks you're going to have to use your HP for a little while longer, but that don't sound too bad to me. You could have no other backup notebooks. It's probably not good for you to be this worked up over something so minor.

One more thing, when you oversell things, they tend to lose their meaning. Losing a loved one is a nightmare. Forgetting your heart medication on an overseas flight is a nightmare. This in my opinion is not a nightmare or even close.

True you do get what you pay for, but I think you could probably make a good argument that notebooks today are better $ for $ than their yesteryear counterparts. Check out the reviews for notebooks like the R50, which is five years old. You're looking at probably $1,500-2,000 for the entry level ThinkPad. The comparable notebook to the R50, the R400, probably costs half that, is lighter with better features and as durable. People who think older ThinkPads never had issues are looking at the world through rose colored glasses. It's a trade-off with no right answer. Which world do you prefer, one where only the well-healed are able to own notebooks or one where your average Jane/John Doe can own one, but there not quite as good as the others?

I don't know if the support still there, I've not called in so long. I think the other factor(in general though may not apply here) in this is everyone runs to FatWallet or SlickDeals for coupons, or looks for CPP/EPP codes which they may or may not be entitled to, which is completely understandable, but when you squeeze the manufacturers, something has got to give. They don't have enough money left to fund things like support/service to the degree they used to. It probably played a part in why the return policy is so crappy now in my opinion. IBM said they sold their PC Division because they weren't making any money. Price points have gone way down since then.

 

I've mentioned this before. Lenovo's business support is light years away from HP and Dell's enterprise support, at least in Asia Pacific. They do not have the scale nor the experience to deal with business needs and yet are selling these business notebooks. Even their 4 hour response contract is a joke since they can't deliver.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303102

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=302674

lenovo service = 2 thumbs down....3 active complain threads on their service right now!

 

Out of how many notebooks sold?

 

Personally, I think if Lenovo thought that it was major problem, they would just make it harder to qualify. I remember during the IBM days, there were no stray CPP/EPP codes around.

 

Did you ordered with a credit card? If so, threatening a charge back usually does the trick to get certain people to move in the direction that you want them to move.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your problems .... things didn't go well with my Z61t either and to imagine I'm trying to buy a T500 now and they mistakenly screwed up my order and now won't fill it, (see my post in this forum) ....

I'm beginning to wonder if its a good thing my order got messed up... I've been going to all lengths to get them to honour the order and I'm glad it didn't go through, I think I'll look to another brand .... it can't be Dell, (bad experience too) for business notebooks who or what's left ? Sony Z/BZ, HP Business line or LG seems to be up and coming (better) options?

The American Economy just fell through the hole without touching the sides ... bad timing for Lenovo or anyone else to tarnish their own image... and to think the T500 price just jumped by about $200 on the base price, in Canada anyway.

It makes no sense ... little man burns ... big company wins ... capitalism is fair and it works ... right

 

Sounds horrid. I purchased a 3yr accidental damage warranty with my U330. I hope they come through if I need it.

 

Hammer them down, threat to sue, threat to report to your state Dept of Consumer Affairs, to the Attorney General, to the United States Postal Service (who deals with mail order fraud) and last but not least to all consumer blogs you may find and Better Business Bureaus... I did it after they changed my shipping date for the second time and got my notebook in 5 days with an upgrade from a 3 year normal warranty to an accidental damage one for free... write it down, document yourself and move it because they may dispute you in court easily but.... they don't want to... they have big shoes to fill after purchasing from IBM and the worst that can happen is to lose their business customers... In my case I've printed every single day the order page stating the two week time delivery when they were delaying my shipping for more than a month and then threat them with a sue for deceptive practices and badmouth them all around.

So far my U330 is working fine after I had to uninstall ReadyComm - crap software - that was interfering and disconnecting my wireless each minute and preventing the automatic connection at power up and returning from Hyp/Sleep... uninstall it and it has been rock solid since then.. Thanks God I'm a systems professional...poor the ones that aren't...

I think this is what we will have to endure buying from the Chinese... If I have problems with this as you are having I would return it with a court receipt... and demand my money back.

Good Luck