Customer service nightmare

I've had my Lenovo for about a year now. Overall, I think it's a decent machine, but it's got some minor issues. It's issues are intermittent and not a reason to avoid the machine in particular. With this problem, it took a year to pinpoint, but now it can be resolved. Unfortunately, the relief I felt from finally knowing the source of my issues was very short lived.

Currently, my laptop is lost in a Lenovo repair depot and no one has a clue where it is. It arrived and at the facility and Fed-Ex collected a signature upon delivery. Despite a collective 13 hours spent on the phone, I cannot find anyone with answers or the ability to find any (whether they have any desire to or not). This evening's call lasted two hours and 45 minutes before I finally hung up. It seems that it is now solely MY responsibility as the consumer to track down my computer in a repair center from 1000 miles away. Unfortunately, they cannot give me a number to call to speak with anyone in the facility directly. It's an endless cycle of apathy and inaction. I've never regretted any purchase as much as I regret having bought this Lenovo. The hardware is good stuff, but the customer service vortex is the strongest deterrent that I've ever experienced. If you like the hardware, roll the dice.

 

Post in the appropriate forum for your model in Lenovo's forum. User Mark (an employee) is usually the one to handle such issues and is very diligent in doing so.

ThinkPad - Lenovo Community

 

For future reference, this is why long time ThinkPad veterans always advocate an on-site warranty if at all possible. EasyServ has sucked quite hard for many, many years now.

I second the advice given above: PM Mark and let him know what's happened.

 

Today I finally made progress. When I called a sales associate in Durham, NC who had sold me my warranty on Monday, I explained why I wanted to cancel the order for the warranty upgrade. My intent was to buy a new laptop this weekend so I wouldn't need to worry about how long it takes Lenovo to find mine. As soon as the Lenovo returns, it will be promptly sold. Warranty or not, this is not something that I will ever deal with again given a choice. That choice is to sell it before it has another issue.

Thankfully, the salesman did not try to dump me off on anyone else, but spent 30 minutes trying to get someone on the line who would help me without passing me off. He was understanding and patient and that made as much difference as anything else anyone promised me.

The agent he found was great and promised to get me a response from the depot. She mentioned that doing so wasn't something she should really do because my machine isn't a part of her division (read "I'm a thinkpad support manager, but I'll help anyway"). She gave me her direct line also if I need to follow up. My machine IS Lenovo, but NOT thinkpad. I now know that that distinction is the root of the problem.

I went back to my notes and saw that every agent who was helpful was an agent dedicated to the thinkpad (I MAY have fudged or sidestepped my particular model info to try to make some headway on finding the machine). Those agents were all in Atlanta or Durham. Honestly, I don't care where an agent is if they're well trained and empathetic.

So now, I still plan to sell the ideapad, because its still a good machine, but I have no interest in ever dealing with tech support again for it. What I've decided though, is that the replacement will be a thinkpad. The support for it seems to be quite attentive and effective. Also, I get to drop it off locally and get a loaner during any repairs from my university's laptop support center. I hadn't realized that opting for the ultraportable model would cause such a difference in support.

Though I do plan to buy a thinkpad, I am placing my trust in my university to make any issues right. I've lost so much respect for Lenovo as a company in this transaction. I even (VERY) briefly considered buying a Mac (don't judge me, haha) while trying to sort this out. Thankfully, I got a couple of great employees to remind me that it isnt ALL of Lenovo that I think should go bankrupt. That's just the part that doesn't respect its customers. The thinkpad people are pretty awesome. :/

 

I suspect the challenges will be more severe when Lenovo becomes bigger.

You don't have to say that. It's your money, whether or not people in this forum are crazy enough to pass judgment on your purchase decision.

Anyway, best of luck.

 

it is good that you are getting somewhere with this whole debacle, it is nice that other division comes to help you out with the problems that you were having.

 

How about yourself?

 

Is EZ Serv that bad? We use IBM depot all the time for the very little in warranty ThinkPads we get checked into our tech shop, always a pleasure dealing with IBM.

Lenovo for their Idea branded stuff is a whole other story.

 

EasyServ isn't run by IBM any more. It changed over to Solectron... erm... 5+ years ago? (That'd be Flextronics now.) I don't remember exactly when, but it was quite some time ago. And yeah, it's gone down hill a fair bit since IBM handled it.

Now it's not exactly unusable -- and if you've got a support contract for a large fleet or are a business partner your experience could well be different -- but for personal systems it's not something that I'd recommend unless you can't afford the premium for on-site service.