Don't cancel an order from Lenovo...

I did and I am still paying for it, literally. I recently ordered a Thinkpad T500 from Lenovo on Monday, August 3rd. Two days later, August 5th, I found a Studio 1555 for a couple hundred dollars cheaper and I was on a budget so I called Lenovo and cancelled my order. At this point I thought everything was fine but the next day I received the free privacy filter that came with the Thinkpad. I was just going to leave it lying around unless Lenovo called me and asked for it back because I assumed they did not care about it that much.

About a week later, August 13th, I received an e-mail from Lenovo telling me that my order had shipped. At this point I had already ordered my Studio 1555 and they had already charged my bank account as well, whereas the charge for the T500 had been removed from the "Pending Purchases" area in my account. I immediately called Lenovo and they told me the paperwork to cancel my order, they even had my call on record though, never went through and they had just shipped out the T500. I tried to ask them if they could just contact their shipper and get it returned but was told that they could not and that I would have to contact them to set up a return when I received the package. I then told them that my account had never been charged and they said they will invoice the purchase ASAP.

The problem was, though, after purchasing my Studio 1555 and paying tuition costs, that I did not have enough in my account to cover the purchase. I told the rep this and he said he would try his best to make sure they didn't charge my account. It sounded kind of suspicious so I rushed to the bank and deposited enough spare cash to cover the charge.

So I wait a couple of days and sure enough, the T500 arrives on Friday, August 14th. I immediately called Lenovo, waited on hold for 15 minutes, and was told that they would call me back on Monday. I said okay and waited. Monday rolls around and they do not call so I call them this morning and they tell me that the invoice for the order never was processed and that they cannot set up a return until then. I asked them why they could not just make a UPS shipping label and have me print it or just send UPS to my door to pick up the package and the rep just blanks and passes me off after putting me on hold for a good 10 minutes.

The next rep once again tells me that they need to process my order before I can request a return and I tell him that I should not even have the money charged because I cancelled the order. He says that he agrees and that he will do what he can to stop it from being charged and tells me that he will call back in two days.

Long story short; I ordered a T500, cancelled the order promptly, and I am still going to have to pay for it and then wait for a refund which "can take up to a week after Lenovo receives the package and checks its contents". I just needed to vent and this seemed like a good place to do it. I hope this does not discourage any one from ordering from Lenovo, they build excellent computers, but think twice before you cancel the order.

 

I'm in the middle of the EXACT SAME THING.
I might just not sign for the package then have it returned that way I will not have to deal with any ownership of the package

 

I hear people having the same problem as well, you are not the only one.

 

I would not do that, it's not someone's private little house it will be shipped back to. Without an RMA number and correct address where they actually WOULD be expecting incoming packages such as this (not sure if the factory's address is the same address used for the return of merchandise).
Lost package would make me personally more nervous (whether I had declined the acceptance of it or not).
I'm sure no one at Lenovo actually tries to scam people out of their money, and if your case is right and justified (you called and canceled within the allowed timeframe for not being accounted for any restocking fees), you will be fine in the end.

 

Yes, the whole order and cancel process is not a well oiled machine. I have read similar experiences from others. I think this is because the communication between the warehouse, shipper, customer service etc is not that good. I hope eventually you do get your money back and I have hear that can take several weeks to months to get posted back top your account

When you order from Lenovo you really have to know what you want.

 

mbaha,

I wouldn't refuse delivery if I were you. I wanted to return my T400, so I read about that option on other forums. In short, you'll be charged the 15% restocking fee, whereas if you sign for the package and don't open it you should be able to return it without a fee. However, they will need to verify that you called to make a change and/or cancel the order and that it shipped after the fact. Read my story here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=408695

 

PS...my refund has posted to my account...took maybe a week or so from when I shipped the package back and only 1-2 days after they received it.

 

Same problem here. Ordered on the Aug 13, canceled on 14 and they shipped to my house on 18th. I called customer Service and they told me the cancel process takes about a week and the warehouse doesn't have this cancel information until it's complete.

 

Well I called to cancel the order less than 12 hours after it was placed...

 

I still think the safest bet is to sign for it (don't open it) and call for return authorization and free shipping labels. It was a smooth process for me and probably far less time consuming than fighting with lenovo and your credit card company if you refuse delivery.

 

We will see, not signing works well with Amazon.com

 

This kind of attitude strikes me as being, morally questionable.

 

Why? I doubt the filter cost them much and if they contacted me asking to ship it back then I would have, provided they paid for shipping of course. I was not about to call them and ask how to set up a return for part an order that I cancelled.

 

I went through a similar thing with Dell. I tried to cancel my Studio 1555 to order a T500 3 days after I placed my Dell order.

Dell is even worse. You can only cancel the order on the same day you place the order. There is no way to cancel an order the next day after the order is placed. Even though Dell's scheduled delivery date was 6 weeks later, they would not allow for a cancellation.

I refused the UPS shipment when it showed up at my house.

UPS returned the unit to Dell in about a week.

Once I saw Dell had received the unit I called and requested a refund.

It took about another week to 10 days to get the credit posted to my credit card.

 

Good to hear, they haven't charged my card so this might be the best way to go

 

If you use a credit card can't you dispute any charges made to the card?

I did that once, not with a computer but with another company. I ordered something, cancelled my order and they still sent the order and charged my card. I told them to take the order back and charge me back immediately plus shipping. They said it would take 3-4 weeks (RMA, approval, etc). I called my credit card company to dispute the charge and got a full charge back.

 

What should he dispute? They haven't charged him for the laptop yet, and they will not let him return it until they charge him. Stuck, it would be better to refuse delivery.

 

I think in court of law, we would win because we never signed any UPS/Fedex shipping document and never took delivery.

Where it gets squirrelly is the 15% restocking fee.
Can Dell/Lenovo legally deduct a 15% restocking fee from the refund?

Since their websites all say they "may" charge a restocking fee, it would appear we would lose court if we dispute the restocking fee.

But if I recall correctly, if you carefully read the restocking fee verbiage, and RMA process, it is all written around the scenario where we, the customer, takes delivery. After taking delivery, we then request an RMA in 21 days, or whatever time frame allowed.

Since we are refusing delivery, the restocking fee may not be legally allowed.

But I am no lawyer and am only theorizing.

And just to clarify.
I am not out to screw or take advantage of anyone, or any company.

Why I felt justified in refusing the order was I believe I gave Dell plenty of advance notice I wanted to cancel my order. If a product is supposed to be delivered in 6 weeks, Dell could have easily canceled the order after 3 days without incurring any financial hit. It was only Dell's inflexible no cancellation policy that forced me into a box where I had to take my chances.

 

In general you need to wait for 1 month before you can dispute. When you dispute you promoise that you gave sufficient time to the merchant. So its not right to dispute like that. I had a AAA membership that I didnt know about, till i saw my credit, i cancelled immedicately, it took about 10 days for it to be credited, i kept following up and i thought its time to dispute, but when i clicked on dispute i was given that information.

 

Maybe I was lucky. I disputed pretty fast on the basis that I cancelled the order before it was shipped and the company did not have any policy stating how long they need to process refunds. I remember pressing the fact that I cancelled hours after ordering and that I called the company and tried to resolve the issue. I think also in my case the company wasn't a big company and maybe didn't have a good history. This was also many years ago.

I agree that disputing in this case against Lenovo wouldn't work unless they outright refused to give a refund... which they won't since Lenovo is a reputable company. Refusing receipt sounds like the best way to go.

 

So Lenovo actually e-mailed me today like they said they would and things weren't good from the start when I say that the e-mail was to "Ms. Zach Harvey" (?).

They told me that they are going to charge my credit card and then I have to call again to set up a return. They did not say anything about the restocking fee or shipping back to them. I e-mailed him back and told him that would not work for me because I have bills to pay, which is true, so they are just going to have to e-mail me a shipping label or come pick the laptop up.

 

I ordered a T400 last fall. A few days later I decided to change the configuration and wanted to cancel the order. I called but it was too late, the order was already shipped. Lenovo was very good about setting up a return. They instructed me to accept the T400 when it arrived, do not open it and they sent me all the return labels, RMA and paperwork by email. I followed their instructions and promptly received a full credit, no restock charge, within a day or two their receiving the T400 return.

I actually thought the whole process went pretty smoothly and was a happy with the outcome. Other than the phone wait time which was a drag. I then ordered the reconfigured T400 which I have been very happy with. Considering how smoothly the return went, I wouldn't even think about refusing delivery as I can only see this leading to a big headache and delays down the road.

 

If you reorder another computer from the same company, then restocking fees shouldn't be a problem.
If you take delivery and then call for an RMA, and the rep sees you are not buying another/different computer, you are more likely to face a restocking fee.

During one of my several calls to Dell when I was trying to get them to stop the shipment, I was offered discounts if I agreed to take the computer. I believe their final offer was a $150 discount on the Studio 1555. But I had made up my mind I didn't want the Studio 1555.