Experience with Depot Warranty Service

For those that have had to use the Depot Warranty service, how has the service been and what have the turn-around times been like? If you had to do it all over again, would you do Depot Warranty or go with On-Site?

Thanks!

 

I think On-site is better than Depot & the money difference isn't so bad.

 

It just cost me $80 Canadian to upgrade from 3 year depot service to 3 year on-site. That's worth it to me since if I do one warranty claim it will save at least 1 week of transit time.

 

Well, I will let you know in the next few days how my experience was...because my T61P is at the depot right now being repaired...

 

Sent my T61p in on a Thursday evening and had it back Monday morning. Planar replaced and system works perfectly now.

Sent my T60p in on a Tuesday and had it back on Thursday. Bad LCD (row of pixels out), new LCD is perfect. Some stickers weren't replaced on the screen bezel, but new stickers were shipped by tech support. (pretty much a non issue).

I can only recall one time in the past where they've had a machine for more than a day or two.

 

Well the depot has had my T61P since Saturday. I guess they worked on it today starting early this morning. I called for a status update since they NEVER update the web page. The guy told me that they have tried 2 different motherboards and they still can't get the system to POST? What the heck... that makes no sense, the system posted fine with the original motherboard, the problem was only when using 3D graphics / games. What are they doing, did they swap in 2 boards that were WORSE than the one I already had? This doesn't seem very professional!

Then I heard from another forum user that he had a similar story, he sent his X61 in for repair and they swapped the motherboard 3 times, never could get it to power up, and finally they gave up and gave him a refund! Whiskey tango foxtrot!!! Now I am really worried, what kind of clown show are they running over there??

I have been a pretty big fan of Thinkpads from the get-go despite having lots of trouble dealing with their customer support when I bought it in the first place... And now this! I have to say they are sure trying hard to challenge my loyalty!

 

3 days everytime I've sent my whole computer in (them sent box, I send laptop, they fix and send back)
1 day (overnight) for parts like keyboards etc.

 

I have a question.
For instance, if you buy from Euclid Computers can you upgrade your warranty to an on-site one from Lenovo?

 

If you have been keeping up with my depot repair experience, here's mMy status update for the day, from Easyserv:

Hold for Parts - Service call is on hold until parts arrive, estimated at: None provided

I hope it won't be a long wait.

I just bought this friggin machine and already it's stuck in the repair depot for who knows how long

 

I don't know if service in Canada is slower, but we had to send in a company laptop for repair to the depot. Took 3 weeks before we got it back since the part they needed was back ordered.

 

And there's an interesting situation.....what if you have paid for on-site service and they don't have the part and it is backordered? In this case, I guess extra money paid for on-site is kind of wasted except your laptop sits in your house instead of the depot.

 

How can it take them 3 weeks to source a new part for a system that is currently in production? That makes no sense!

Lenovo must have major problems with their supply chain. They are starting to sound like more and more of a cluster f*** of a company.

 

This is not an attempt at pissing on the ashes of your frustration Hellbore. But if you had to do over again, would you have spent the extra $$$ for on-site service? I'm curious to know if you would feel this way if you had the opportunity for the technician to be 'right there' in front of you fixing your laptop w/o the worry of where its at in some other location...

-Jon

 

I think under the circumstances, I probably would rather have paid for the on-site service. Even if the repair guy had to back-order a motherboard, at least that way I would be able to use the machine (albiet, in a crippled state / half the system RAM) while waiting for the back-ordered part.

I originally thought it was better to have depot repair because they would have more techs in one place and hopefully more experience available, and theoretically they should have any part they need on hand already. This has not turned out to be the case in reality. In reality, they DON'T have the parts and you can't even talk to the techs who are working on the laptop, they only let you talk to some peon call center guy who knows almost NOTHING about what is going on and doesn't even pretend to care about the customer.

 

Yeah having on-site probably would have resulted in a wait too for the part, but probably not as long. I'm assuming that during 1 of those 3 weeks the laptop was in transit and sitting on someone's desk since they were busy with other stuff, so onsite would have saved that.

 

I've had a great experience with my depot service. I had my planar board and processor replaced. Turn around time was 2 business days. Sent out on Friday and returned Tuesday. I'm very pleased with the service.

 

I'd like to hear from people who have actually had on-site service.

I've read several stories on this site where on-site techs have butchered people's notebooks. Things like screws left over, misaligned parts during re-assembly and scratches/gouges have made me seriously reconsider upgrading to on-site vs depot.

It does not seem to matter what brand of notebook either. I've seen horror stories from Lenovo, HP and Dell users.

 

which is why I hate you lol... just kidding...

Was there any point in your case where they had to order a new planar board, or did they already have a replacement on hand?

For all I know, they might get the new board for mine tomorrow and ship the laptop out to me. However, I doubt this, because they told me that when they ordered the board from the manufacturer, the manufacturer would not give them an ETA on when they would get the board. To me that sounds like some kind of delay or shortage, why else would they do that?

In my experience, it is never good when a company can't tell you how soon they expect something, and won't even give a rough estimate at all. That usually means it is going to be a LONG time and they are afraid that if they tell you how long, you will get mad and refuse to wait, so they string you along by saying "we don't know how long" and that's how they keep you waiting stupidly for longer periods of time.

I'm usually pretty understanding about things but what bothers me as much of anything with Lenovo is that they refuse to level with me and be honest about what is going on. Supposedly the only guys who know what is going on with my machine are the actual depot repair techs, and THEY are writing very vague status updates that don't tell me what I want to know, and I"m not allowed to talk to those people who actually know, I am only allowed to talk so some surly call center guy who immediately starts trying to get rid of me as soon as he pulls up my case number.

I would much rather they told me if there was a 3 week delay on the motherboard, rather than just saying we don't know how long it will take. Since when does that kind of answer fly in the business world where everything is about deadlines and delivering on time?

 

Actually I have heard very few experiences with on-site repair guys, but the only ones I have seen were very negative, they tended to cast the on-site guys as bumbling buffoons who didn't even know what they were doing, or hadn't done the job before, and were basically figuring it out as they went along or reading an instruction manual. That's the main thing that scared me away from paying for on-site service in the first place.

 

I was not told what kind of service would be provided before hand. I was only told that it would be tested, repaired, and returned as quickly as possible. Out of curiosity what service center do you call? I have found that the US based (georgia?) call center to provide excellent service and the people on the other end are patient and very polite. I have spoken with an overseas rep prior to my purchase and it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. YMMV

 

I have mostly been speaking with the Georgia call center. I actually think I might have gotten the same rep all 3 times I called. He took a rude tone with me and sounded like he was just trying to get me off the line as quickly as possible. I should have gotten his name.

The overseas reps haven't been any better, they are hard to communicate with and don't seem to know or care what is going on.

 

I cant speak for Lenovo but have used Dell's coporate on site program where they send out techs. On replacements, yes loose screws left along.

Also had Toshiba depot. Absolutely horrible. Cracked case, misaligned case, missing screws, wrong screws in wrong slots, fix one thing and they break another. Replacing parts that did not need to be replaced IMO.

In the Dell case, the company they contracted out to also serviced IBM and the Toshiba place also serviced IBM. With the depot if you can carry it in at least you have a choice of location. It is hard to take a look at an on site tech and send them back.

I think its a matter of luck. The convenicne of on site sounds good in theory but I think you actually have less control over quality.

 

Well I guess it's not really the depot's fault, it's the manufacturer who can't seem to supply parts in a timely fashion.

 

It's a delicate balancing act invented by MBAs called Just-in-time stocking. The idea is to have as little stock on hand as possible but to maximize supply. Sometimes you just miss. It's always ready to have more than one coomponent vendor.

 

Lenovo seems to be missing A LOT lately. People ordering laptops are sometimes waiting for months because of one part that is back-ordered, and others whose machine is stuck in the depot for 3 weeks or more waiting for a back-ordered replacement part. It's getting ridiculous lately with Lenovo.

I'm sure they are saving lots of money by using this stocking scheme but I happen to know they have also lost a lot of customers who just got too fed up with the delays and took their business elsewhere. I wonder if they will eventually lose enough customers that it will be worth it for them to improve the response time of their supply chain...

 

I had a screen replacment done on my T61p with an on-site technician and one thing I ask them up front is, "Is it cool if I watch you work?". The reasoning is not only to proctor his work, but allow me to learn something about my own laptop as well. The two times I've had on-site service the guys are very cool, welcome to the company and I try and make it a point not to hover as they work. I offer them a drink, or ask if they need anything. I find my experience with techs who don't feel scrutinized are often more open to offer things to you that you wouldn't normally get otherwise. When the tech replaced the monitor screen, he was careful about removing the bezel, but it cracked on the plastic snaps. He knew how meticulous I was about my laptop and called the IBM service center and got a full back and front bezel replacement with extra bumpers and IBM Stickers and even a new back lid to my laptop! Being that a laptop is a very expensive and personal item of mine, I can't really put a price on being able to make sure the work being done is to my 100% satisfaction.. and on-site techs can't really leave you high and dry if you're not satisified. It's their JOB to ensure you're happy with the work they've done.

 

my experience with depot was very bad and i had a problem with my lcd and it had a small white spot and was from manufacturing and i realised that after 32 days of purchasing the laptop and placed a service call and they said that i had caused the spot and it is not manufacturing mistake i argued and escalated the problem and spoke to them and they repalced it for free and took me seven days to get a lcd and hard drive fixed.it is an t61p

always argue with the depot and u will get ur laptop fixed in that condition or else they will ask u to pay for it.