Given horrible customer rep currently, would you buy a Lenovo?

I've been planning on buying a new Thinkpad. However, reading all the current reviews about Lenovo's horrible customer support, shipping issues, and computers arriving broken, warped, not what was ordered, etc...

... would you still buy one? I'm considering not buying one. Even getting to talk to their billing department is taking days; back when IBM made Thinkpads, I remembered being able to talk to a very knowledgeable support person very quickly - almost immediately, in fact, and they had special support people who's job it was to make sure the customer problem got fixed quickly and happily.

Now, I'm wondering if it's even worth the bother, and maybe I should just go buy a Dell.

What do you all think?

- Tim

 

I won't say it is horrible. Just not as good as it use to be.

And yes, I would still buy a thinkpad. I'm thinking of getting another Tablet PC myself, the x200

 

I've purchased a dozen Thinkpads of all sorts this year. Only two occasions where I needed customer support and both went fine. Shipping was quick and the machines always arrived before the original ETA (including an X200s that came in this week). And the machines themselves are top notch - not a problem to be had.

On the other hand, I bought 3 Dells in Q1 this year. Each one of them had significant problems and had to go back. Great customer service, but inferior product IMO.

So, yes, I'd buy Lenovo again.

 

Across the board, I just assume customer service will blow, no matter what brand I choose. Just pick the lappy based on which is the best bang for your buck, has the necessary features you want, and build quality (every manufacturer has their own specific issues/shortcomings). Most of the pissing and moaning you hear are on these message boards, and doesn't necessarily mean that its the norm.

 

Thanks! By the way, did you ever buy from IBM back when they made Thinkpads, as mentioned? I mean, I don't think I've EVER seen such great customer service, pre-order tech support, and after-sale purchase support as I'd seen then... talking to real humans! Not having to wait long on the phone! Problems solved quickly! It was ridiculous... the closest I ever came to such great service in other companies was when a Dell I had was on my company's support contract ("Gold" service). Call them up and boom-boom-boom, everything's taken care of... but that was expensive support (thankfully paid for by somebody else).

- Tim

 

By the way, I am trying to check out at Lenovo, and it has said for the last hour "Our Systems are experiencing heavy volumes. Please resubmit the order after a short time.". Also, the "Check order status" page brought up a blank page for most of the day. I have seen this sort of behavior on the Lenovo site for a long time now.

Does not inspire confidence.

- Tim

 

No if your thinking of buying a Ideapad Y730 then don't. I've been waiting for 2 months now, and they don't seem to care to inform their customer on what is actually pushing this back for the 5th time. I'm truly pist.

 

Are you in Canada, where they're using that infamously bad new ordering system? Or perhaps they've rolled out that infamously bad new ordering system all across the globe by now?

- Tim

 

No I never bought way back in the IBM days. I just recently (6months ago) bought a T61p. It actually shipped ahead of schedule, and shipping was fast, even from China. I haven't had to use tech support yet but I don't have any complaints yet about my lappy.

 

I believe Lenovo tech support is far better than their sales (which are decent enough if you can get a hold of them). It does seem to take a leap of faith to order from a site promising a custom 3670 ATI card on a 14 inch laptop. But outside the web glitches my Lenovo experience has been pretty good. There's a thread out there with good shipping stories, you will also find people who returned Thinkpads and are taking the plunge again

 

I think that if you will compare prices, you'll find out that Lenovo has became quite cheap in many models vs. Dell and HP. And selling at this prices have it's effect like reducing staff on both sales and support. The problem is that I think Lenovo is mistaking by not keeping the perfect support they had on the Thinkpads, especially in X series. They had a very unique reputation for some of the models, and they are blowing it by themselves. They should keep the best service on their most expensive machines.

 

I have consistently had great support from IBM/Lenovo. They answer their phones promptly, give you a real person, and make a good effort to resolve your issues quickly (with paid overnight shipping in both directions) as soon as a problem is identified. I highly recommend buying Lenovo products for build quality, reliability and service.

 

Yes, I've purchased a T60 through phone sales and a T61p through the website and had no issues with it. I'd purchase again.

 

I had to contact CS for different problems that I had with T61 and I have no complaints about the service at all.

 

Exactly my experience as well. Very good customer service...guess I got lucky.

 

I would. I still think the Thinkpad is a superior product to others out there right now. Who knows how that will change in the years to come. The thing I would do next time though would be going for a lower end model, as I don't use my laptop to it's full capability. I will probably order a machine without all the bells and whistles and go for exactly what I need. I am probably going for the R series machine next time and a lower end graphics card, as I am just not using the GPU as much as I thought. I don't mind paying for quality, but don't want to pay for stuff that I am not using. That being said I love my T61p and am happy that I bought it over other laptops.

Can't comment on CS, never used them and hope I never have to.

 

By the way, how do you know if the T400 you're ordering has an LG panel, or the Hybrid graphics? I thought anything that comes with a discrete ATI card also has the onboard graphics, correct? But I thought all the T400s have the non-LG panel.

- Tim

 

Same here. I ordered a T61P in June and it came way ahead of schedule. It actually arrived 6 days after I ordered it when it say it was going to take almost 3 weeks. When it's coming from Hong Kong, I'd say that's fast.

Plus, I haven't dealt with any Lenovo people, so I cannot comment on them.

Conclusion: My ordering experience was fine

 

I will not buy from Lenovo again. My T400 needed to be sent in for repairs after having it less than week. The service was fine but the tremendous amount of time I have wasted dealing with this computer is just incredibly frustrating. If it wasn't for the 15% restocking fee I would have returned it. If they can get this thing working then I won't feel so annoyed, but I don't think I'll ever get over the feeling of Lenovo cornering me in a situation where I either keep it or pay the restocking fee on something that was essentially DOA.

 

What was wrong with it, then?

And also, if it didn't work when you got it, couldn't you have sent it back without the restocking fee?

Back when I got my other two Thinkpads (during IBM's reign) the rule was, I could keep it 30 days, and return it for ANY reason (any at all) within that time, no restocking fee.

Is this no longer the rule?

- Tim

 

The laptop stopped booting after three days.

Sales demanded that I send it in to warranty service so they could verify that it is indeed not working and could authorize an exchange (still with the restocking fee). By the time it gets back from warranty it will be outside of the return period anyway. This is due to the seven days it took to get here from China, weekend days, my absurdly limited free time, and of course the time it spends at the service depot.

They made it clear that even if it was a problem they could not fix, I would still have to pay the restocking fee to return it.

 

While I completely believe somerandomsalesorserviceperson said that, I don't believe it's actually true.

See Ed Shumpert's blog message about Welcome changes to some policies and procedures as well as Mark's Advice About DOA Systems for the exact process to follow.

 

Thanks for those links. The pixel policy is quite interesting. I was told by support that nine dead pixels warranted replacement, and sales told me seven was the threshold. I guess even Lenovo's own employees don't know these policy changes.

 

New pixel policy for systems purchased on or after January 1, 2008.

 

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. You'd think that almost 10 months after coming up with these new policies, everyone would know about them but that bit about the 7 and 9 pixels is what I was told just last week.

 

FWIW, the new policy didn't come out until July. They just apply it retroactively it to include ThinkPads purchased in 2008. Still, in a perfect world, sales would have been aware of it.

 

I won't buy a thinkpad again given lenovo's past abysmal services given to me on more than 2 occasions. Also, I believe their services offered in Canada are nothing short of calamity. They have made me switch to Apple whose service I'm very much quite contented with.

This is totally my unbiased experience with lenovo.