Goodbye, Lenovo

I canceled my T61 order and pulled the trigger on a Dell D630.

The main reason I did that was the customer service I received from Dell (I didn't get any from Lenovo...), and the price of Dell's accidental damage service. I bought the complete everything package from Dell (3 years), and the price was roughly equivalent to the Lenovo price. The rep I talked to even gave me a $130 discount on top of the $400 off and added free expedited shipping.

So... bye. Good luck with the T61. Sirius, if you gloat too much I'll throw my new D630 at you, call it an accident, and have them send me a new one

 

If I didn't see so many Dells at work, I would have bought the new Dxxx models from Dell, but I need something that won't get mixed with the other units at work personally.

Hopefully, you won't have to claim that accidental damage. Glad to hear you are happy with your order.

 

I actually hesitated a lot b/w d630 and t61...
and I decided taking neither of them later on.. but go with x61..

so.. thinkpad still dominates.

 

Now I am only watching

 

Dells suck, thinkpads are the best.

 

After my experience with Dell's quality, NOT AGAIN!

 

Not what again?

 

The Dell Latitude D630 is cheaper, centered screen and has better battery life.
The Lenovo Thinkpad T61 has a slightly better case, better video card (which makes the battery life really crappy) and better keyboard.

 

I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment of the actual computer. But Dell wins (by far) on customer support.

 

I've never thought that having a centered screen would be an advantage of one notebook over another... :laugh:

At least Lenovo made something that everyone is talking about...sounds like marketing strategy....and you can't they aren't creative...

 

I think you are a bit confused between sales and support after sales.

Lenovo after sales support is second to none. Hopefully, you won't get any problem with the Dell. Support after sales is the most important thing for most people and that's why a lot of people are buying the Thinkpads.

 

AFAIK, Dell uses the same keyboards on their Latitude line as their Inspiron line. They have a great layout!... but they've got that cheap feeling to it. Light clicky sounds and easy to break off keys.

I went to one of the Dell Kiosks and touched one of their Latitude notebooks.. man.. the plastics feel so cheap and comparable to the Inspiron line... no where close compared to Thinkpads in terms of hardness, feel, and lack of flex. Also, you're gonna get those oily palm rest marks.

 

I do not think the off-center screen is a big problem, but it is kind of annoying. I want to ask Lenovo "What were you thinking?!"

 

No more Dells.

 

Yep, it's annoying. I guess, there are idiots everywhere...

But, the strange thing is that people talk more about minor thing like off-center screen istead of full crap like 4 cell battery...

 

the 4 cell battery is definitly crap.. why cant they figure out how to squeeze a cell or two extra into that thing??? i think the minimum should be 6 and go up to 9 not 7.... i was dissapointed when i could only get 7... so i did and ill see how it is...

 

If you consider that the laptop is wider you would indeed think they would manage to put some more juice in there...
But as it is less deep they do not have as much real estate to go 'inside' the actual case, so that might be why...

I would just like to have the thing in my hands already...
While I am not as affected as some other folks that ordered in early May I am as pissed as they are that my shipping date still says 8/30 with no updates since my order on 5/29...

 

I'm a longtime lurker, but I couldn't ignore this topic.

I originally ordered a T61 on 5/11 with a ESD on 5/29 and after my (& everyone else's) delay until 8/31, I ordered a Dell D630 on 5/30 with a ESD date of 6/18. The Dell price was the same as the T61 except the Dell had the 3 year Complete Care included. Battery life is also very important to me, so the Dell makes sense. I called Lenovo on 5/31 and after waiting 55 minutes, the Lenovo rep couldn't give me any idea of when it would ship. She just said it would ship sometime between Jun 30 and Aug 31. Because I need it by Jul 10, I canceled the order. BTW, the rep was more than happy to cancel my order.

Now, the people in the Dell forum keep saying that Dell delivers earlier than their ESD. Well, I'm still waiting, 19 days with Lenovo and 15 (& counting) with Dell. I am not a happy camper.

 

Lenovo has been under a lot of stress with their reps and such. Lots more calls than normal.

Before all this madness they could usually answer calls in a few minutes. Also as said there is a big difference between BEFORE sales support and AFTER sales support. Lenovo kills Dell in the AFTER sales support area, that is unless you like speaking foreign languages. Dell's support has always been worthless for me, only thing that works well is when they dispatch someone to come out and fix something.

Now as far as before sales, Dell is amazing at roping you in. They have 100s of dedicated reps that speak perfect english and are more than happy to deal with you to get you to buy a dell.

 

Hey all you dell people out there, go do this with your dell and when you need a calculator to count the # of pieces that your laptop disintegrates into pm me.

http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=86

 

If you are trying to impress me, you have failed. It is only a dirt bike. If it survived a Ford Expedition, I would be impressed.

 

You asked for it

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

 

Simple solution to that problem, just tape your business card to the laptop.

I'm in the IT department of a HUGE Fortune 50 company, so everyone has a company issued laptop. We are all on different refresh cycles (every 3 years). My company has gone through T21s, T23s, T40s, Dell D600, and is now using X60 14.1 WS. Before that, it was Compaq EN Deskpros, and before that it was IBM3270 dumb terminals. Heck when I started, we had punch cards.

After some of my co-workers got T40s, I got stuck with a D600 Lattitude (must have been low bid on the contract), now those co-workers are getting X60s. I'm up for a new work laptop next year.

We all have the same Brenthaven bags too ... another reason to tag your bag with your business card ... especially when we travel ... a sea of black laptop bags.

Now where is my T61? ... the more I read these boards the more depressed I get since people ordering after me are getting theirs shipped already while mine still shows ESD of 8/31. Like the rest of you, I've contacted Lenovo multiple times, thru email, calling the CSRs etc. but I still don't have a confirmed shipping date.

 

That was only a Ford Ranger pick up truck. Again, I am not impressed. You would be surprised what can survive the weight of one wheel of a pickup truck. Even a cheaper consumer notebook could withstand that test.

 

If it takes ~1 hour to get on the line with a rep, I don't think it matters whether I already own a T61 or if I'm still buying one.

I also bought a gold something or other with my Dell that guarantees a 3-4 minute wait to talk to a "level 2 rep," whatever that is.

The support you get depends so much on what you buy, i.e. whether or not you buy the ___ support package or not. Dell is cheaper; I bought the whole nine yards for about the same as the Lenovo.

If I have accidental damage coverage, small differences in durability don't really matter; if something cracks I can have it fixed for free.

Anyway, that's just me rambling to myself and rationalizing my decision

 

Jeez, make up your mind Homer_Jay_Thompson which one do you want to run it over?

 

Either one would be OK. A full grown bull African elephant would also be very impressive.

 

Having a car/tank/elephant go over it won't show you anything.

Try this: take a hammer and hit your car window as hard as possible. It will bounce off. You can also buy a device the size of a pen ( "window puncher") that will totally shatter your window if you hold it up against the window and push a little button. See, size isn't everythying

Although I would like to see someone use the window puncher on the backside of a laptop screen...

 

I have seen the results of someone hitting a car window with a ball-peen hammer and it does break. It goes straight through without any resistance.

 

That's a 14inch notebook for crying out loud, how the heck in the world would you be able to fit 2 wheels of a pickup truck on top of that notebook at the same time?

 

Just use a larger truck, like a Ford Expedition, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon XL or H1 Hummer.

 

Right now I really feel the itch to drive that truck over a Dell 630...

 

I've seen fireman hit windows with that axe thing they have and it just bounces off...

I mean if you try really, really hard.... :laugh: