Loading ...This is my 4th time calling IBM / Lenovo support and it’s not getting easier or faster. Let’s take a quick look at what Apple Support was like:
- Call Apple Support
- Press a menu option
- Press another menu option
- Wait for 1-3mins, talk to a person, fix problem/get replacement/whatever
Let’s have a look at my ThinkPad Support so far:
- Call Lenovo Support
- Press a menu option
- Press a menu option
- Press a menu option
- Press a menu option
- Press a menu option
- Wait for 10-30mins to get a person
- Told I have the wrong department, get transfered
- Wait for 3 mins
- Get order status, could be back ordered, get transfered to another department to check if it’s back ordered
- Wait for 5 mins
- Told that the package is back ordered, ask for an ETA, told I need to get transfered to get the ETA
- Wait for 6 mins
- Talking to new agent, told it’s back ordered for a month and a half — Note, this is an UltrayBay battery… aparently made by Unicorns at the top of Mt. Olympus by hand
I really am not making this up, this is what just happened to me for the 4the time. I’ve never been transfered less than 2 times (getting the correct department the first time) and been transfered 6 times one time until on the 6th time I ended up at the SAME department I called in the first place, that took an hour and a half. The call average is about 35mins as opposed to probably 8mins with Apple.
I would also point out that I was told on the phone that if you request hardware replacement after 30 days, you are sent a refurbished part no matter what. Only if the device is replaced WITHIN the 30 days do you get a new part. That’s precious, where the hell was that notice on my support agreement? Oh it wasn’t.
It’s obvious I’m mad and frustrated, but why is the quality of this “support” so consistently pad? It’s probably good ThinkPad’s are decent machines, I could not fathom a company comming into the market with a flaky product and offer this level of support and hope to be in business for longer than a year.
If I had to buy another laptop again, I would take a long look at something else.
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March 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
After seeing people using ThinkPad in my company and I was having very good impression about IBM thinkpad, I planned to purchase Lenovo Thinkpad T60. I wasn’t aware that thats going to be worst decision taken by me. When I received it, everything was working fine. Suddenly after 4 days wireless stopped working, it was new laptop indeed. I called to customer care. It took me 2 hours of time to resolve driver problem. Then I realized that my Ethernet connection was not working since beginning because I always used wireless connection. I called again to customer care, they simply asked me to send Laptop to service center. I sent it service center and I received it after 4 days. Still Ethernet wasn’t fully functional. I called to customer care again and again he suggested me to update the Ethernet driver.
*The Worst*
I never realized that after receiving my laptop from Lenovo service center, left mouse button above the Trackpad was completely out of order. (Button was completely down, Hardware problem). Before it used to work fine. So it was spoiled by technicians of service center.
I called again to customer care, the asked me to send my laptop back to service center. Now here is the worst support. It was completely their fault. Since I use my Laptop extreme, I decided not to send it to customer care because they might create new problem again and asked me to send my laptop back….So my laptop always travels from my home to Lenovo Thinkpad service center and service centers to my home. And I will have to live without my laptop.
-> Customer care always asks to send your laptop to service center. (They don’t know why we have purchased the laptop, to run our business or to use it as personal machine. Each time it is difficult to take a backup of your complete data, erase them from drive and restore them to laptop since data can be personal or confidential. Customer care don’t know these things)
Let your company deal with all these problems but personally never ever go for Lenovo Thinkpad laptops. You can go for Lenovo Thinkpad laptop if you are luckiest person of the world. It was IBM Thinkpad which used to be considered as good as Apple laptops.
After Lenovo acquired it, they are like ordinary laptop now.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
rohitmak,
I’m having a very similar problem with my Lenovo right now and the support service has sucked balls so far.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Riyad,
So looks like Lenovo sucks all consumers. I would suggest, instead of sending your laptop to their service center, ask them for nearby their business partner who repairs Lenovo laptop. Thats would be easy for you to get everything done perfectly in front of your eyes. If you have any hardware problem, ask them to send it to you. Take that to service nearby their service center and get installed it.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Rohitmak,
Actually I have to get my laptop serviced this time due to a dead fan, and I filed a service request Saturday, saying it wasn’t a high priority and got a call Sunday morning on Easter from a guy that is getting a box overnighted to me… if this pans out and they fix it, I’ll be completely renewed on their support to be honest.
I’ll keep you guys posted.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:03 am
I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad Z61P in 2007 dec.
Since then, i had nothing else but problems.
I live in Hungary, there’s no Lenovo Support here at all.
I had to talk to IBM staff who dont give a shit..
Wireless doesnt work normally, FNkey + F1-F12 (thinkpad wizards) dont work after hibernate / sleep.
Access connections is messing everything up. Wireless is sometimes turned off by itself, sometimes i just need to reboot the comp to succesfully connect.. its a MESS.. and their support is even worst
April 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
DoesntMatter,
That really sucks man… you can’t send your laptop in for repairs at all? They won’t even ship you a return box?
I know it sounds like over-kill, but have you tried wiping and reinstalling the Lenovo factory disks? I wonder if it’s just a bad install of the OS with some misconfigured drivers?
Can you return or swap the laptop from where you purchased it locally or online?
April 27th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Dear Author
I had the same fatal encounter as you.
After saving up for about 2 years, I had enough money to get a laptop. I went in to get Lenovo X300, as recommended by the sales person.
It came with a WinXP downgrade CD. I followed the instruction and downgraded it. Guess what? I couldn’t boot up again. That was the 5th hour after I had purchase the laptop when I got home.
I called the center.
1. Press menu option
2. Press another option
3. And another option
.
.
…. (I forgot how many times)
4. Waited 10-20 minutes to get to speak to a person.
5. Was told that their department is not the right one, and was given a number to call other department (so I redo step 1 to 3)
6. Waited for another 5-10 minutes to get to another person.
7. I got a reply that I need to fax a status sheet from my supplier (which I don’t know who). And my product had to be taken into their repair center within 7 days or else I will not get another 1-to-1 exchange.
8. I called my store and they told me I have to get it from Lenovo local distributor.
9. I called the distributor, and the distributor told me to go down to get from them. I took a cab and rush down.
10. Afterward, I got home and fax it to Lenovo customer service.
11. I called them again (repeat step 1-3).
12. I waited another 15 minutes or so.
13. The person over the line told me to fax it to MR ABX. I did immediately. Then she told me that they need 72 hours to process. (I thought – WHAT? Why do you need so long?). The person replied with an email to notify that they are processing it.
14. I waited for 3 days and I called them again. (Repeat step 1-3), and waited another 10 minutes. Guess what is their response? “Who did you fax to?”. I said I fax to this person from your department. And she replied, “No we don’t have such person, can you fax to me now?”. This is hilarious, if this keeps on – I won’t get another exchange. I insisted her that I faxed to this person. I printed the email and fax to her to indicated what I did 3 days ago.
15. I demanded to talk to a manager, and then the manager asked me “Why do I need to get the status sheet to return my product?” Now I was stumped! Your support & customer service officers told me to, and now you ask me WHY? Question them! He continued that I should have done this & this & this to get it returned. And he told me to go down to this service center (By the way, it is 20 km from my place) to get it service. This is the 4th day already.
16. I rushed down in cab again. Guess what next? The support replied, “Oh I think the manager got it wrong, our department don’t do that”. Now I am really frustrated and mad. I called the manager on spot with my mobile phone (my bills jacked up alot), and was told the manager was off duty. Come on, what the hell ! It is 3pm and he is off duty !
June 19th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Heyyah…. Check The Service Now. 19-06-2009
September 30th, 2009 at 8:33 am
I had the absolute worst customer experience while purchasing a computer from Lenovo. It has taken over a week to even get the order processed. And now that allegedly it has been processed they are giving me an estimated ship date of November 3rd. How can it take a company that manufactures computers over 1month to ship a computer it to a customer? That is not even including shipping time. I requested no configurations or modifications just the basic model and it takes that long. I don’t understand how no one has taken action inside the company to get this process to work better.
I sincerely hope they get this process working faster in the future as I can’t imagine many customers will be as patient as I have been. Certainly, I will not be either purchasing another computer from them or recommending anyone else that they even think about doing it.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
My experience with Lenovo is totally hit and miss. The first time it was awesome, the 2nd time was garbage (like yours) the 3rd time was awesome again… calling me on a Sunday to confirm a repair that was taken care by the following Thursday… I couldn’t believe it.
I have no idea why it’s so spotty.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Lenovo is the worst I have experienced all this. Took 2 Months to get my T500 ordered 5 mohths ago. Just had a major software problem with my wireless and spent 4 days on the phone with several tech who messed it up even more by having me download and remove a lot of drivers.Said the wireless card was bad when my Diag sftware said it was OK, wanted me to send in to Depot for repair. Todaay said they could do no more to get my wireless back, not their responsibility. Well I keep messing with the Diag and fixed it myself.They SUCK, Their whole system from purchase to anykind of support is the wordt I have ever dealt with in my Life. Save your Money and buy something else. Save the Stress.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Yes, I got a few other replies that I wish I knew before I embarked in this journey. This is another guy that had the same issue I did: “I mean that’s just Lenovo. It took me 3 weeks to get an order of a W500 and a W700 due to some credit card security issues that took time to process. From what I and others have noticed is that their payment processing takes a significant amount of time – hence the delays basically everyone experiences. I’ve just come to accept that because every other experience with their products and services (warranty is #1) is fantastic.”