Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should Pay Attention To Customers

from the oh,-look,-we-have-customers dept

Tue, Aug 22nd 2006 2:46am — Mike Masnick

It's no secret that some companies aren't particularly responsive to customer concerns and requests, but, still, most companies at least try to position themselves as having an overall "customer-centric" focus. Apparently that's not true of Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker, who is most associated with their purchase last year of IBM's Thinkpad line of computers. While Thinkpads generally have a good reputation, especially concerning customer service, it appears that Lenovo has suddenly decided to start a new division "to focus on consumers." This, of course, should probably make you wonder just what the company was focused on before. Customer focus isn't the sort of thing that you should set up a separate division for. It should be a part of the entire corporate culture. And, if you need any more reason to be worried, it appears this new division has been set up by someone the company recently recruited from Dell -- a company that once decided the best way to work with customers was to remove its toll-free support number from its website to make it more difficult for customers to call for help.

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Known Coward, 22 Aug 2006 @ 3:08am

sounds like the type of thing where some random divisioin comes up with a bunch of idiotic ideas to make customers happy such as giving them awards points or something dumb rather than just making good computers that work.
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Jason Smith, 22 Aug 2006 @ 4:15am

Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should Pay A
I have worked for IBMLenovo for the past 2 years.The customer has always been first for ( IBM ), from my view I think all lenovo want is american money cutting good american jobs and driving down our job market taking jobs over sea like dell did a few years ago. They take our jobs and our money what is next
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- xxBoxers, 22 Aug 2006 @ 6:51am
  
  Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should P
  For what it's worth, Lenovo didn't buy "IBM's Thinkpad line of computers"- they purchased IBM's entire pc division AND relocated that division's management and 3,500 of the employees to China in order to maintain the quality of the Thinkpad and ThinkCenter product lines. 2,500 IBM employees were there for several years before the sale because Lenovo has been manufacturing the vast majority of IBM pcs for a decade. As part of the sale, Lenovo was required to incorporate the division in New York, a first for a Chinese company.
  
  The new ThinkPad lines designed and released by Lenovo since the purchase have been praised by the US pc press for their innovative design and significantly improved ThinkVantage line of support software and their essentially foolproof backup and recovery software. They have also provided (free of charge) versions of this software compatible with older IBM machines. These are just a few reasons that Lenovo made the division profitable in two quarters when IBM had been losing money on the pc division for years.
  
  Finally, Lenovo's new division is not a customer service division, it was created to support the company's sale of computers to individuals through retailers(such as Staple's and Office Depot). IBM has traditionally focused it's sales/leasing programs on the corporate sector, so such a division was not necessary.
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- xxBoxers, 22 Aug 2006 @ 6:51am
  
  Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should P
  For what it's worth, Lenovo didn't buy "IBM's Thinkpad line of computers"- they purchased IBM's entire pc division AND relocated that division's management and 3,500 of the employees to China in order to maintain the quality of the Thinkpad and ThinkCenter product lines. 2,500 IBM employees were there for several years before the sale because Lenovo has been manufacturing the vast majority of IBM pcs for a decade. As part of the sale, Lenovo was required to incorporate the division in New York, a first for a Chinese company.
  
  The new ThinkPad lines designed and released by Lenovo since the purchase have been praised by the US pc press for their innovative design and significantly improved ThinkVantage line of support software and their essentially foolproof backup and recovery software. They have also provided (free of charge) versions of this software compatible with older IBM machines. These are just a few reasons that Lenovo made the division profitable in two quarters when IBM had been losing money on the pc division for years.
  
  Finally, Lenovo's new division is not a customer service division, it was created to support the company's sale of computers to individuals through retailers(such as Staple's and Office Depot). IBM has traditionally focused it's sales/leasing programs on the corporate sector, so such a division was not necessary.
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- Debasis Goswami, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:30am
  
  Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should P
  That is simply a ranting. It is all about comparative advantage in a global economy. Protectionism can only drive America down.
  
  Compete and win in a good spirit. If you fail, try harder; don't make a political spin. It will not work in the long run.
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  - Anonymous of Course, 22 Aug 2006 @ 9:13am
    
    Re: Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Shou
    If only it was that simple.
    
    Ok, here's one roadmap for competeing in the
    global economy in an open but not fair market.
    
    1. Take a huge wage cut. Sorry, we can't
    support your lavish standard of living while
    people in India are starving.
    
    2. Work harder please. People in China are
    more than happy to take your job if you don't.
    
    3. Rinse and repeat.
    
    I don't have an answer. On one hand I like the
    idea of gobal competition and global markets.
    I'd like to see people in other countries living better.
    
    On the other hand I don't like the idea of having
    to compete with people working in horrible conditions
    for slave wages. Yes, I'm a bit selfish, I don't want to
    see people in this country living poorer.
    
    Sure, if the investment money is available a machine
    can usually do the job even cheaper. A progressive
    die in Chicago is cheaper than a three stage operation
    in Zhuhai. But that's a temporary advantage.
    
    Oh, well.
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- dennis parrott, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:44am
  
  Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should P
  uhhh... wasn't the ThinkPad line built offshore from the get-go? somehow, I believe that it was... so assuming I'm correct, how is selling the TP line to Lenovo who also make the computers offshore taking away jobs here in the States? I don't get that...
  
  furthermore, I own a ThinkPad (a t40) and it recently had issues. I dealt with IBM folks in Atlanta GA who worked with me to get it fixed. I know it was serviced in the US from the location that DHL took the box (can't remember if it was TN or KY...). (BTW - "Dave" from HP who helped my get my a1030n desktop issues resolved was really Sanjay from Bangalore... at least IBM is keeping there tech support line in the US!)
  
  if ThinkPads were never built here in the States, how is it that selling that line off to someone is taking away "our jobs"???
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- victor, 22 Aug 2006 @ 12:48pm
  
  Re: Lenovo Suddenly Decides That Maybe It Should P
  Now you blame Lenovo! Why you guys always look for somebody else to blame? Haven't you got it yet that the problem is in Americans buying cheap stuff from overseas, loving Japanese cars and electronics, etc? Americans lost respect to themselves and their fellow citizens, that’s the problem. This is often Americans leading those companies that move jobs overseas, not some aliens!
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Anoymous of Course, 22 Aug 2006 @ 5:01am

Hand me the straight razor please
Lenovo must have decided that it's a winning
strategy. I guess I'd rather buy my next laptop
from a company with excellent customer service
since the technical differences are not really all
that much.

I've worked for two companies that handed the
chinese the means to put them out of business
by setting up shop there.

I think the Chinese will do what it takes to be
successful even if it means good customer
service.

Then they will laugh.

It's most disturbing watching the loss of jobs
and industry nation wide to foreign countries.
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- socrates3001, 22 Aug 2006 @ 6:37am
  
  Re: Hand me the straight razor please
  Socialized countries are not used to listening to their own people. The concept of listening to a customer must be just as alien to the Chinese as listening to the populace.
  
  Forming a committee to deal with customer service will not solve the problem. Only a committee can come up with that idea.
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Nostalgic, 22 Aug 2006 @ 5:33am

What me worry?
I used Lenovo to find some drivers a week ago and didn't have any problems. Their support is easier to navigate than a lot of other places I've been, like some motherboard manufacturer's support. (...machspeed comes to mind)
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ITNightMare, 22 Aug 2006 @ 5:41am

Quality along with Customer Service...
Workig in IT for a major bank corporation, IBM holds all our computer contracts. One thing I have noticed across the board is that Lenovo really needs to step up its quality standards in addition to its customer service. We have received numerous docking stations that were bad and multiple notebooks that have come with bad HDD and CD/DVD-Roms. Now I am not saying that they are the only company that would have that problem, but when you receive 50 notebooks and 7-10 have problems, that is a poor percentage, at least for one of their current notebooks series.' As for the customer service side, well I do not have to deal with them at all, however you would think that a company would base it's mission plan around the customer's needs and not profit margins!
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- Rick, 22 Aug 2006 @ 9:21am
  
  Re: Quality along with Customer Service...
  The company I was with purchased 2500 Dell desktops and 45% were defective in one way or another... many motherboards... so, 10% isn't too bad for Lenovo!
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- Jim, 22 Aug 2006 @ 11:30am
  
  Re: Quality along with Customer Service...
  "however you would think that a company would base it's mission plan around the customer's needs and not profit margins!"
  
  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH - why should they be different from any other company? You think the oil companies care we hate them? They are laughing all the way to the bank.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2006 @ 6:17am

So the title and first 2 sentences set up how you are going to rip Lenovo on customer service, then you immediately provide evidence for the contrary.

You say yourself that Thinkpads have an especially good reputation for customer service. Hellow, Lenovo has owned IBM PCs since the end of 2004. And now they are going to further leverage that strength by creating a dedicated division to focus on customer service?

See, if you had posted some Lenovo customer service horror stories & stats, that would have helped your thesis.

WTF Mike?
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bob, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:03am

I think it was Jamaica Kincaid who once remarked that it's the countries who have Ministries of Culture that typically have the least of it.
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wirehead, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:03am

I dono...
I've hated Thinkpads for years and years. At Ye Olde Job, they had standardized on thinkpad laptops and they never failed to piss me off.
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Don Gray, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:05am

Love 'em...
I love Thinkpads. I've used them exclusively for the last 12 years. I haven't had a mouse for 10...

Although the thought of an American icon like IBM selling out to the Chinese pisses me off, they still make great laptops.

Nothing stands up to abuse like a Thinkpad T series.
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Randy Marsh, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:08am

South Park
They took 'r jooohhhbbbbszzzzzz. ~ Randy Marsh
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Buyer with Mixed Feelings, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:11am

Lenovo DOES need to focus on customer service...
I purchased a maxed-out T60 from Lenovo a couple of months ago and played hell with their customer service people. Several of them spoke terrible English and if you ventured off of their script it was all over. Supervisors were never available and never returned calls.

The ordering process was also sticky. Their "build your own laptop" site was laden with options that I later found were not actually available on the base model that I selected. One sales rep did not understand the difference between a DVD-RAM drive and DVD-RW drive, arguing (loudly) that I was ordering two of the same thing. They offered a USB "sound bar" (speakers on a stick) with the laptop, which I sprung for, only to find that there's no way to actually attach it to the laptop... it was designed to connect to one of their LCD monitors, not a laptop monitor. Sorry, no returns on accessories.

It took them almost eight weeks to deliver the laptop, which was really surprising as well, and when I would call to check with customer service, they told me to check the website for order status. My order never appeared on their customer service portal. When I called to let them know that my order was not on their portal... they told me to check the website for order status. Again, severe language problems.

The laptop itself is great, but I credit that to IBM, not Lenovo. So when you buy rights to market a great product, really all you have to offer is service. Considering the laptop was a done deal, I was really surprised that service was this poor. I am terrified to think what is going to happen when I need to exercise the warranty for which I paid a premium.

I have been a faithful ThinkPad owner for many years, so I defaulted without taking other brands into serious consideration. All said and done, I will most certainly be giving other OEMs a close look when I start buying laptops for my employees. In other words, their lack of concern for service lost them fifteen-plus EASY laptop sales... now they're going to have to fight for them. Take that to a macro level, and they're going to have a big problem.

So yes... Lenovo certainly does need to focus on the consumer. It's just a shame that their clear lack of understanding will probably lead to degradation of the ThinkPad brand, loss of pricing power followed by the inevitable cost cuts. Once this problem percolates into the engineering and production budgets, it would seem that the great ThinkPads we've known will become just another mediocre piece of junk.
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Chris, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:13am

Corporate vs. Private Purchases
I am a member of the IT staff for a state entity and for the most part we purchase IBM / Lenovo equipment. Any time that a friend or family member asks me what they shold purchase, I almost always tell them to buy a Dell.
This is not because Dell sells a technically superior product, it is because Dell has a technical support mechanism that is geared toward the common user. IBM / Lenovo also does not offer an easy-to-use comfiguration tool and it is often hard for a home user to distinguish one model from another.
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Monsuco, 22 Aug 2006 @ 8:06am

Such a shame
It is too bad. IBM used to be absolutly famous for their high quality PCs particularly laptops. It is a shame that Leveno pretty much got rid of what I liked about Big Blue. At least Leveno seems to be improving. They recently reintroduced the sale of Suse based laptops, so that is good. Leveno may improve, or maybe IBM will resume production of real American PCs like in the past.
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rocketmenasworld, 22 Aug 2006 @ 8:22am

When context attacks
I think the context of understanding this is the market segment Lenovo has its eyes on and the where the IBM line sits.

It seems that the IBM ThinkPad line was initially geared toward the business/office consumer, right? So now they want to spread the brand into a larger channel-that being the more average consumer.

Rgardless of their whether their support is lackluster or glorious, this story smacks of a company merely trying to evolve a brand to accomodate better sales and improved visibility. Oh, and a better supply chain would help too.
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Saboteur, 22 Aug 2006 @ 9:16am

Loss Jobs
At least 90% of the computer geeks I work with that now complain about job loss, dirves a foreign built car. If we cared about the job loss for automobiles we would not have to worry about other job losses. Buy american is not just a slogan.
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- MILODON, 22 Aug 2006 @ 10:15am
  
  Re: Loss Jobs
  You hit the nail on the head, so many people now days claim their patriotic and stick little flags all over their house and foreign car, they accuse other of not being patriotic and throw around slogans like "Cut and Run".
  
  Meanwhile I'm the only person I know that goes out of his way to specifically buy American made products.
  
  I.E. I bought "Detroit Eaton" springs for my car vs. "Eibach" or "Cooper Cobra" tires vs "Michelin". I apply this purchasing power right down to things like pots and pans.
  
  My wife loves her American made Skillets!! Practice what you preach!!!
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Saboteur, 22 Aug 2006 @ 9:24am

Dell Desktops
I have purchased hundreds of Dell Desktops with only 1% defective. But I think the difference maybe with the optiplex or dimension lines. I buy the optiplex
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Bubba Nicholson (profile), 22 Aug 2006 @ 11:55am

Consumer or Customer?
This must be the weak vocabulary thread.
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- Global Guy, 22 Aug 2006 @ 12:27pm
  
  Re: Consumer or Customer?
  But Bubba, Milodon spelled Cooper tires correctly,,,,
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
MILODON, 22 Aug 2006 @ 1:28pm

LOL.... I love it, Just for curiosity's sake I Type

"Bubba Nicholson" into Google and what do I get?

Number one hit "Example of Troll post"

www.angelfire.com/space/usenet/example.html

Nuff said....
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Michael Eisenberg, 23 Aug 2006 @ 1:51am

Lenovo
I actually wrote about my bad Lenovo experiences on my blog a few weeks ago. You can see the responses from lenovo on the two blog posts. I am pretty unimpressed. Here are the URLs. It is worth reading some of the comments as well. http://sixkidsandafulltimejob.blogspot.com/2006/08/no-no-lenovo-bring-back-big-blue.html htt p://sixkidsandafulltimejob.blogspot.com/2006/08/more-lenovo-problems-oh-no.html
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SUPERPETER, 25 Feb 2007 @ 8:24pm

Another Lenovo bad experience
I just had my X41 laptop die today. After spending some time on the phone with Lenovo, they diagnosed it as a failed HDD. Since I had purchased a 3-year next-day on-site warranty, I figured I was covered. WRONG. Lenovo is sending me a new HDD overnight, but they claim the operating system comes from a third-party vendor, must be specially burned, and will take 5 to 10 days to receive. Furthermore, the rep offered to send somebody out to install the HDD - but said the tech would not have the operating system either. Then the rep suggested I take the computer to an IBM warranty service provider - but he told me his list had not been updated in two years. What is up with these guys? No parts, no computer for two weeks, what kind of an operation is this? As much as I love my X41, I would never buy another Lenovo product, and I surely don't see the point of buying a warranty if it'll still take 10 days to get the damn thing fixed.
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Sigh, 4 Sep 2007 @ 12:55pm

Lenovo lied to me, then ripped me off!
I think I've got you all beat, at least you guys HAVE a laptop...

My experience with Lenovo consisted of receiving a laptop with no battery & power cord! I promptly purchased an alternate Thinkpad from a local retailer and called in to make arrangements to return the incomplete laptop that was mailed to me through Lenovo directly. A customer service rep gave me completely inaccurate information as to how to go about returning their equipment to them. ('Just write 'return to sender' on the original package and drop it off at a UPS store' was what I was told - only to find out later that this violates every single return procedure ever put into place, and no one can explain to me why this person gave me such misleading information)

This mis-information left me without a tracking number, and lo & behold Lenovo claims they never received my laptop back at their warehouse. I asked for a physical audit to be done at their warehouse, confident that it's in there *somewhere* but I was told by Mr Bumarch that that request is wildly unreasonable. (But apparently charging a customer for a laptop that was mailed back to them is completely reasonable)

I've been speaking to Tony Bumarch (Direct Phone Number: 919-543-6681) and have been given the run around over and over with the end result being Lenovo can do absolutely nothing for me. I've also CC'd all my correspondences with Tony to David Churbuck, in the hopes that he might be able to assist in some fashion, but apparently my complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

So to sum it up, Lenovo lied to me, stole my money and told me to go away.

I've been an avid Thinkpad fan for countless years and even have an old P166 Thinkpad in my closet that still runs, (It's built like a tank) but I have pretty much lost all faith in Lenovo's ability to properly deal with even the most simple of tasks such as a customer return.
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Coralie Jacobson, 7 Dec 2007 @ 5:47am

Chinese products
We all have the power in our wallets. If you don't like jobs going overseas, stop buying imports.
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Chetan Kapoor, 21 Dec 2007 @ 2:33pm

Lenovo Purchase via Paypal
I purchased a Laptop on 12/20/07 and decided to use Lenovo's Paypal option to make the payment. I decided to cancel the order on 12/21/07 and order something different. I have had 3 phone calls with Lenovo and they cannot figure out how to cancel the order. One sales guy said that the order had been rejected by their system and he could not tell me the reason for it. 2 others told me that I need to go to Paypal and cancel it. When I call paypal, they tell me that the order is pending and as such, there is no way to cancel it. Paypal asked me to call Lenovo. So, here I am going between Paypal and Lenovo, with no way to cancel the order. This is the worst I have seen. Dell has really got their act together. Now its time for Lenovo to suck.
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Musa, 30 Dec 2007 @ 10:16am

Lenovo Purchase via Paypal
I purchased a T60P on 12/24/2007 which I wanted to cancel on 12/29 as I got a better deal from the Lenovo itself. However, the customer rep. said as it was an online purchase through paypal they cannot cancel it and asked me contact paypal. Paypal rep. said the order is still pending (i.e. Lenovo has not charged paypal yet) so they also cannot cancel it either.
So strange things can happen! I'll go back to Lenovo to see whether they can do anything about it
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Musa, 30 Dec 2007 @ 12:15pm

Lenovo Purchase via Paypal
Atlast I got hold of a representative at 1-866-968-4465 who helped me cancel the order. I had to select the '0' option to get an operator who helped me direct my request to an appropriate service rep. I was asked "why I want to cancel the order" but the lady was polite about it. I am waiting for the cancellation to be effective on my CC card.

Just one suggestion - Don't always take for granted what the representative tells you - ask them to direct you to some one who can help ! Indian operators do have a tendency to shirk off valid requests if they do not know how it can be done. Lenovo needs to train these operators better to be more customer friendly.
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Stephanie, 14 Jan 2008 @ 2:40pm

Lenovo is the worst computer I've ever owned
I am a law student concerned about the poor customer service and even poorer quality of Lenovo computers.

I am writing to warn any and everyone who is considering purchasing a new computer to NOT purchase an IBM ThinkPad T60! This is by far the WORST computer I have ever owned. First, the Lenovo customer service department is slow and unhelpful. I called customer service because my $1500 computer battery was lasting 45 minutes when fully charged. The customer service representative told me that the battery life is designed to only last up to 1000 charges (which means every time you plug in and then unplug = 1 charge) and so if you're a student going from class to class it is NOT going to last very long at all! (This would have been nice to know when I purchased the computer!!!)

I was extremely disappointed with my experience with Lenovo and would NOT recommend them to anyone. In addition to my battery woes, I've already had to have my computer stripped TWICE because of computer malfunctions! (And I'm not the only one! As I type this, a classmate is on the phone with IBM describing how she suddenly cannot even long on to her computer.)

I hope my experience can help others to not make the same costly mistake I did... Lenovo is a complete waste of money!! Go with an APPLE!!!
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Martin, 22 Jan 2008 @ 1:10pm

customer service at lenovo
While other manufacturers give you a shipping date Lenovo doesn't... they provide you with a 1 866 number which never gets answered... my record was 40 min on hold and then I got kicked out.
Tried to contact them via mail but only got another purchase confirmation instead of a shipping date.

I tried the sales hotline but gave up on that as well...

Wondering how much business they loose because of that?!
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Mia Scanga, 23 Jan 2008 @ 8:34am

looking to buy server/desktops to set-up a small P
Has anyone had any experience with their small servers & desktops? I'm looking to set-up a PTP network for our accounting department, 3-5 users.... advice???
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Owen Wiltshire, 4 Feb 2008 @ 1:57pm

Okay so skip ahead a year or two and what happened
Just a word of warning - it takes at least 1 hour to reach the Lenovo Canada sales team. I ordered a notebook on Dec 27th and the shipping date just keeps getting moved back. Its currently expected to ship out Feb 14th. I've sent 2 emails, and neither has received a response.

Wheres that customer service division again?

Thank god they make great notebooks...
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Jason, 26 Feb 2008 @ 9:29pm

lenovo horrible customer service and bad thinkpad
i had own the ibm thinkpad x series before, they were great! they never crashed on me and the os is very stable the whole time i had it. recently, i just brought this brand new X61s, and i was very disappointed. first i had to wait 5 weeks before lenovo can ship it since it was out of stock. once it arrived, it kept crashing on me, i literally had to reboot couple of times a day. i tried calling lenovo for support, it took forever to get thru to someone live, and they were not much help. this is very disappointing since i paid about USD1800 for it and it would even freeze on me every 2 minutes whenever i use msn messenger. they have also shorten the warrantee from 3 years to 1 year, so now i am stuck with it. i will never buy from lenovo/ibm ever again! you just lost a loyal customer !
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rohitmak, 22 Mar 2008 @ 8:55pm

Lenovo thinkpad laptop and support *The Worst*
After seeing people using ThinkPad in my company and I was having very good impression about IBM thinkpad, I planned to purchase Lenovo Thinkpad. 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.
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Jimmied, 1 Apr 2008 @ 10:51am

Service?
I sure wish I had read these posts prior to my online purchase. It took them one week to verify credit card information, the phone number I was directed to only accepted voice mails and a promised call back. I left 5 messages over 3 days, not a single callback. Finally, i tried an alternate number, the rep told me that the credit situation had been validated, but couldn't give me a delivery date. Honestly, I wanted to cancle my order, but given what I had been through, I was genuinely afraid that they would somehow screw that up and I would wind up with a "cancelled" laptop at my doorstep.
My bottom line experience is that Lenovo is all about the sale, what happens after the sale is incidental. Customer service is non-existent, they practically defy the buyer to cancel, everything is a vague promise. I don't care if the laptop that I have yet to receive is the best laptop I have ever owned, I will never purchase a Lenovo product again.
I now know why my laptop as spec'd was significantly less expensive than the competitors; they use outsourced, under trained support people, and to some degree, intentionally delay orders - after they have the cash in hand. All about the sale.
This was the worst online purchase experience I have ever had, and one of the most expensive things I have ever purchased online. That is one heck of an ugly inverse relationship.
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Len-uh-oh-vo, 2 Apr 2008 @ 3:13pm

Too much of a good thing....
I too wish I had read these posts prior to purchasing a laptop from Lenovo. Cancelling an order? Not likely. The saga:

I was shopping for a laptop that was going to be used for work. I placed an order online in the evening and stumbled across some relative horror stories about Lenovo Service after placing the order. I decided that I would rather deal with a company that was at least a known in terms of customer service (Dell) and decided to cancel the order. As soon as the order confirmation came through (the morning after I placed the order) I was on the line with customer service. I was bounced to several different service reps and finally was able to cancel the order (less than 12 hours after it was placed). So I thought....

SIX days later I received a voicemail (no email) from a Lenovo Customer service rep. They said that the cancellation had not come through in time (!?!)and the laptop had shipped. I was instructed to not refuse the shipment or I would be charged a 15% restock fee but to accept the shipment and then call Lenovo Customer service to organize a credit to my card and the return of the laptop.

Yeah Right.

So I sent them an email requesting instructions/information in writing and a postage paid return label to send the laptop back.

No Response.

If I dont receive a response from them within the next day Ill be talking to my credit card company and filing a complaint with the BBB. Not that it will do any good but this seems like the only recourse I have. Otherwise Ill put the broken peices of the laptop for auction on ebay after I drive my truck over it.
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Lisa Leivan, 6 May 2008 @ 1:26pm

Lenovo customer "service" nightmare
Hi from the US. I have an IBM t-60, purchased right before they became Lenovo. At 6 months my hard drive gave out (August '07); I called them, got a friendly, competent guy, and had a refurbished hard drive w/a set of recovery disks within 2 days. Eight months later I got bluescreens, various error mssgs, and, ultimately, failure of the recovery disks to restore the system. I called the same number, got a guy who sounded like he was either not-so-bright, stoned, or hung over. He transfered me to some other guy who tried to sell me a warranty extension/expansion. I already have a 3-year warranty. So back to guy #1. When I couldn't get coherent and satisfying information, I asked to be sent on to someone who could help me. He told me - no kidding - "the buck stops here." So, what, I was talking to the CEO? Have they been taken over by evil robot monkeys? Result: got the f-you run-around for a good hour, then I was told to ship the box to them - but I wasn't about to ship it off to an unknown fate by that point. I've been doing my research. Finally I was transferred to somebody who gave me a number ... whereby I found their local authorized repair center; drove the box there myself. The folks there were great, and I have confidence they'll get it fixed soon.
Now, I usually have good customer service experiences; I'm not combative, I'm intelligent, and I like to co-operate with people. But this was absurd. If you're thinking about a Lenovo purchase, do some research. More and more is showing up about this type of thing happening.
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Bence Teo, 10 Aug 2008 @ 11:31pm

LENOVO CUSTOMER CARE = NON-EXISTENT
LENOVO CUSTOMER CARE IS TERRIBLE!

When my MacBook died on a business trip in China, I thought I'd buy a "reliable" Lenovo U110.

Although the system was Chinese language Vista, I wasn't concerned because the authorised Lenovo reseller said I could just call up Lenovo and get the English language software and drivers. BIG MISTAKE.

Called Lenovo US. They said they can't do anything to help me because it was bought outside the US.

Called Lenovo Hong Kong (it is part of China right?). Customer care said that because it was bought in Beijing they couldn't help me either. She said I should BUY MYSELF an English version of Vista instead. Okay... what about getting the English language Lenovo software and drivers disks (like EasyCapture, Veriface and Shuttle Centre)? Sorry they told me. Bought in China. We can't help you. Their recommendation? Return your computer, get money back and then ORDER ENGLISH Lenovo from Hong Kong. Yeah right.

Called up China Lenovo. They said (in Chinese... they don't speak English), surprise surprise, they had no English language versions of any of the drivers, Lenovo software or Vista. At least the customer care staff took the time to go through all the drivers I needed to download online and genuinely seemed like they wanted to help (unlike the US or Hong Kong customer care).

So, without paying paying for another copy of "English" Vista from a retailer, then download the English drivers, and BTW Lenovo software is not available for download... I'm stuck with a $2000 Chinese language Lenovo paperweight.

Oh... And was told if my new Lenovo U110 breaks down I need to send it back to Beijing.

Thanks for nothing Lenovo!
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Them & Us, 15 Dec 2008 @ 7:55pm

Stop buying imports?
Well, maybe the rest of the world should stop buying American's then. See how many US jobs will be affected. The world doesn't revolve around US alone. Ever think how many jobs we lost when US comes raiding in with your free market ideals?

I wonder why people outside US mostly get good Lenovo stuff? I think Lenovo is selling better notebooks than Dell's or HPs at even lower prices - except in the US. Tough, cheap, and full of features compared to an expensive Dell full of crap. We can even buy non-preloaded Lenovos and save on the Microsoft tax...

Dell and especially HP makes good PCs for US, and lousy ones for exports. So I guess Lenovo makes good ones for Asia, and lousy ones for exports to US. Tit for tat.
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Fallen, 22 May 2010 @ 5:22am

presumptious americans.
The world has turned a full circle. first it was our chance to experience hell with every single thing being being US based, now it's yours.
From the above posts, all one can make out is that Yanks are a bunch of dumb,demanding and presumptious people. Just a little bit of research before throwing your money away using your credit cards would have halved the complaints above and maybe saved the global economy too. sheesh. The world is getting flatter, and you guys are used to too much.
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Tony Downing, 1 Feb 2016 @ 8:20am

Windows 10 Problem
I have a Lenovo Y70 Touch laptop. I noticed that my problems started when I upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 (I cannot rollback after a month apparently). I thought I'd seen the back of a few teething problems when I purchased the laptop in November last year, but it seems some problems go on and on and others emerge. The Lenovo tech support team, Gurudaid - if I'm led to believe, could not help me - are they even a legitimate company?? Many thanks to anyone who can put me right here!
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Lenovo Support Number UK, 7 Dec 2016 @ 3:04am

Technical Support UK
Don’t wait and call us to help you remove various kinds of technical issues with your Lenovo computer. You Just dial +44-800-098-8371 Lenovo contact number UK.
http://ukhelpdesknumber.co.uk/lenovo-computer.php
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