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    • Tue Sep 18th 19:29 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      A Lenovo Nightmare
      It is with a heavy heart that I post this story here, as I have been a
      loyal and longstanding Thinkpad customer for over a decade, purchasing
      numerous Thinkpads from IBM, and one just lately from Lenovo. I have
      recommended IBM/Lenovo stock to all my friends and family who dabble
      in the market, and I have also recommended the Thinkpad line of
      laptops to anyone and everyone that I have had occasion to discuss
      laptops with.

      However, it is with my most recent purchase from Lenovo that I have
      encountered a problem of the most horrible proportions. I in no way
      wish to bog anyone down with unrelated details; however, the entire
      experience I've had is a long one, spanning many frustrating months of
      interaction with the Customer Service agents within Lenovo.

      Due to this most recent experience with Lenovo, (outlined in full
      below) I can no longer in good conscious continue to do business with
      or recommend Lenovo's products and services. Since no one within
      Lenovo can rectify the matter, I will be taking my business elsewhere,
      as will my friends, family and coworkers. (Including my place of
      employment)

      Anyone who is interested in further details (aside from whats outlined
      below) please feel free to contact me via e-mail at pernod@ureach.com
      - I'm more than happy to provide my contact information and telephone
      number should anyone wish to discuss this matter in a more thorough
      fashion.

      For those of you who are interested, my story in it's entirety is as
      follows:

      ----

      I ordered a T60 back in June. I was more than happy to wait the month
      required for the laptop to be built and shipped to me from Hong Kong,
      and I eagerly awaited it's arrival.

      Much to my dismay, when it did finally arrive, it came sans battery
      and power cord! I promptly called Lenovo and was informed by a
      customer service rep that I would have to wait _another_ 3 to 4 weeks
      to have the power cord and battery that was supposed to have been in
      the initial order shipped to me. I can understand needing to wait a
      month for a laptop to be built, but shouldn't they have spare power
      cords & batteries handy?

      Anywho, I called around locally to numerous retail outlets and
      searched through classified ads to see if I could find an alternate
      Thinkpad locally. It wouldn't be built to the initial specs I wanted,
      but at least it would be a thinkpad.

      Luckily I found one, again - not up to the specs I really wanted, but
      at that point it seemed better to sacrifice some speed for the ability
      to at least have it rightaway.

      I figured I would simply purchase this laptop locally and return the
      one I got directly from Lenovo - no big deal.

      I called up Lenovo Customer Support again and spoke to a lady who
      spoke very good Enligsh, I wasn't really able to decipher for certain
      if she was from some outsourced call center or not... Anyway, I
      informed her of the mixup that occured and stated I simply wanted to
      return the machine back to Lenovo as I had already purchased an
      alternate Thinkpad elsewhere.

      She happily obliged (this is where the whole thing gets 'interesting')
      and asked me if I had the original box that I received the laptop in.
      I replied that yes, I did and asked why she asked. "Simply repackage
      the laptop in it's original box and drop it off at a UPS store." was
      her answer.

      This struck me as odd, she made no mention of an RMA number or
      anything. I asked her if I needed some sort of 'return number' and she
      replied that the initial box the laptop was shipped to me in had my
      Lenovo order number plainly upon it, and that thats what would be
      used, not any sort of RMA number."

      OK, so no RMA number - thats weird but I guess it makes sense. I
      *thought* they'd be sending me a box or something to send it back in.
      I asked her if I was supposed to pay for shipping, and she responded
      with "Oh, no, just 'return to sender.' Wait WHAT?

      "Just Return To Sender" she said again. I asked her to clarify what
      she meant by that, thinking she just meant "Return the laptop to
      Lenovo." No, she replied back with: "Write Return To Sender on the
      shipping label and take it to a UPS store." "What about a tracking
      number? What about Insurance?" I asked. "Tracking number will be
      Tracking Number we gave you at first, package will still be insured."

      Ok, that sounded really odd - like no other return procedure I've ever
      dealt with in my life, which I guess hasn't been all that many, but
      even still it was just a seemingly odd way to go about it.

      So supposedly my RMA number was my Lenovo order number, my tracking
      number would be the tracking number I already had on hand and the
      package was insured. Like I said, I thought this seemed pretty weird,
      but it sounded like all my bases were covered. Even so I ran over the
      whole thing all over again with the Lenovo rep and got the same reply.
      Good enough - as long as they get the laptop back there won't be a
      problem I figured.

      So I did as instructed and wrote 'return to sender' on the package and
      dropped it off at a UPS store.

      I waited... and waited... and waited... about two to three weeks later
      I called back in and inquired as to the status of the whole thing. "We
      have no record of you ever having called, that is not the correct
      return procedure, I'm very sorry but there is nothing more we can do
      to help you - *click*" was what I was told. They just hung up on me!

      Ok, now I'm a little peeved, so I call back and try to figure out what
      on earth happened. Again, I'm told they have no record of me ever
      having called and no record of my machine. Although they didn't hang
      up on me the second time around, I was unable to get any straight
      answer as to what happened. I asked to speak to a supervisor only to
      be told that there was no supervisor. Now thats just ridiculous,
      EVERYONE has a supervisor. I again demanded a supervisor, and again
      was there was no supervisor. This went on for a good five minutes till
      the story changed to "the supervisor is not present." I then requested
      a call back from a supervisor, gave my name, order number(rma number?)
      and my cell phone number.

      24 hours go by, 48 hours go by, 72 hours go by... Finally Friday hit
      and no one called back. At this point I was utterly PO'd about the
      whole deal, having already sent the machine back to Lenovo and with
      Lenovo not even acknowledging that I had done so, it seemed like I
      wouldn't be able to make any further progress by trying to call them
      back and being upset.

      I called up my credit card company instead, told them what happened
      and they told me they would initiate a chargeback on my behalf and
      that I shouldn't worry about it.

      At this point I was pleased that at least someone was capable of
      remedying this situation. I let it the whole matter go assuming it to
      be resolved... Up until I received a call from my CC company wanting
      written details of what happened for their records. I promptly
      complied and didn't think much of it as it was simply a form letter
      which looked pretty routine.

      A day or so passes and I receive my first of many phone calls from
      Tony Bumarch in Lenovo Executive Customer Relations. Mr Bumarch was
      exceedingly polite; however, entirely unsympathetic to what had
      occurred. He told me that they showed no record of me having called to
      initiate the return process and therefore I must never have called.

      I most certainly did call, and I've actually run into this similar
      situation with my cell phone company. One rep @ Cingular will tell me
      something but not notate my account of what was discussed, so when I
      call back in the second time around, no one knows what I'm talking
      about. A common problem I assume, as I've heard other people complain
      about the exact same thing with Cingular and other cellular companies.
      Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would run into this problem
      with a Computer Company tho - I honestly didn't even think to request
      that the lady I initially spoke to @ Lenovo notate my account
      detailing what was discussed concerning the return policy.

      Mr Bumarch tells me there isn't much he can do and instructs me to
      call the UPS store that I dropped the package off at. The UPS store I
      dropped the package off at instructs me to call UPS, UPS instructs me
      to call Lenovo, and Lenovo again instructs me to contact UPS. (I'm
      sure you can all see where this is going by now..) Round and round it
      goes till I get upset and Mr Bumarch tells me HE will call the UPS
      store on my behalf while I wait on hold. I wait on hold and Mr Bumarch
      comes back on the phone and says that it sounds like the UPS store
      might have a way to track my package as having gone out and that I
      should call the UPS store and talk to the owner.

      I call the UPS store and spoke to the exact same lady Mr Bumarch just
      spoke with moments before. She informs me there there is absolutely no
      way to track outbound packages dropped off at the UPS store unless
      that UPS store sent it out with one of their shipping labels. THEN she
      tells me that she just told Mr Bumarch this moments ago and asked why
      I was calling back asking the SAME question! Why on earth would Mr
      Bumarch instruct me to call the UPS store when he himself just spoke
      to them and they told him that they could not track an outbound
      package unless it was sent with that UPS store's shipping label?!

      I call Mr Bumarch back and ask him why he gave me the misleading
      information, only to be told by HIM that the UPS store employee did
      not tell him what she told me, DESPITE the UPS store employee telling
      me just moments after she spoke to me that she informed him of this.
      (argh!@#%%)

      I told Mr Bumarch that I resented the endless games of phone-tag I've
      been playing with him, and the additional run around he's made me go
      through with UPS and that it's to the point where it sounds like I
      need to file some sort of complaint with the BBB.

      His response?

      "All the BBB complaints are routed through myself, so I'll be sure to
      tell the BBB exactly what I'm telling you." (This was said in a
      polite, yet condescending tone)

      That being: Since they had no record of me calling to return the
      laptop, I must never have done so.

      Oh, and by this point my CC company said that the dispute was over and
      Lenovo had successfully fought the chargeback off because I could not
      provide a tracking number other than the initial tracking number on
      the box that was shipped to me in...

      So, at this point I do not have the laptop I payed $1600 for, and I'll
      I've got to show for this entire experience is a massive headache from
      dealing with Lenovo's customer care.

      Realizing I was getting absolutely nowhere with Tony Bumarch in
      executive care, I placed e-mails detailing this horror story to
      numerous executives inside Lenovo, namely among them was 'David
      Churbuck' VP of sales and marketing.

      David Churbuck expressed via e-mail initial interest in looking into
      my case, but I never heard back from him. When I e-mailed him again, I
      got what seemed like a form letter (although I'm sure it was not)
      simply stating "I am not responsible for looking into this, Tony
      Bumarch is handling your case."

      So a complete about-face was done, leaving my sole source of contact
      within Lenovo to Mr Bumarch, who was entirely unsympathetic to my
      situation and had just recently told me in no uncertain terms that the
      case was closed.

      I filed a complaint with the BBB anyway - Lenovo's response? "Customer
      Never Sent the Equipment Back To Us"

      So Lenovo's offical response is that I'm a liar and that I should be
      expected to simply eat this $1600 fee for a laptop I already returned
      to them!

      Oh, here are some additional points I think I may have neglected to
      mention:

      I requested that some sort of audit be done at the Lenovo returns
      center to see if someone could find my machine. Lenovo's response?
      Thats a wildly unreasonable request. I was also told that unauthorized
      returns are promptly refurbished and re-sold with a matter of weeks,
      leaving me with the conclusion that it's entirely possible that Lenovo
      simply refurbished (slapped a battery and power cable with the
      machine) and resold it to someone else.

      I was told that this situation would never have occurred, as Lenovo
      has a strict guideline that they follow for refurbished machines.
      <sarcasm> If said guideline is anything like their return policy
      guidelines, I'm sure it's always followed to the letter every single
      time</sarcasm>

      Oh, and I was also told that "no one within Lenovo would ever instruct
      you to return a machine in that manner," Which is entirely laughable,
      as thats exactly what occurred! I'm left to conclude that Lenovo's
      reps are probably underpayed and overworked, and as a result don't
      take all that much pride in memorizing and reciting corporate policies
      without fail each and every time.

      Due to the above excuse being cited over and over, no one within
      Lenovo will even take responsibility for giving me the incorrect
      information on how to go about returning a machine to them. I didn't
      even get an "I'm sorry" out of Mr Bumarch. He DID go so far as to say
      he'll issue a company wide memo re-iterating the correct return
      procedures to the front line Lenovo reps, but I suspect this was
      simply to placate me, as later I got a reply from him via the BBB that
      bluntly insinuated that I was just a big liar.

      And after speaking with Mr Bumarch, I wasn't even demanding a refund
      at that point, I told him I would settle simply for the return of the
      machine I sent to them, but since no one will go out of their way to
      look for it, that doesn't seem possible either.

      Holy geez, this is a long winded post. I'm sorry, but thank you for
      reading over it. I would appreciate anyone's input on what I could
      possibly do to try and rectify this nightmare.

      To sum the whole thing up, it feels like Lenovo lied to me, stole my
      money and told me to simply 'go away.'

      I dearly love my thinkpads, and I really hate to feel like I can never
      purchase another one from Lenovo again based upon this hellish
      experience.

      ---

      For those of you that have come this far, you may also be interested
      in looking at:

      forum.thinkpads.com/vi...

      As contained therein, there is another individual (entirely seperate
      from myself) who says that he too was advised of the incorrect return
      procedure in the exact same manner that I was when he called in to
      speak to Lenovo Customer Care. This appears to be an ongoing issue for
      numerous people, and I'm very disappointed that Lenovo will not even
      acknowledge it.

      Anyone's feedback on the matter is greatly appreciated, and thank you
      for taking the time to read this over.
      View article »
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