I've been using ThinkPads since 2002 and have personally owned at least one since 2006. I have an X60, X61T, the Tablet Slate (android) and now the T530. I personally have never had to service a unit carrying the ThinkPad name, and I have never heard of any of my colleagues, most of whom have older ThinkPads, ever having an issue with theirs. But all of that is changing, and it only took Lenovo two weeks to turn my perspective on them around 180 degrees.
The T530 is going back, and I'm also requesting a refund on my customer loyalty to Lenovo.
I ordered a T530 that was pretty much full to the brim with the top-end features. Thought it'd be great.
Nope.
First issue: unit came with the wrong screen. As discussed in a few other threads here, they are shipping out new units with the cheapo 1366x768 screen when you order a "HD 1900x1080". First of all, a 1900x1080 resolution doesn't exist, or at least it isn't in the FRU list for the T530. Second of all, the price of the item is the same as the 1366x768. So this is extremely misleading to the customer, who thinks "cool, I'm going to get an HD screen for the cost of a small one" -- but when it arrives, you don't get what they advertised. In fact, it's physically impossible to get what they told you you'd get, because it doesn't exist.
Second issue: I'm OK with them making one mistake, but if it's their fault (and it was), I fully expected them to fix it at their expense. I expected them to ship out a unit with the FHD 1920x1080 screen and all my original specs at no expense to me, and expedite it. On top of that, I expected to be able to keep my current unit until the new one arrives. That's how you treat a customer when you've screwed up. You don't try to double-book two laptops on their credit card and hold the charge out there for however long you want, until you receive the original laptop and verify that it's in pristine condition. Again, the important point to remember here is that this situation is Lenovo's fault and they are responsible for satisfying me as a customer, or I will cease to be their customer. Once you make a mistake and you don't deliver on what you promised, all bets are off; you can no longer operate like a greedy corporation (if you want to stay in business, that is). But Lenovo is still treating me like they did nothing wrong, so I'm treating them like what they deserve, and getting my money back. ALL of it.
Third issue: As if to pour salt in the wound, the "a" key on my keyboard just randomly broke off in the middle of ordinary typing. One of the little tiny plastic "grabbers" holding the key in place snapped off. I remember ThinkPads that had mechanical springs down there that lasted me upwards of 6 years. What is this cheap plastic nonsense, and why does it have to break NOW when I'm already piping hot from this screen debacle?!
Fourth issue: Intolerable customer support. In the rare occasion that I've gotten someone from the U.S. on the line or the chat, it's been semi-OK, except that every single time I contact them I get run around to this or that department. Don't they have a transfer system at least so they can send me to the right person without having to call another number?!
Fifth issue: They just seem to totally not care. They screwed up the order; the unit is now defective on top of that; and they just don't give an expletive. No attempts to keep me as a customer by giving me a discount; no attempts to send me a replacement unit at their expense; no nothing except "I apologize for the inconvenience." which was surely cut and paste from a script sheet or program.
Lenovo has lost the human element of their service department, and they have lost the intangible build quality element of their product. No doubt in the pursuit of cutting costs to raise profits.
Raise these profits, Lenovo: you are going to pay me $2,217.26 -- the full price of my order -- for the privilege of having used your bargain-bin-quality laptop for two weeks. And I will never, EVER buy another product from your company again, even if you are the only laptop manufacturer in the world. (Full disclosure; the price above includes a 25% employee pricing discount. That's awesome so I'll probably wait until a similar offer comes along for another manufacturer.)
The fun part is that I now get to spend about half the money to get basically the same thing (i.e. low quality) from some other vendor that has never pretended to be high-quality. I'm willing to suffer through the quality drop if that's how everyone's going these days, but I'm not going to pay top dollar for bottom-level service. I have ballpoint pens with fewer defects than my laptop. Un-expletiving-believable.
To those who are still loyal to this brand, I am totally baffled. Either you got extremely lucky, or you have way more patience than I do. I'm in the market for something like a Dell Latitude, Panasonic Toughbook or HP Elitebook. If anyone has any recommendations, feel free to send them my way. I'm looking for something with comparable specs to the T530 (approximately, that is) but with a more realistic price. I mean, I'm pretty sure that whoever I order from is going to deliver some part that's low quality, but at least I don't have to pay so much to get it.
Thanks for reading. I only hope that this story of "The Decline of Lenovo" will help future customers -- and current ones who haven't had the "pleasure" of trying out one of their new models -- to make a more informed decision. Is the ThinkPad brand still the same quality it was back in the IBM days? Short answer: No, it is absolutely not.
