Interesting discussion regarding the IWS.
I offer the following as a suggestion to Lenovo that may, in the long run, prove useful in restructuring the IWS scheme altogether and streamline it thus negating any confusion by the clients.
It seems that warranties are now assigned based on machine type as opposed to place of eventual purchase. Some machine types carry a full, world-wide warranty, yet the warranty on the same type of system with a slightly different configuration would be limited to a handful of countries and sometimes not even the country of purchase!
I would propose to Mark for Lenovo to consider adopting a more streamlined approach to the warranty question, one which leaves no question or doubt regarding warranty coverage. My proposal, therefore, would be for Lenovo to adopt a
regionalized default warranty coverage system, whereby a system purchased for the North American continent would be covered in North/Central America by default; a system purchased in Europe would be covered in Europe (or Europe and Middle East) by default; a system purchased in Asia would be fully covered in Asia/South East Asia, etc.
An additional option would offer a user/client to purchase a regional extension to the warranty, up to an option of world-wide coverage. Hence, as based on the above suggestion, an example of streamlined system of basic warranty coverage and the option of extending such coverage would be as follows:
For the default region: 1) - extend the warranty from 1-year to up to 3(4)-year (EasyServ)
2) - extend the warranty from 1-year to up to 3(4)-year (ThinkPad Protection)
Options for additional "regional coverage" 3) - option to extend the warranty to different "regions" (North/Central America - Central/South America - Europe/Middle East - Asia/South East Asia - Africa) - in addition to 1) or 2)
4) - option to extend the warranty for global coverage in addition to 1) or 2).
Thus as an example for someone purchasing a system in, say, Canada, the client's machine, regardless of "type", would automatically be covered in North/Central America with the base 1-year EasyServ (return to depot) coverage. The client would have an option to extend the warranty to either the multi-year EasyServ option or the Thinkpad Plus Protection plan. Additionally, should this person often travel to, say, Europe, would also then have an option to choose Europe as a regional extension of the basic region warranty. Thus in the end, the warranty on the client's machine would cover the machine in North/Central America as well as in Europe.
Of course, these are simply examples and suggestions. It would be rather difficult to unequivocally and precipitously impose such a regimen without more intricate knowledge of Lenovo's parts supply system, Lenovo's contractual/parts supply obligations with various repair depots around the world, regional availability of such parts for certain systems, etc.
Anyways, just a few thoughts spilling out taking part in the discussion...
Steve
Message Edited by icantux on
06-11-2008 11:35 AM