Repair Depot Problems

[dynastar]

The other night I came home after running some errands and found my T61 (bought in July, 2008) was dead. It wouldn’t power on or show any visible signs of life after pressing the power button. I tried switching out the power supply, along with some other ideas with no luck. The poor guy was dead. At this point I braced myself for calling Lenovo support. The support was actually excellent; far better than I expected. It was all prompt, professional and very friendly for the most part. I was floored when they said they were overnighting a box to ship it back in. I shipped it back the next day, happy with the whole process and waited for it to be shipped back to me.

Then I got a nasty surprise. I received a call from the repair center (outsourced, to my understanding), saying the laptop had water damage, even though it died on a dry bed with no liquid near it and without anyone present. Clearly, something is wrong here. I paid about $1,100 for it and they’re asking over $700 to repair it, just nine months after I bought it.

So what do I do? I’m confident it’s not water damage as they’re claiming. I’ve been a longtime ThinkPad owner, with the understanding that IBM/Lenovo would make me whole if anything went wrong, and now they’re claiming phantom damage. I’ve always been a ThinkPad advocate, but I refuse to pay $700 for a laptop that I didn’t damage and is under warranty. Is there any recourse? What is the process for being made whole again? If they want to charge me that much I’ll just buy a Dell, but I want to remain a ThinkPad loyalist.  The whole process is complicated by the repairs being outsourced to a third party.

What can I do?

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

If the repair depot claims water damage, then they must provide photographic evidence to Lenovo warranty service and to you, so call up the Lenovo service and prompt them to request the depot to send the photo to you and to them.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Dynastar,

This does sound like an unfortuneate development.  Spills, can be an insideous thing - they don't always trigger an immediate failure - corrosion on a board can occur over time until a short occurs sometime later at a time and circumstance far removed from the precursor event.  I.e., even though it was warm and dry at the time the system failed , it doesn't rule out something having occured previously.

However, if you can't recall a time when the system could have been exposed to liquid contamination, etc, then I would encourage you to dispute the charges with the depot, and request the pictures be sent to you.  The depot should be able to provide the pics upon request, within 24 hours.  As you review these, if you still don't agree with the findings, then you can continue the dispute and ask that it be escalated.   There is a review process, and Lenovo staff that will review the case and make a determination as appropriate.

Sorry that your machine failed, and I hope that this gets resolved to your satisfaction.

Best regards,

Mark