Failure two, an even bigger disaster:
On about 3rd August 2010 I called the technical support team Lenovo to log a new hardware support call. I explained the support person over the phone that my laptop had the following issues:
- Volume control buttons, external, were not working
- My microphone input was not working when I inserted the headphones in
- My laptop was not charging properly because the charger did not fit into the slot properly
- My battery backup was reduced to one hour or less
- One of my laptop hinges was internally broken and I was unable to close/open the laptop properly
The support guy told me that my laptop battery was not covered under the warranty, which I accepted.
Then he said, without even enquiring what condition the laptop hinge was in or how this happened, that – I needed to read the terms and conditions because it was my fault and I have had broken the laptop!!! Now, how come a person over the phone without even physically looking or even telephonically investigating what actually had happened to the machine blamed the customer that he had broken the laptop?
Anyway, a call was registered to repair the machine; call reference number: B1L2VFF. On 10th August 2010 a field engineer from IBM named Chrish came into my office to fix the laptop. He repaired the laptop for volume control buttons and microphone input. He did not fix the charger input (AC Power Component) because he said he was not told about it by the first line support team who registered the call! Not very interesting!
I then explained him that the hinge was not stable and it could crash at any time. He inspected the laptop properly and ACKNOWLEDGED that there were no signs of ANY KIND that either the laptop was dropped or hit with something or deliberately tempered that could have broken the hinge internally. He then said that it is a normal wear and tear and not your fault and promised me that he will order for few new parts:
1. Base cover/case of the laptop which holds the AC Power Component
2. A hinge component to replace the old hinge
3. And two other minor components that were broken, including palm rest
And also promised me that someone within a day or two would contact me again and within that week itself laptop would be fixed. Since he came very late in the evening on that day and I was in the office so I did not inspect the laptop at that time, I came home and noticed that my laptop had stopped charging completely because Chrish tried to investigate the charger problem and during this process the AC Power Component inside the laptop got pushed deep inside, making it impossible to charge.
I waited for a phone call next day and no one called, and so did not happen the following day as well. On Friday13th August 2010 until the afternoon I did not get any call and I was worried that if no one would have come on that day as well I would have had to miss all my meetings on the following Monday because since 10th Augustonwards I was not able to work at all on the machine because it did not charge since Chrish tried to fix it. So I started chasing the progress myself, and to my surprise I found that not only no one was scheduled to come on that day but also no was looking into the problem anymore. And to surprise me even more the call centre fellow asked me to read the terms and conditions about the next business day service and he taught me that the next business day service is only available if:
- Parts are available
- Field service men are available
And then I asked him that even if the parts were not available then atleast they should have had informed me over the phone that what actually had happened to my call, at least next business day service deserves that much rather no one was even was assigned to look at my problem. Then he agreed and promised me that someone would call me in few hours.
Later that day I got a call from Chrish again and he started apologising me over the phone saying that he extended my existing call after his previous visit to me and requested for the new parts but somehow the call was not updated on the Lenovo server and my call status was CLOSED. Wow! This is brilliant! First a business customer’s call is not properly looked into, as the service man who came to repair the machine, was not fully aware what problems he was going to fix, second the call was automatically CLOSED, and third the customer had to spend more time to chase the service team to bag them to complete the pending repair work and the service team is not even able to show bare minimum courtesy to recognise the fault on their end rather they asked customer to read terms and conditions!!!
Next, on Firday, 13th August 2010 at 4:00 PM Chrish came to my office again to repair the laptop. He again explained me that my call was closed. He installed the two minor components and also replaced the laptop base assembly cover which holds the AC Power Component. He then explained me that the AC Power Component was not stable because the two tiny plastic supports on either side of the AC Power Component were broken because of normal wear and tear, look at the image of the component, encircled part (sorry the image is not visible here on this forum, but I can send the whole information in a word document if provided an email id) :
Then he said, because my call was mistakenly CLOSED the hinge component was not available. So after fixing the charger problem he again inspected the hinge and he made a call to first line support team, possibly in Argentina, and explained them the situation and recommended that Lenovo should replace the hinge because it was normal wear and tear and probably the quality of plastic and shape of the hinge that made the component to breakdown but definitely was not customer’s fault. The first line support team denied changing it free of cost and they insisted that customer had broken it and it was not covered under this warranty. Then Chrish made a call to his immediate superior in the UK who could not be connected at that time so Chrish left a voice message to him. Chrish then, at 5:15 pm, left my office promising that he would try to contact his superior again and the problem should be sorted out. After 10 minutes Chrish called me again and said that his superior had agreed that the hinge would be replaced without any additional charges and that in 10-15 minutes time I would get a call from his team. At 5:30 pm, after my office hours, rather than driving back to my home, I started waiting for a phone call and I kept waiting for one hour. I did not get any call on that day. At 6:30 pm after adding another disappointment to a long list, I went home to see an even bigger surprise: while trying to inspect the hinge problem and in the process of changing the base part the hinge had broken even more and I could even open my laptop, every time I tried to open it, it made a cracking sound and the upper corner (near the speakers) got lifted to an extent where it could break at any time.
Please read the part 3 of this series for the remainder message, as I can not post the whole text in this post
Mark_Lenovo
