Serious Warranty and Display Issues T61p

[sfgsfg]

Hi,

About 1 year 8 months ago I purchased a high end T61p w/ 3-year on site next business day service. I have recently had a terrible experience with trying to get several issues repaired with the machine. The issues were

1. LEDS below display not working

2. Display (15.4 WUXGA) very dim and needing replacement

The LED issue was ongoing for several months (!) and I had at least four different service calls to attempt to resolve the issue, all replacing the incorrect parts. It was finally resolved when the display and its associated cables were replaced today due to the latter service call.

I need a bright display for parts of my work; when new the display was perfect on this machine. It was an LG display rated at well over 300 nits according to my measurements. When I opened the display case (over a month ago), I was told that the display was on backorder and I had to wait a month for next business day service (!). Now that the new display is installed, I am seeing a very low brightness (~160 nits), only slightly better than before the service call. The new display installed is made by Samsung and rated at a low nit level. I have checked and LG still makes a high-brightness matte 15.4 WUXGA screen--LP154WU2 (TL)(B1). I am not sure why my display was replaced by an inferior one to the one I originally received. I am also very disappointed by the long latency and low-quality of Lenovo/IBM's so-called "next business day" warranty that actually often took months to correct issues in my experience; my issue with the display is still not corrected.

Please give me pointers about how to proceed in getting my display replaced with a model equivalent to the one the computer shipped with and as soon as possible, as these problems have greatly delayed my work.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[sktn77a]

Unfortunately, you cannot request a specific model of replacement part.  It'll be LG, Samsung, or whatever the replacement cross reference is.  However, you CAN insist that the replacement meets original spec (in this case, apparently, 300nits).

[AGoodSolution]

gone

Message Edited by AGoodSolution on 08-11-2009 12:45 PM

[sfgsfg]

Thanks for your detailed response AGoodSolution,

I basically tried what you suggested, however I had to call the 800 number three times (every time being promised a call back from a supervisor within 15-30 minutes, and I waited 45 minutes) before someone actually called back. When I finally spoke to a supervisor, he escalated the case and I spoke to someone else, neither of whom could help me in a time frame of less than 30 days. I asked for further escalation, and was promised a call back with 48 hours from Lenovo. 48 hours are up and I have not received a call.

I tried to find the long distance number to Lenovo and was unable to on their web page:

http://www.lenovo.com/contact/us/en/

Can you please provide this so I can try to contact Executive Services as you suggest?

Thanks!

[AGoodSolution]

Understood,

The purpose of retrying with front line support and their supervisors was to ensure you could focus a support case specifically for the problem at hand and as a basis for your appeal to ExecServices instead of being misunderstood as a whiner.

Your observation of the phone number being unavailable at the web site is quite accurate as it seems more companies even consumer products companies have had to carefully parse out the receptionist line even revising old press releases.

Most often, I don't evren bother with trying to find the phone number on web sites and just use NetSol to look up a company's WHOIS that often has at least one administrative contact for DNS abuse and Lenovo listed their top guy in China with an Intl number that won't be much help.

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/lenovo.com

Next, typically try a company's investor relations page but all it offered was the same 1800 number BUT at least an address in  Morrisville, North Carolina, take the name "Lenovo Morrissville, NC" to Google and there will be a result 919 area code and map.

I'm not going to publish their number here to be parsed by every web bot but will paste the Google URL if your browser, ISP or whatever reason is altering the same query:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Lenovo+Corp+Morrisville+N...

Ask for ExecRelations, be detailed with your case and work through it. Assuming you've accurately described these events w/o omitting signifcant details you'll likely find an amicable solution for this issue.

Lenovo is a consumer products company who started as a contract manufacturer for IBM Corporation and when they took over the manufacturing then ownership of the ThinkPad / ThinkCentre brand they also understood the responsibility of taking over a brand and stewardship of the reputation earned over 80+ years of culture founded on the principals of listening to your customers, innovation incorporated into design to be transformed into a higher standard. 

That sounds like a commercial,  I sound like a shill or shareholder but neither is true. I'm just another guy in the industry who spends his days working with laptops made by every company who makes laptops and for the last 15 years ThinkPad has always been the most durable and reliable. Certainly the only laptop I know of that still allows you to take a screwdriver and replace components w/o claiming "unauthorized repair" then  flushing your warranty.

[hausman]

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AGoodSolution wrote:
...Lenovo is a consumer products company who started as a contract manufacturer for IBM Corporation and when they took over the manufacturing then ownership of the ThinkPad / ThinkCentre brand they also understood the responsibility of taking over a brand and stewardship of the reputation earned over 80+ years of culture founded on the principals of listening to your customers, innovation incorporated into design to be transformed into a higher standard.

---

IBM is still associated with the ThinkPad/ThinkCentre brand even if they no longer own it so they care about maintaining the reputation of those brands. (Also I believe they still have a minority stake in Lenovo.) If you're not able to get an issue resolved through Lenovo, I'd suggest going to the IBM website to Send a message to Sam Palmisano(IBM's CEO.) Explain the issue you have with Lenovo, why it affects IBM's reputation and ask for their help in resolving it. 

As for finding an executive's phone number, I use the following technique. Find the address and main phone number of their headquarters along with the name of the CEO. This is usually available in their annual report, Yahoo Finance, etc.Call the HQ number and ask for Mr/Ms CEO's office. Tell the receptionist there that you have an issue you'd like to bring to CEO's attention and ask for their e-mail address or fax number. Use this to send them a brief description of the issue and ask for their assistance. You'll usually get a response from an administrative assistant on behalf of the CEO and your issue will be dealt with fairly.

There's nothing that gets a mid-level bureaucrat off their ass than a phone call from the CEO's office

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

sfgsfg,

If you can PM me your contact information, system type and serial and (if you have it handy) the recent service case, I'd like to look into this and see what can be done to resolve your solution.

I'm not sure what procedure / tool you are using to measure nits in the field, but I'll take your word that the replacement panel is substandard.  Likely, it is an individual panel that is out of spec.

If I recall correctly, there are several suppliers of panels for the T61 and all have to meet the same minimum nit spec.  Most of the panels available were 200 nit panels, and I believe there was a 220 nit panel, however the systems were specified with the minimum nits, so no matter which panel was used, all should meet spec.   If you got a 300, I would say that it was an above average spec display and perhaps may be difficult to replicate.

However, it sounds like there may be room to improve your situation.

Best regards,

Mark