I'm so furious and frustrated I feel the need to vent publically.
I purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad in October 2011. I draw, love technology, and dislike Apple with their control-freak philosophy. In short, I was the absolute perfect target audience for the first Android pad with a pressure sensitive pen, for the first time I could digitally sketch in a mobile way with something more than a toy. I'm in Canada, and I was one of the earliest people purchasing the Thinkpad, well before it was generally available in Canadian stores.
I read as habit many tech forums, and I know the Thinkpad reviews are less than stellar. I had bought the pad before the reviews had come out, but even if I had read them I would have bought it anyway. The design of the pad was perfect for me, with its pen and keyboard, I didn't need it to be superior to other pads in other respects. If it performed even mediocrely, I would be very pleased. And for the first month I WAS incredibly happy with it, I moved my reading habits from the paper to the screen, I sketched tons, even mothballed my trusty laptop. Then the nightmare began.
In December 2011, barely a month after the purchase, during a major conference in England where I was presenting, the power button stopped working. This is a known issue and many of the forums/reviews had complained of this, but I had hoped statistically it was just the rare bad apple. In any case, it happened at the absolute worse possible time. I ran to the local tech shop and payed 100 pounds (!!!!) to have it repaired in time for the presentation, no matter what.
They did so, and they told me that the power component on the motherboard fell off. "Shoddy soldering", I still remember those two terrible and expensive words.
I came home in no happy spirit, and the repair job in England was temporary. I sent it in for real repairs to Lenovo, and it was delayed there in repairs for more than 2 weeks. Apparently, the repair depot had ordered the wrong part. They then reordered the part, and I got it back some time around New Years.
I can put up with that, honestly, it was STILL the perfect tablet for me. I still used it for everything. Then in Feburary (so I had used the machine for a total of 2 and a half months), the microUSB broke. Again, this was well known to happen in the reviews and forums, and I had been almost dreading this event. Without the microUSB, I cannot charge the tablet, so with great sorrow (and fear) I had to send it in again for repairs.
Precisely as I expected, the repair did not go smoothly. I was told that the part they need was on "back-order" (it's the systems board for Christ's sakes), and I did not get it back until about 2-3 weeks after, again, on March the 8th.
So on March the 8th I got my tablet (STILL my favorite tablet), all happy and shiny in the mail. I open it... and to my dread, it doesn't work.
The Android operating system was not loaded on the tablet. Instead, a debugging software is loaded on. I'm fairly good with software issues, but this was simply no OS and there was nothing I can do -- except send it back. During that time, I had yet another conference, to which I had to take my wife's ASUS Transformer II, which, by the by, is not the right pad for me, because of the lack of a pen, but is quality-wise the VASTLY SUPERIOR product, if only by virtue of the fact that it has yet to break in 4 months.
I sent the pad back, and I have YET TO RECEIVE IT. At first, I was told that the part I needed (the system board) was on back order (AGAIN?). Nearly 2 weeks later, as in now, I have received another email with the cryptic message:
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I have been informed by the tech that they have tried to replace the system
board twice in your unit. but each time the software is incorrect - it is
an Android software.
The tech has contacted the lead Engineer to inquire for further assistance
to see if a different part can be ordered for the repair of this unit.
I am sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you and will try
and keep you informed about the repairs to your Tablet.
Thank you.
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Upon my further inquiry, I learned that
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Your Tablet is not different from all the other ones, although all the
system boards ordered have the wrong software installed.
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What? What?? What?? An entire batch of system-boards ordered with the wrong OS. That tells me something fundamentally is wrong at Lenovo's repair process and work stream, as if I could not guess that already.
The bottom line is, I'm furious, I'm telling everyone within ear's reach (and in tech matters, most people around me are willing to listen to me) the unholy crappiness of this Lenovo product.
I know it's one instance of product, and one experience, but I think it shows a fundamental brokenness, at least with respect to the Lenovo Thinkpad and the way its repairs are being done. I will not touch another Lenovo product again with a ten foot pole, and I will start writing to the reviews and forums where I'm known about this experience. I have never bad mouthed publically this tablet so far, because honestly, design-wise I can't find better. Now I have to wait until some other company decides that a pressure sensitive tablet is in their vision, but I would rather wait than purchase whatever Lenovo comes out with next.
____ Brightness Fixed 
, Backup? Root needed
__Lenovoappshop
