All,
Since Oct 22, when the Window 7 upgrades began shipping, we've received a lot of feedback and provided a number of updates to our customers. Upgrades for Think Products have been shipping since the 22nd, but there is a backlog we are working through. Windows 7 upgrades for Idea products were delayed with the expected shipments to begin after November 16th.
UPDATE 11/23/09 - there have been some further schedule slips for Idea shipments, and unfortunately these did not begin on November 16th as previously planned. Present outlook is for Idea shipments to begin today the 23rd and ramp during the latter part of the week with expectation that approximately 40% WW would be shipping by November 30th. Apologies for these further delays.
UPDATE 12/2/09 - Upgrades for Idea have begun shipping the last week of November. In my last update, we anticipated that perhaps 40% would be shipped by the 30th. 35% of the orders for Idea are now moving through the payment / readying for shipment phase while about 4% have shipped so far on a WW basis. This most recent delay has been caused in part by a percentage of orders that were input with an incorrect / invalid / incorrectly formatted serial number. We will contact those affected by this issue via email shortly, and will provide instructions on actions needed to allow shipment to proceed.
Upgrades for Think customers continue in volume and we have now shipped approximately 70% of Think orders received.
UPDATE 1/12/10 New orders continue to come in, so the top level results reflect some fluctuation in percentage complete rather than a linear prgression to 100%. I expect that this will change once we move past the last date for elligibility, and ultimately the order window closes - this is still weeks away.
THINK
90% of Think Win 7 upgrades have shipped to customers in the Americas and Asia Pacific countries, while the greater number of supported languages in Europe has added some additional complexity. 75% of Win 7 upgrades for European customers have shipped.
IDEA
73% of Idea Win 7 upgrades have now shipped in the Americas and 92% in AP, while about 45% of the Idea Win 7 orders have shipped to European customers.
The prior discussion on Upgrade shipments has been valuable and we are keeping in for reference as a read only discussion because at 440 posts, it had become too long for members to practically read and understand.
Communications
Resources are prioritized to address inquiries sent through the "contact us" button on the www.lenovo.com/windows7 update site (page 3 / 4 ) of the process. The Mentor Media team is presently running about 5 days behind in responding to inquires through contact us (last week the backlog was more than a week) so progress is being made but still delayed. Submissions other than through the contact us may have even longer response times.
UPDATE 11/23 - Progress to clear the inquiry backlog continues and is now down to about 3 business days.
Here is a direct link to the contact us button for inquires about existing orders.
Shipping Methods
US: UPS Innovation (UPS pickup and handoff to USPS - see above)
Canada & LA: UPS
EMEA: TNT MailFast (Mentor is working to resolve an issue where the expedited shipment inhibits tracking number - we expect this to be resolved by next week)
Asia: DHL
China: Fed EX
Standard UPS 1Zxxxx tracking numbers. US orders are being handled by UPS Innovation - UPS picks up and hands off to the USPS which does the delivery. Process overview and tracking site here. These are not the normal UPS format tracking numbers - I believe members have reported "long" tracking numbers in the discussion previously.
As noted in the last several posts, emails are being sent to advise customers. I've previously noted that Idea upgrade kits won't begin shipping until after Nov 16th, and the emails were intended to advise our customers who may not be involved / following the discussion here. We also sent emails to advise Think customers - we still expect to have most of the Think backlog cleared up by the 16th.
Some members have commented that they didn't receive emails. We have requested Mentor to do a comparison of the email distribution lists against the master file and identify any missed addresses and we will be following up in the next several days.
Thanks for working with us on this.
UPDATE 3/11/10 - ORDER WINDOW CLOSED - PROCESSING EXISTING ORDERS ONLY
Here is a list of important dates for customers participating in the Windows 7 upgrade program.
January 31, 2010 – Last day to purchase a qualifying Lenovo PC
February 28, 2010 – Last day to register via the Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade site
March 5, 2010 – Last day to submit proof of purchase
March 15, 2010 – Last day to submit payment information (for shipping & handling)
April 30, 2010 – Final Windows 7 upgrade shipments completed
A courtesy email is being provided to all customers with existing upgrade orders that need either proof of purchase or payment information to complete processing now. Additional information on Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade program, system compatibility, training, and enha...
Best regards,
Mark
ThinkPads: S30, T43, X60t, X1, W700ds, IdeaPad Y710, IdeaCentre: A300, IdeaPad K1
Mark Hopkins
Program Manager, Lenovo Social Media
www.lenovoblogs.com/connections
www.twitter.com/lenovoforums
www.facebook.com/lenovo
