Questions about LENOVO Warranties and Aftermarket Plans [ Edited ]

[digitaltrix]

Hi,
I'm planning to purchase an X220 and noticed that warranties are various types but for the most part, they CAN be upgraded provided you are still in your warranty period EXCEPT of course "Thinkpad Protection" which covers all sorts of accidentals beyond warranties.

So here are my questions about Lenovo Warranties:

1. According to the above, if I stick with stock 1 yr Basic Depot warranty, I should be able to upgrade all the way to 4 yrs (ie 3 more years) before it expires?
2. IIf anyone does have experience (& I'm sure there are plenty), please review salient points about different warranties, ie Depot average turnaround times, what ONSITE is most useful for, etc?
3. Regarding the Thinkpad protection is the *BIG ?* in my mind--- I am buying my first Thinkpad only because I have seen and read several accounts of how tough these notebooks are, so I am wondering if it is even worth it for me as I consider myself to be an EXTREMELY careful user (though the idea of having reckless abandon *just once* in my life would be worth it) so what's the verdict on these?  Anyone had one and used it?
4. Regarding warranties, especially further down the line, does Lenovo just replace the same part / model or if it is no longer feasible has anyone recieved upgrades? (This is my counterpoint to buying super expensive extended warranties--I may just opt for a new model then?)
5. LASTLY *phew, hehe*--I am finding great prices OUTSIDE of lenovo.com and many are claiming to be authorized resellers of Lenovo warranty plans so why wouldn't I just save my money and buy from them?  Anyone have a story to tell? What would be your advice in trying to do this, like ASAP or within 30 days..ANY help here would be very helpful as this is the most likely route for me.

OKayyyyyy..so that was a great post for a first-timer, I'm sure you're already sick of me and I haven't even bought one yet..but I will certainly appreciate the helpful replies and many thanks for reading

[gasarah]

I appreciate your post because I'm another "extreme researcher before I buy something" that is looking to buy a X-series ThinkPad and I too have a million question, so you have asked some of them for me! Thanks! ........now if only someone answers 

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

1. Yes you can upgrade anytime during warranty, but warranty purchase during upgrade is cheaper due to the discount coupons.

2. Depot aims for 5 days, but that is the average time, some people get in 48 hrs (depending how far you are from depot), while others get it in a month or two due to parts shortage.

Onsite is useful for people whom can't have that 5 days turnaround, and need their machine with them all the time. So as such the technicians come to your home or work during 9-5pm weekdays to do the repair.

3. Thinkpad protections is important if you do drop the machine a lot or work offsite where you always battling the elements and accidents. Also, it covers the cost of repair for damaged LCD, or any damage the result of drop, liquid or getting crushed as the result of accidents. It is an insurance, so you would never know when it might become useful..... so you can try to work out the Opportunity cost on that one.

4. Usually for older machines, there won't be new parts available, so they have to use fully checked refurb parts, i.e. motherboard, etc. I think 3 years is usually enough as warranty, unless you operate in a corporate or business environment where cost of ownership is spread out to 4 years.

5. Which companies? there are authorised sellers of warranty around whom may offer competitive pricing.

[digitaltrix]

lead_org, thanks so much for the detailed and well-thought out reply, this will help in my decisions a LOT!!!

Well as far as 3rd party warranties, Stateside, we have Provantage.com, which incidentally seems to score pretty highly on resellerratings.com (an independent ratings site for shopping sites online) so it seems trustworthy.

Upon visiting their Lenovo Warranty pages they offer really good prices like  3 year onsite + 3 yr TPP for $149!? and they claim to be an 'authorized reseller.'

I tried calling them today but ended up on hold too long (not a good sign, I know) but will try to reach them and post back my answers on this page later..also, I spoke to a Lenovo sales rep who could 'neither confirm nor deny such 3rd party options exist due to a lack of knowledge about them.'

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

that seems way to o cheap, if a deal is too good to be true.....

So i think you should purchase carefully from non Lenovo partners, since you would have little protection if something does go wrong.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator · Accepted solution]

Hey, great questions!

I would generally agree with lead_org, and would just say that in the majority of cases the depot turn around times including shipping both ways are generally 4-5 days.   We do have part constraints from time to time and there are a few horror stories of weeks of delay, but statistically those are really in the minority.

In theory, onsite is a good deal in terms of not having to send off your system.   There are some caveats though...

Onsite is dependant on parts, just as the depot, so if the part isn't available that day, onsite won't come out.

Some repairs that may require a number of parts, or those for ThinkPad protection may still need to be sent to depot even if you have onsite warranty upgrade.   There are also CRU parts - customer installable parts.  Hard disks, DVD drives - easy items that you can swap yourself.  Whether you have depot or onesite, we will just send the part, so upgrading to onsite does not mean that a tech will come out in all cases.

You should be able to upgrade the warranty any time prior to the base warranty expiration.  Only one upgrade may be applied to if you purchase a 2 year onsite upgrade now and then later want to extend that to 4 or 5 years, you won't be able to.  ThinkPad protection may need to be purchased within 30 days of the system purchase rather than anytime during the base warranty periond - I'm sure you understand why.

Post warranty maintenance agreements are available - these are extended warranties that can be purchased and applied once base or base + extended warranty periods have elapsed.

You have coverage based on terms of the international warranty - you can look up the model type and see the list of countries that you will be able to get service in, if you travel.  Regardless of onsite or other type upgrades, warranty will be provided via the default (depot or warranty partner) when traveling.  I.e. if you buy in US and get onsite, while you are in US you can have onsite, but if you travel to say, the UK, you would have to carry it in to a partner or use the European depot.

There are 3rd party warranties out there, and people selling our warranties.   Just be be sure of what you are buying.

Hope that helps!

Mark

[digitaltrix]

Ok so there is an afternote that needs to be added after much confusion from various reps on the timeframe a customer has to purchase the Thinkpad Protection Warranty. Some were saying 30,some 90 and I have one rep who consistently informed me that I can purchase TPP anytime before my warranty expires!

• To be clear a customer has 90 days from purchase/shipment date to purchase Thinkpad protection

Also within this is another option, a cheaper "Thinkpad BASIC protection" which covers one such incidence as protected under the "Thinkpad protection scheme" and a regular priced "Thinkpad protection" which provides multi-incident continuous coverage during the warranty period--hopefully the choice is obvious for all here, I would hate to have a keyboard damage fixed free and then pay for an IPS display!

• To be clear a customer can extend a basic depot warranty and upgrade it as well (onsite, etc) with the particular exception of Thinkpad protection mentioned above, anytime within the customer's active warranty period.

"for eg. X buys basic laptop with stock and decides on month 10 of ownership he wants a 2 yr extension with onsite repair and TPP...he will get everything but the TPP"

• To be clear, if the said customer's warranty expires, Lenovo will offer a post-expiration warranty but it will be at a higher price.

Lastly, I have confirmed that many resellers are selling authorized Lenovo warranties at lower prices, caveat being you will need to have your machine physically so you can inspect and provide them the serial & part number upon purchase and they will process in 10 days. 

A good example of a reputable company providing such a service is costcentral.com (rated highly on resellerratings.com)

This officially should lay to rest any concerns of TPP as they stand now

[nibs Guru]

I have purchased other products from Provantage and trust them. The link you provided was for TPP (Basic) digitaltrix's post explains the difference between TPP and TPP (Basic).

If I were you, I would get on-site + regular (not basic) TPP. If the TP is going to sit on a desk and never move and you never eat or drink anything at the desk, maybe you don't need TPP. In my house we have a two T series ThinkPads with 3yr warranties. T400 (depot + TPP) and a T420 (onsite +TPP), so I can speak from experience about both options. I would buy straight from Lenovo, as I think different machines have different part numbers for the same warranty.

Why do I recommend on-site? Even 5 days is a long time to be without your machine. Also, you do not have to worry about damage shipping the machine to the depot. Issues happen-- you could have a minor amount of blacklight bleed, a key after a year or two that needs replacement, or some other minor thing. Since the machine is still functional, you have to decide if you should live with the issue or send in the machine. If you have on-site, you just call up and the issue gets fixed. if they don't have the part, you still can use the machine while you wait for it to be shipped in. On-site is worth it to me because it means I actually use the warranty. I will probably upgrade my T400 to on-site. The customer replaceable parts is a nice touch -- I had to have a power adapter replaced and they sent me a new one without asking me to send in the old one or the whole machine first.

Why do I recommend TPP? You never know what will happen to your machine. You could trip on the power cord late at night and knock it off the table on to the floor -- maybe the screen breaks, maybe the Think light stops working, maybe everything seems fine. You could be in an airplane and hit unexpected turbulence and the person who is sitting next to you spills their drink and it gets into the screen. I bought TPP for piece of mind. I don't want to have to worry about what is or is not covered, and TPP protects some of the most expensive parts of the machine. If you are looking at the X-series tablet, TPP might not come up during the ordering process and you'll have to ask about it separately. The tablet TPP is much higher in cost due to higher possibility of breaking the screen.

I can say that I have used the warranty on both my machines and I recommend on-site + TPP to everyone. If you purchase a 9-cell battery with the system, the 3yr battery replacement plan might also be worth it to you. You are essentially buying one replacement battery up front, but at a discount. Under my extremely heavy use (student) I tend to replace batteries every 18-24 months.

[digitaltrix]

Thanks for the info and you definitely made a SOLID point about the onsite saving any potential issues during shipment....unfortunately that part is out of Lenovo and user's control and as I found out, the pricing b/w 3yr onsite +TPP & 3 yr depot+TPP is barely $40 (re: Lenovo rep)

So the $40 difference or so saves you time anyway but also any potential damage incurred during shipment .at the end of the day better option IMHO!

Also yes, the link I gave was in fact wrong..that was when I didn't even know the difference b/w basic & full protection, hence the post later.

The part # 41C9334 is for X220 i7 - It provides 3 yr depot + 3yr TPP

The part # 41C9338 is for X220 i7 - It provides 3 yr onsite+ 3yr TPP

These should be the correct part numbers and can be 'froogled' as well!

*NOTE* I do not claim that I know for sure these part numbers apply to the system quoted or your  system's warranty purchase, please check with Lenovo before you go ahead and purchase the warranty for your system!

[Przemek]

@ Mark_Lenovo

I have a question for you regarding on-site service. A year ago I called authorized service center in Poland, because I had a problem with: palmrest, motherboard and hinges. Guy came, but brought only a motherboard and palmrest to replace. He claimed that at one time he may swap/replace only two elements. 

So, such a procedure is valid worldwide or whether it depends on Lenovo Poland?

Thanks in advance,

Przemek

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