X200 Horrible Experience [ Edited ]

[life02]

Just wanted to share my ongoing story of horrible tech support from Lenovo:

There was a gradual degradation of the LCD... hundreds of black spots began to appear on the screen. Sent laptop to the "DEPOT" for repair and it came back with a different screen problem, and it was put together poorly. The bezel around the monitor was bulging and it was making horrible noises when you opened the screen. It went back into the DEPOT on the 3th of December. This time it was there for a month. They broke the palm rest while repairing, and then ordered the wrong piece to fix it. It was at the Depot from the 4th until the 27th. It came back with a broken palm rest (my request as I asked them to send the piece directly to me), same LCD problem, same bulging bezel problem, a deep scratch down to the metal on the back, and a defective keyboard. I was then able escalate the call as they finally allowed me to speak to a manager and had someone come to fix it onsite. He did not have all the parts to repair the laptop and while fixing it with the parts he had, he cut the wireless card cable. Naturally I complained and they said the tech was the best on-site person they had in the DFW area. He came back with the rest of the parts and did a poor job repairing... breaking more things. Now the LCD is messed up again (color disappears from half the screen if the screen is barely touched), the camera is broken, the front bezel is scratched and bulging in places b/c the tech didn't fit or broke some of the clips... the back panel doesn't fit correctly with front bezel... there are no stickers on the machine (just holes where they are supposed to go) and the keyboard is still defective. Additionally there are other cosmetic problems such as scratches and stripped screws on my once pristine laptop. They won't give me credit or a new machine and now the laptop is being shipped to an engineer in NC but it is scheduled to take at least a month to fix. The laptop has had 5 repairs (One of which was the palm rest repair performed by myself) and is headed toward the 6th repair. I am very disappointed with Lenovo and have been able to get any real help. The laptop has been in repair longer than I have actually used it. 

Message Edited by life02 on 01-13-2009 10:34 AM

[andyP Community SuperMod]

life02, welcome to the forum,

that certainly doesn't sound like you have had a pleasant experience with your X200. As you escalated the situation you were hopefully given a complaint number, do you have a record of the complaint number?

Thanks

[life02]

I do have the escalation number. Should I post it on the board or PM it to you andy?

I asked the escalation team at what point do you realize that you are spending more in labor and parts to fix something than you would to just replace it... he laughed at me and said not yet. Oh and I forgot to add... the last box they sent me to send the laptop back in for repair was HUGE and well used (lots of holes and old labels on it) and had the packing material for a t60 series notebook. Additional they shipped the box to me overnight at 10lbs for just the packing materials... and 5lbs on the return sticker. It took the overnight box 5 days to get to me (b/c they never placed it in pickup at their warehouse until this week). It's like they aren't paying attention to anything.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Life02,

This seems very frustrating indeed...

Can you please PM me your case numbers and we will ensure you receive a proper resolution...

Apologies,

Mark

[life02]

information PMed

[life02]

Got it back from the engineers today and I am still extremely unhappy... the new back lcd plate makes a very strange noise when any pressure is applied to it. The front LCD bezel was not replaced and is still scratched and the emblem is still bubbling. Case screws were not replaced as requested. There is wear already on the new back lcd plate near the hinges. The front lcd bezel and back lcd plate still do not go together correctly on the back middle.. notification lights shine through and you can see the clip... maybe the clip is broken. Front LCD bezel still doesn't sit closely against LCD at the top... it bulges.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator · Accepted solution]

Jonathan,

I've sent a PM with alternatives for resolution.   

Thanks for the feedback

Mark

[life02]

Mark came through for me and finally got this resolved! Thanks!

[Snamoey]

I had 13 weeks of hell from the support in the UK.  The problem was a small one - USB ports on the dock failed to power up after a standby, under XP.  They took 3 weeks suggesting fixes none of which worked.  Required me to do 3 reloads from scratch to check things.  Then asked for the machine.  Took it away for 7 weeks.  Gave me different stories about replacing hardware, checking the wireless outputs (?) and no fault found.  I had to insist on getting it returned after they said they wanted to wait for a while longer to test it under Vista. Was delivered, incorrectly packed, damaged, and the original fault was obviously still there - it just took 2 minutes to see that.

Fortunately UK sales legislation and Insight the distributor were on my side, and after a further 2 weeks I got a replacement machine.  After 13 weeks, it appears that several new drivers have been released, fixing some but not all of the problems.  You get the impression that most of the delay was to let them release the new drivers (although it looks like there really was a hardware fault).  However - I'm not going anywhere near the organisation incorrectly named 'Lenovo Support' again, unless I absolutely have to.  In this country it has gone a long way downhill.    

Frankly, I've never seen such hell, incompetence, inefficiency and lack of customer-friendliness in a support organisation - anywhere.  If you took your new car back to the garage to fix a small fault, and they sent it back all scratched 7 weeks later without fixing the problem, you'd be pretty annoyed.  Completely unsuited to a consumer sales business - maybe a corporate can afford to lose a machine for 13 weeks, but if Lenovo wants to succeed over here, it's got to change it's whole way of interacting with consumers.  If they'd just admitted 'we'll have new drivers out within 3 months which probably will fix your problem; and if they don't we'll change the hardware' we'd all have been happier.

Good machine.  Doubt I'll ever deal with Lenovo again though.