Alright I just had the most absurd customer experience ever following a purchase I tried to make through the Lenovo website.
I ordered a Y460 online on August 14.
It indicated an estimated shipping day of today, August 23. This already seemed pretty bad. A pre-built product takes 9 days for an order to be processed and shipped? Seems like horrible warehouse management / distribution channels / order processing. But I was alright waiting.
So I called in today (when it was supposed to ship out) wanting to inquire about a tracking number for my order.
After waiting on the phone for >30 minutes, I was routed to the Lenovo call center, presumably in India.
The first representative I talked to told me that despite what I say online, my order was actually not going to be shipped until August 30, and that what I saw online was wrong. However, he could not tell me why, could not give me any information about my status, could not check anything else in the sales database for me, could not explain the discrepancy in estimated shipping date, could not tell me why the estimated shipping date for a pre-built unit was wrong, and could not explain why my credit card was already charged for an order that had not even been fully processed and shipped. He also refused to route me to his manager.
I hung up and called again.
The second representative gave me a completely different story. He told me that the product was indeed supposed to ship today, but had encountered "unknown errors at the manufacturer" which he could not elaborate on. After asking all my previous questions (listed above) and still not having them explained, the representative suddenly said "there is a problem with the processors". This seemed like a blatant lie, given that he had just ten minutes earlier, gone on and on about how he had no information whatsoever about the manufacturing process. I asked to speak to his manager, who he said was "unavailable and a very busy man", I asked for the manager's phone number, which he could not provide. Finally, I asked to be redirected to his supervisor who was apparently also busy. However, I was eventually assured that the supervisor would call me back "within 15 minutes." Still waiting on that, but I have a feeling there isn't going to be a call back.
So far this has been a ridiculous experience as a customer and one that I have never experienced when ordering products from other major computer manufactuerers (e.g., Dell, HP). I am planning on cancelling my order tomorrow if it is still not resolved as my experiences as a customer so far have been downright terrible.
How can the call center dedicated to order status and support not have any information regarding the manufacturer of the product or the status of the product? Does anyone actually know what is going on...
How do call center representatives give you two completely different and contradicting answers regarding the status of your product? Are they just making things up?
How can there be no managers or supervisors present to speak to?