Lenovo Refusing Warranty on W500 Broken Hinge

[md79]

Hi All,

I can see a few people have been having similar issues to me which is one of the hinges breaking from the magnesium casing on my W500.  Like others that I've seen on the forum, there is no damage to the laptop (i.e. it hasn't been dropped, abused, scratched, etc...).  It is a well used laptop and has done a lot of travel as I use it on-site with customers pretty much on a daily basis, so it does get opened and closed a lot.

I decided to lodge the issue under warranty and  was told that this would have to be lodged under my ThinkPad Protection (TPP) and NOT under warranty.  The difference being that the TPP is pick-up and deliver with no ETA.  I didn't feel this was right as the issue occurred under fair use, and not abuse of the laptop.

After discussing with Support, they suggested the best way forward was the Customer Complaints area.  After being given the run-around and lied to a number of times with regards to callbacks, I finally got an answer as to what is not covered under warranty (see below).

What this Warranty Does not Cover

This warranty does not cover the following:

    uninterrupted or error-free operation of a product

    loss of, or damage to, your data by a product

    any software programs, whether provided with the product or installed subsequentyly

    failure or damage resulting from misuse, abuse, accident, modification, unsuitable physical or operating environment, natural disasters, power surges, improper maintenance, or use not in accordance with product information materials

    damage caused by a non-authorized service provider

    failure of, or damage caused by, any third party products, including those that Lenovo may provide or integrate into the Lenovo product at your request

    any technical or other support, such as assistance with "how-to" questions and those regarding product set-upand installation

    products or parts with an altered identification label or from which the identification label has been removed

I cannot see anything in those terms that would preclude the hinges from being covered under my 3yr NBD onsite warranty.

What's going on with Lenovo?  Their support used to be fantastic, now it's terrible with constant failures to call back, blatently dodging warranty issues, etc...

I'm feeling now my only option is to escallate to consumer affairs or similar to have this resolved which is very dissapointing as I have always been an advocate of IBM/Lenovo products.

Are other people experiencing this dodging of warranty without adequate explination?

[PanEuropean]

I had a broken hinge on my W500, and took it in to the local Lenovo service depot on the very last day of the 3 year warranty.

The person who accepted the computer told me that a broken hinge can be caused by either failure of the hinge casting, or impact to the computer.  The former would be covered by warranty, the latter not.  They told me that they would have to wait until they disassembled the display panel to determine if the damage had been caused by impact.

Several days later, I got a phone call advising me that there was no evidence of impact damage, and the hinge had been replaced free of charge.  The display panel and the front and rear display panel bezels were also replaced free of charge, because they had very slight damage as a result of the fracture of the hinge.

So, all I can guess, in your case, is that the service facility looked at the machine and came to the conclusion that the damage to the hinge was as a result of impact, not a faulty casting.

Michael

[md79]

Hi PanEuropean,

Unfortunately I have asked in the past if I can drop off and pick up the laptop from a depot as that would at least give me some kind of control over the turnaround times.  Lenovo's response to this was a very definate "no".  Apparently in all return-to-base warranty cases in Australia the machine must be picked up by a courier and returned via a courier, and again when asked about turnaround times, they were very hesitant to give any kind of response which leads me to believe that I could be without a machine for weeks.

Specifically in regards to the hinge problem, Lenovo made no attempt at diagnosing the issue before denying the warranty claim.  It was basically "can you describe the problem, and in which area" and then a prompt "sorry but this isn't under warranty, we'll have to organise a courier to pick up the machine under your TPP".

What I'm really failing to understand is how Lenovo/IBM can go from being the epitome of customer service to being exceedingly poor in the space of 4 years from when I was last dealing with them (I used to manage around 150 Lenovo R series laptops and 400 odd Lenovo/IBM M series desktops).  In my case, it even it took me nearly 2 weeks of chasing just to get someone to respond to my customer complaint which I thought was abysmal.

The only reason I purchased a Lenovo laptop was in fact based on past support experience and I have always been happy to pay a hefty premium for the Lenovo products for that support (e.g. I was paying around $200/desktop more than the equivelant HP purely because the IT team found the support to be superior).

There has to be something up within Lenovo to explain the dramatic change in support levels.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

Lenovo uses a company that has depot in most major cities, they will pick up and deliver the laptop to the depot through DHL express within the same day.

The area of depot is cordoned off to visitors due to the need to control personnel entry and exit from sites, as the depot also repair many other companies machines that require greater security level (i.e. ATM machines, etc).

Thank you for your patience.

[PanEuropean]

MD79:

Best suggestion I can offer is that you send the laptop to Lenovo (in accordance with whatever their policies are in your country), and enclose a letter explaining that the hinge did not break as a result of dropping the machine, and ask them to take a look at it and re-evaluate the decision that they communicated to you over the phone.

If, upon examining the machine, they can determine that the failure was most probably not caused by abuse (i.e. dropping it), then I think they will probably repair the machine under the warranty.

Michael

[bpanone]

I have same issue, left hinge broke.  Now the case does not close properly thus damaging the case.

Lenovo informed me that the Warranty does not cover physical damage.  This poor  explanatioin should indicate that it is going to be an uphill battle to get them to repair anything to do the physical case without an additional $350 upcharge.  Likely, the  warranty is not honored and you will need to apply other pressure.