Is this a so-called hidden feature of T400s? [ Editado ]

[lead_org]

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Craiglistee123 wrote:

I think when I changed my last laptop from a Fujitsu s series which gave me a wonderful 5 years of service believe it or not (In fact I still have it sitting in my closet). I wanted something that would be just as reliable, giving me zero headaches over hardware issues etc. 

I have had friends buy into thinkpads when IBM was IBM, and it was brilliant, that hard black material covering the top gave it durability and the parts were industrial. The downside was that they refused to put in the conventional touch pad and I hated the red dot pointer.

So when Lenovo was put under the spot light, I looked at the think pad again. I read about the cheap plastic on the palm rest but decided to go for it believing the product was consistent with past models. But to be real honest I've had some issues with the laptop less than 1.5 years into using it.

1. Palm rest not fitted snuggly. It basically creaks when I apply any bit of pressure on it.

2. Disc drive failing. I have to commend the quick replacement of this. A dispatch was sent to my house to collect the old one and replace the new one at no charge since I was under 3 years warranty.

3. Overheating of laptop. I find it extremely hot compared to my past laptops (Fujitsu, Sony), probably the same as Acer. This has alarmed me as I cannot even put it on my lap for usage. I use mine as a desktop replacement unit anyways but this is a large problem.

4. Battery issue. Basically a long windy road of bad experiences from both customer service in Singapore and hardware usage. Please follow below for a good read: 

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/plugged-in-not-charging-consider-replacing-...

Conclusion:

1. Lenovo has more or less destroyed the reliability associated with IBM built since the company's inception. I rank its products as good as Acers. Which is of course, for those of you who have experienced Acer's products, a great insult!

2. Note that I do not mean that you do not buy Lenovo laptops, there is a price for everything afterall. But I do feel that the price should reflect the product's quality. To put it in quantitative terms, a T series in the average price range goes for about 1700 USD without tax. I think I'd pay more between 900-1050 USD range for this.

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The largest thinkpad market is in USA, and they go for about 800 to 900 USD.

Regarding your customer service experience in Singapore is unfortunate, but given that Mark_Lenovo did offer you help, but you refused to accept his help, then what more do you want?

If people are into self-flagellation, i guess there is not much others can do for him. 

[aviralin]

Hi All,

I bought my Lenovo T410s Thinkpad thinking it is one of the best machines out there but to my disappointment, I am stuck with this machine which has cracked twice from the palm rest in last 2 months. Customer service has replaced it once and the crack has resurfaced within one week of fixing it in the exact same spot. They are requesting it to send it back again and its not fun as it is very unproductive process as I loose 1 week without my laptop. I am not recomending ThinkPads anymore to anyone.

[lead_org]

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mmis wrote:
Hey guys, I too have a crack in my palmrest and lenovo charges me 32 EUR for replacing it. I didn't get my laptop back so far, but it seems like lenovo gets lots of these complaints and still doesn't do a **bleep**. No knowing that others have the same problem and get their palmrest replaced for free, give me a better position towards the guys wanting to charge me for replacing it. Thanks!

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left lower corner or the right lower corner? I have seen a few palmrests developing failure at these areas for no apparent reason. This is especially prevalent in people holding their laptop in one hand by the corner with the LCD open. 

[FJCruiser79]

My T410s just did the same thing. Really surprised at the build quality. I purchased this exact system because of the thinness and weight coupled with supposed build quality.  Now I get to spend a couple hours on the phone with customer service.....great!

[beickus]

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Craiglistee123 wrote:

 I wanted something that would be just as reliable, giving me zero headaches over hardware issues etc.

I have had friends buy into thinkpads when IBM was IBM, and it was brilliant, that hard black material covering the top gave it durability and the parts were industrial.

1. Palm rest not fitted snuggly. It basically creaks when I apply any bit of pressure on it.

2. Disc drive failing. I have to commend the quick replacement of this. A dispatch was sent to my house to collect the old one and replace the new one at no charge since I was under 3 years warranty.

3. Overheating of laptop. I find it extremely hot compared to my past laptops (Fujitsu, Sony), probably the same as Acer. This has alarmed me as I cannot even put it on my lap for usage. I use mine as a desktop replacement unit anyways but this is a large problem.

4. Battery issue. Basically a long windy road of bad experiences from both customer service in Singapore and hardware usage. Please follow below for a good read:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/plugged-in-not-charging-consider-replacing-...

Conclusion:

1. Lenovo has more or less destroyed the reliability associated with IBM built since the company's inception. I rank its products as good as Acers. Which is of course, for those of you who have experienced Acer's products, a great insult!

2. Note that I do not mean that you do not buy Lenovo laptops, there is a price for everything afterall. But I do feel that the price should reflect the product's quality. To put it in quantitative terms, a T series in the average price range goes for about 1700 USD without tax. I think I'd pay more between 900-1050 USD range for this.

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that is surely an insult - rate Lenovo as high as Acer - this should grieve some people (if there are any sensitive and honest ones out there )

[Linh]

Let me start of by saying that I have been a long time supporter of thinkpads, but this event really made change my mind.  I convinced my whole family and many of my friends to use thinkpads the customer service and build quality has deteriorated too much over the past few years.

Here is the story. My sister recently (less than a month ago) got her t410s and suddenly a crack appears on the palm rest.  From the prevalence of this issue (it’s all over the forum) it’s obvious that this is not an accidental damage but a design/manufacturing defect.  Of course when I called Lenovo tech support (twice) they were not willing to cover it and keep saying it’s an accidental damage.  Of course this is not the only issue I’ve had with Lenovo/thinkpads, but this is the final straw.  I just want to say I can no long support this type of build quality and customer service for the price.  Thinkpads aren’t that much cheaper than an Apple computer (different OS I know) and it's more expensive than a Dell, but even Dell now has better customer support.  It goes without saying Apple’s customer service is much better than what Lenovo offers.

[rsannie]

hmm mine is developing this as well on left lower side... $2300 T410s 1 month light use (really light use)....

[phi]

My Lenovo T400s got the same cracks (two cracks on the left palm rest, each bout 1.5 cm long) as reported by others after 8 month.

I am very disappointed by the quality of such an expensive laptop!!!

I spent hours on the phone with Lenovo technical support. They kept telling me that "cracks in the frame are excluded from warranty" since they must result from incorrect use from my side even though I pointed out that other people here reported exactly the same problem.

At the end I went to a lenovo service provider in Hamburg (Germany) with a print out of this forum.

They just gave me a call that they are going to replace the broken piece under warranty

I just hope I will not crack again after a few month....

[blueteesomebody]

I am also a thinkpad fan when thinkpad is thinkpad. I also noticed the quality decline and also some poor changes in design when it transfered to lenovo. disappointed...

[hid3nax]

Exactly the same cracking problem on my less-than-a-year old T400s.

Is this being covered by warranty?

Lenovo quality/material seem to be really poor...