X220Tablet: Poor building quality, Lenovo consider these uncovered by warranty??? [ Editado ]

[skyscout223]

These are the problems I met within 6months of purchase. Hence I have never drop it or do anything to it except normal usage.

1.  Lower upper case corner broken: temporally fixed using Sugru. This happens within 5 months of purchase. I had to fix it by myself because I was in the middle of work and couldn’t afford to live without the machine for even one day. I did drop it once with a well-protected bag. However the same level of dropping(about 1 meter height, with the same bag) didn’t cause a scratch on my Macbook Air.
2. Lower upper case cracking. I have never put more than one book on top of it.
3. Lower Upper case right side rubber broke off.
4. Rubber legs on the battery broke off. I replaced it with something else.
5. The screen had scratches caused by keyboard presumably. This is a design flaw!
6. edge of the left lower upper case rubber broken due to pressure from the twisting screen. (since it's not locked when lid is closed.)

 I have contacted Lenovo for these design flaws, however they consider *all of these* issues uncovered by warranty. I am really regret that I spent over 1300 on this. Do you guys consider these problems acceptable?

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Moderator note: images totalling more than 50k converted to links per forum rules:  Lenovo Community Participation Rules

[AtzX]

The third and and last picture presented here have the very same damages as my x230t

I had to glue rubber legs as well, after they came loose.

[kvirtanen]

Same here, I share almost all the damages in the OP, but I believe they belong to the physical damage class not covered by Lenovo warranty. They're not user-inflicted but normal wear & tear.

[skyscout223]

thanks for the reply, kvirtanen.

obviously no one would ever want to use their rights in the warranty. Warranty in its best is merely a gesture of trust and confidence that a band communicates to its customers.

However while Lenovo refuses to cover this issue, nor does it want to look at its design flaws seriously, I am more than sorry to be a loyal customer.

[kvirtanen]

To clarify: those words were Lenovo's, not mine (the sarcasm was too strong in this one).

[XThinkpadUser]

Whenever I've had physical case damage to my X201t Lenovo has *always* repaired it under warranty. Has this policy changed?

[kvirtanen]

Tell you what, I'll give it a go, and see what happens. My keyboard frame edges look just like that; the pegs are missing and the plastic has cracks in it.

I'll make an electronic service call and will report back as soon as I hear something.

EDIT: What I wrote as the problem:

"Rubber nubs that prevent the screen from rotating when closed (keyboard frame) came off in normal use. Plastic has cracked and is chipping from keyboard frame and palm rest. Rubber feet of the laptop's battery are coming off."

(there wasn't any more room to write)

[kvirtanen]

Today I received an e-mail from Lenovo Netherlands. I responded them and also referred to the issues mentioned in the original post:

We have received you electronic call about your TP X220T and we we like to have more information about your issue.
We have tried to contact you by your mobilephone number, but you have not reacted to that call. 
Can you please sent us a clear picture of the RUBBER NUBS THAT PREVENT THE SCREEN FROM ROTATING WHEN CLOSED, that came off and  of the cracked and chipping keyboard frame/palmrest?

please send the photo and refer to the above case number, also, please refer the email to #####

Kind regards,

#####,
Lenovo Technical Support

I responded with the following (if someone is interested):

Dear #####,

(IBM ESC case number xxxxxxxx)

I have indeed not been able to answer during appointments. I did try calling back, but it was not possible for some reason. Nevertheless, attached you'll find photos of the issues I mentioned. The numbers correspond to the numbers on the file names of the photos I've attached. They are quality control issues of unacceptable degree considering the retail price of the laptop and the advertised "toughness" of the X220T model. There is a similar complaint filed at the Lenovo Community Forum, with which I share similar problems: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Tablet-ThinkPad-Laptops/X220Tablet-Poor-building-quality-Lenovo...

Below each point I've made comparisons to the issues mentioned in the complaint at the Lenovo Community Forum.

1. Plastic on the corner of the palmrest is brittle and fractures easily under normal conditions

- compare to Lenovo Community Forum case: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30949iA43FFCB22C6CC5EC/image-size/original?v=m... and http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30939i1C25CBE89A8C6579/image-size/original?v=m...

2. Plastic on the left side of keyboard frame (near rubber nub) is brittle and fractured under normal usage because of tablet's design (when laptop is carried in a laptop case the screen is held fixed by these nubs, but the nubs themselves are very loosely attached to the laptop)

- compare to Lenovo Community Forum case: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30941i43A120B7E37F0B57/image-size/original?v=m...

3. Other rubber nub missing from the right side of keyboard frame completely (design very prone to failing; part is not even glued onto the keyboard frame)

- compare to Lenovo Community case: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30941i43A120B7E37F0B57/image-size/original?v=m...

4. Rubber legs/pads under the computer come off in normal use (attached with double-sided tape??)

- compare to Lenovo Community case: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30943i585CAF0EA2BFCDED/image-size/original?v=m...

5. The keyboard scratches the screen

- compare to Lenovo Community case: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/30945iD43069779CBA7689/image-size/original?v=m...

I hope these photos help ...!

And here are my photos I referred to in my e-mail:

1. http://wirtanen.tk/probono/1%20-%20corner%20of%20palmrest%20cracks.jpg
2. http://wirtanen.tk/probono/2%20-%20edge%20near%20rubber%20nub%20fractured.jpg
3. http://wirtanen.tk/probono/3%20-%20rubber%20nub%20missing%20from%20right%20side.jpg
4. http://wirtanen.tk/probono/4%20-%20rubber%20legs%20come%20off%20in%20normal%20use.jpg
5. http://wirtanen.tk/probono/5%20-%20keyboard-caused%20scratches%20on%20the%20screen%20bezel.jpg

Let's see how they feel about this.

[kvirtanen]

I received an official reply over the telephone from a Lenovo representative. I had a very pleasant talk with them and I could hear that the situation bothered them, too.

The thing is, that -- even though they had reserached this issue together with their engineers, and even if they do realize these are all due to the design (defects) and quality control -- all the faults described in this post are considered "customer damage" according to the warranty agreement that the customer has made with Lenovo by purchasing a laptop from them (even if it's not the customer's fault and even if the customer has used and treated the laptop properly). It's just nomenclature, not pointing fingers.

Business.

I deeply disagree with their policy as many people have to deal with considerably lowered resale value of their laptops due to oversights in design by Lenovo. I know Apple, among many other manufacturers, is known for retroactively correcting for their oversights in form of compensation or replacing the units with ones with better design/parts.

In this case I'm afraid there isn't such a manufacturing batch of the X220T available. They're all equally prone to failing, and I think this applies to X230T, too. (what about X240(T)?)

The rubber feet under the laptop are covered under warranty, though. I also asked nicely if I could have the two rubber nubs next to the keyboard, but my request was (corteously) declined.

I'll receive new feet for my X220T within a few working days.

Please feel free to react on this. Verbally, via your local consumer protection agency or simply with your wallet/credit card.

-- Kimmo