wrote:
Dear Lenovo Customer,
1. The Windows 7 Upgrade shipments for Idea products will not begin until mid to late November. However, the backlog is expected to clear quickly.
This is just ducky.
Now all of us who have 'second-class' purchases, i.e. 'Idea or Value Line' in Lenovo's eyes can just wait longer. Or a lot longer.
I have in my hands at the moment a simply wonderful product.
It was clearly designed for the Brazilian etc. customers which expert designers who have been producing our laptops in various branches of Taiwanese family corporations in China understand need all the best computing power at the 80% thus not premium price level, coupled with ultra-strong mechanical design, and a clean, capable appearance.
In other words, a superb design.
All their capability and effort is hamstrung, because of a typical corporatic disaster.
- don't prepare where you have all the information to, start processing on the date results are due.
- discover the main company can't deliver on its personalizing software. An ancient story repeats.
- fumble and prevaricate, don't communicate, communicate generalities
- get angry when customers don't accept this
- pull messages when customers mention this behaviour
- promise communication which does not appear, over and over
- shift blame to a partner which is clearly overloaded
- bill credit cards a month in advance of any possibility of actual delivery
- trickle out more and more bad news, slowly, as delays mount.
- arrange delivery when it comes through an obtuse, multiple-layered supplier chain, ending in....the USPS. My goodness.
And the kicker:
- Charge a fat fee of nearly $20 for this 'free upgrade's shipping'. Which no other manufacturer does. Which is exhorbitant even if delivery were made.
Is this letter intemperate?
Wouldn't you be?