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wrote:

Asia Pacific - Australia, New Zeland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, etc

Think Upgrades - 90% of the orders have been shipped

Idea Upgrades - 60% of the orders have been shipped

 

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It is funny, I ordered in August but no feedback up to this moment. I want to change the bit version, but also no reply. I really want to know who I can talk with to know what the problem is in my order.

I try to email them via the website. Hopefully I can get the reply.

Mark, if I really can't get their reply again after X'mas, can you help me to trace it ? Thanks

How about Lenovo gives us a rebate for the hassle of doing business with them. Instead of shipping windows 7 from local companies in the USA they seem to have thought of this as a money making opportunity and have contracted with some chinese company to send us Copies of OEM upgrade discs from China...is this what's going on?  farming out distribution of your upgrade for $1 a copy and pocketing the rest?!?

When I bought my Lenovo comp on Aug 1, I had no idea it would be 2010 before i was running windows7, expecially after spending a premium for shipping and handling. Mark could have burnt me a copy in his basement and sent it by carrier pidgeon faster than this.

Once again i expected a small S&H charge but $17+ is only a  small S&H charge for books or gold bricks, not a CD that weighs less than half a pound.

It's just another ugly surprise from a company I've never heard of before this purchase. I should have done a little research and found the dozens of sites that report what kind of problems Lenovo products have. (many people hate Lenovo and its easy to find sites listing their products shortcomings) It's my fault for not checking, but the unadvertised rude surprises like this would not have been exposed yet. sortta like when they claimed my hard drive was 640 in all the advertising and on the box, but after deleting all the junk programs that were preloaded i found lenovo partitions 80 gigs for the backup feature, so technically its a 560. I cant wait to update to win7 and get rid of that forced waste of space.  I will replace the keyboard too so nobody accidentially presses the big red reset button (gee whats this do?)

It seems I must be nice and refrain from calling for class action lawsuits or be banned. From what I gather my K230 is going to be a pain to update whenever I finally get my copy, so I may need the help of the community and administrators to get it to work, so I will behave. That does not mean that I have to be happy about this situation and I will be visiting the BBB, the consumer protection agency, and as many other websites as i can find in order to let others know of the problems with this company and its "free" windows7 upgrade.

Wise2u,

Thanks for the follow up post - you make some compelling points.

Here's the deal - the program costs money to deliver Windows 7 upgrades to individuals.   We have to pay for the media and COAs, we had to develop the driver disks, we have to pay to produce those, we had to pay to develop the registration site, we have to pay Mentor Media to administrate this - process entitlement, collect proof of purchase when needed, process payment, reconcile the information, kit up the proper contents, and finally ship it.

Understandably, many people focus on the shipping itself as the only tangible element of the cost and wonder why it should be $17.  Reasonably, something might be shipped for half that or less...  but when you think about all the other elements that have to be amortized, you begin to see why "handling" really pays for more than stuffing it in the box.

It's not a money making deal I assure you.   There are four Mentor Media distribution centers working on this, one serving each region (China being a 4th region).  Certainly not a case of "Supply it out of China for $1". 

Some companies appear to have  elected to internalize the costs associated with shipping for some countries.  Reading other OEM forums, there is evidence to suggest that some may offer the upgrades for free to some customers in some countries, but not all.  Customers are generally paying something for it one way or another.  In some cases, the cost is itemized.  In other cases, it's just absorbed in the cost of the product.

It seems that we could have minimized some of the ill will if our marketing / sales site had communicated the Win7 itself as being free, but noted that there was a cost associated with shipping it.   We clearly noted this on the registration site, but many customers have indicated that they felt that was after the fact. 

Probably the delays and the communication / status issues are the biggest detractor.  As some have said, $17 might have caused some grumbling if we shipped it fast, but this has been drawn out.    While Think started on time, we've been late with Idea. (and  Valueline - G530 / G550 is included within the Idea numbers in my post above)  We were over a month late starting the shipments for Idea and Valueline.  

So, do you have a right to be frustrated and upset?  I think so.  

Does complaining here help?  Yes, especially when it's constructive criticism.  More helpful complaints include specifics - when ordered, what communication (or lack) you have received, whether you were charged, what product you are waiting on,etc.     Seeing the number of individual customers that feel a certain way about things is helpful to effect change.  Some examples have been  changes being made to the registration site to include the model as a pull down, and to note value line along with idea.  Also, a change in position on the K230, increases in resources at Mentor Media, and more internal focus on our fulfillment progress.   The discussion on this thread has helped make that happen.

Best regards,

Mark

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wrote:

Have any G550s been shipped?

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   I have value line G550 and i FINALLY got my upgrade last week.  have n't got the time to install it yet though.

Mark,

 

Are you suggesting that handling charges actually include some amortization of engineering R&D costs to develop the upgrade, operations costs to develop CD's etc?  That certainly seems to be what you are stating here.

 

If so, I am very confused.   I thought that shipping and handling costs referred to actual shipping costs plus the costs to take finished goods and package them for delivery to customers.

 

If my "free upgrade" that cost $17.03 included amortized R&D and Ops costs, then I should be refunded that portion, correct? 

 

I was perfectly willing to pay for shipping and handling for a "free upgrade" but not for a cost of goods and amortization of R&D costs.

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Mark_Lenovo wrote:

Wise2u,

 

Thanks for the follow up post - you make some compelling points.

 

Here's the deal - the program costs money to deliver Windows 7 upgrades to individuals.   We have to pay for the media and COAs, we had to develop the driver disks, we have to pay to produce those, we had to pay to develop the registration site, we have to pay Mentor Media to administrate this - process entitlement, collect proof of purchase when needed, process payment, reconcile the information, kit up the proper contents, and finally ship it.

Understandably, many people focus on the shipping itself as the only tangible element of the cost and wonder why it should be $17.  Reasonably, something might be shipped for half that or less...  but when you think about all the other elements that have to be amortized, you begin to see why "handling" really pays for more than stuffing it in the box.

 

It's not a money making deal I assure you.   There are four Mentor Media distribution centers working on this, one serving each region (China being a 4th region).  Certainly not a case of "Supply it out of China for $1". 

 

Some companies appear to have  elected to internalize the costs associated with shipping for some countries.  Reading other OEM forums, there is evidence to suggest that some may offer the upgrades for free to some customers in some countries, but not all.  Customers are generally paying something for it one way or another.  In some cases, the cost is itemized.  In other cases, it's just absorbed in the cost of the product.

 

It seems that we could have minimized some of the ill will if our marketing / sales site had communicated the Win7 itself as being free, but noted that there was a cost associated with shipping it.   We clearly noted this on the registration site, but many customers have indicated that they felt that was after the fact. 

 

Probably the delays and the communication / status issues are the biggest detractor.  As some have said, $17 might have caused some grumbling if we shipped it fast, but this has been drawn out.    While Think started on time, we've been late with Idea. (and  Valueline - G530 / G550 is included within the Idea numbers in my post above)  We were over a month late starting the shipments for Idea and Valueline.  

 

So, do you have a right to be frustrated and upset?  I think so.  

 

Does complaining here help?  Yes, especially when it's constructive criticism.  More helpful complaints include specifics - when ordered, what communication (or lack) you have received, whether you were charged, what product you are waiting on,etc.     Seeing the number of individual customers that feel a certain way about things is helpful to effect change.  Some examples have been  changes being made to the registration site to include the model as a pull down, and to note value line along with idea.  Also, a change in position on the K230, increases in resources at Mentor Media, and more internal focus on our fulfillment progress.   The discussion on this thread has helped make that happen.

 

Best regards,

 

Mark

 

 

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Mark

You say: 

" We have to pay for the media and COAs, we had to develop the driver disks, we have to pay to produce those, " ... "  but when you think about all the other elements that have to be amortized, you begin to see why "handling" really pays for more than stuffing it in the box."

This is a clear admission that the $17.03 has been used to cover more than 'shipping and handling'. So even your current marketing is misleading. Can you break down how much of the $17.03 was used for shipping and handling and how much was for other costs?

I can assure you that had you given me the option of paying a reasonable shipping fee for windows 7 with no lenovo driver disk included I would have been more than happy to download the drivers after installation. I'm certain many other frustrated customers would agree.

You say:

"It seems that we could have minimized some of the ill will if our marketing / sales site had communicated the Win7 itself as being free, but noted that there was a cost associated with shipping it.   We clearly noted this on the registration site, but many customers have indicated that they felt that was after the fact. "

If you had admitted up front that the upgrade could take up to 2 months to arrive and cost $17.03 then I would have either waited until Windows 7 was released and therefore preinstalled on the exact same laptop, or bought one from a competitor that offered free, timely upgrades. 

Put simply your principle competitors were able to deliver on the promise of a free upgrade to windows 7 and did so in a timely fashion. Lenovo's program was a failure. The fair, (and smart from a PR point of view) thing to do now would be to refund the shipping charge and send an apology to every customer who requested an upgrade. 

Thanks kkdeep, 

That's good to know because I've alway had the impression that the Value Line products are not being treated well in this whole process.

The fact that you finally got your update give me hope.

rcw

1. This is a LENOVO offer.   We are LENOVO customers.  That's the name on the boxes.  There should be a single point of responsibility and contact for LENOVO customers and it should be LENOVO personnel manning the phones when things go wrong.  And this helpline should be under a LENOVO manager with the responsibility and power to get things done.  We should not even know that MM exists. 

2.  When Lenovo offers an upgrade program that covers a wide number of models.   Make sure you web registration sites are actually prepared to register all the models and serial numbers that are covered.

Have no special registration instructions for certain models which end up allowing the registration of invalid model numbers.  

3. Make sure registrations cannot be completed until the forms are filled out.   And be clear, give examples of valid model numbers and have a help number clearly reference on the registration webpage.  Make sure it's impossible to register or charge for an order that has invalid order information.   This happened to me. 

4. Lenovo should have an Order Status webpage that works and it should reflect the actual status of the order.   For instance, my order shows a blank model number and has since since my registration in September 1.   I have been told repeatedly by Lenovo and MM personnel that this has been corrected so obviously they are either misinformed or the Order Status page is not updated.

5. DO NOT USE THE UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND EXCUSE.   First, of course, it is obviously unprecedented, there has never been a Windows 7 upgrade before.   But more importantly it's an addmission that Lenovo has sold products and made promises that were unprepared to keep in a professional manner.   How could this demand be a surprise? You manufactored this products and sold them didn't you?    So should we be concerned that you'll be surprised by

a future demand for parts or a higher than expect number of calls to technical support?

(To Whom it May Concern:  Feel free to add to this list)

Thanks for the reply it is refreshing to hear the truth for a change, although now you will have others crying about what they are really paying for. I expected a small upgrade fee and did not believe the cost of another OS was included in the price I paid for the comp, so if the $17 is for the total costs of getting me windows7 for my new comp then so be it. Yes, it would have been nice if that was mentioned up front, so I wouldnt have been surprised with a $17 S&H fee. Given the choice of vista or $17 to ship me windows7 upgrade i would have happily paid the $17...it's just I hate surprises and deception. It's also nice to know that these arent chinese knockoffs, and we will have some documentation (in english), and some kind of support....I've scanned a few posts from people who have gotten theirs and will learn from their posts.

Now please tell me that I can get my full hard drive space back with a clean install of my upgrade and I will be a happy camper....some might like the big red button idea, but I'd much rather have a restore disc for the OS and my backup stuff on an external drive....call me old fashioned, but i like to use all my drive for current programs and put the copies elsewhere.

Thanks once again for not editing me to death, and for being painfully honest.

cont. from rcw list...

Need a support site for those who have concerns about their order. More e-mails with updates on status of delay would've been nice. (After a while of not hearing anything about the upgrade, I had to start searching to find info. Thats what brought me to the forum. The only source of info I could get about the delay!)

Which now brings me to the issue with the forum...It's a FORUM! People should be able to express their views and concerns without being edited or having their messages deleated even though their comments are valid and contain no obsene language.

Finally, shipping should be a bit better. My disks were shipped the 15th of Dec. from 2 states away. It is now the 22nd. Still sitting somewhere and not in my mailbox. (Ideapad Y550 64 bit Win7 upgrade)