My Lenovo Lemon. Edit: Now Replaced Free

manveet · 22nd March 2009, 18:10

Due to MAJOR issues being faced with my Lenovo Laptop and the fact that folk at the Company simply aren’t helping me, I am penning my experience here. Even if it doesn't help me, I hope this thread will give people on this Forum an idea about Lenovo Product Quality, and the Customer Support that they offer.

I bought a Lenovo Y410 Laptop on 15th December 2007 (15 months ago). Till August 08, I was working in an IT Services firm that had provided me with an HP Laptop, because of which the Lenovo was hardly used – say about 2-3 hrs a week.

After I quit this IT Company in August to join the family Business, the Lenovo became my primary Laptop and has given me the following problems since then:

25th July : Optical Disk Drive (ODD) malfunctioning.

2nd August : Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Crashes
ODD replaced (1).
HDD replaced.

22nd October : ODD malfunctioning
ODD replaced (2).
I purchase Extended Warranty

3rd December : Keyboard Malfunctions
Keys removed and re-fixed.

6th January : ODD malfunctioning.
ODD replaced (3).

9th February : ODD malfunctioning.
ODD replaced (4).

15th February : Microphone not working
22nd February : Touchpad Not working
Touchpad Replaced. Still not working.
Microphone replaced. Still not working.
Touchpad Replaced again, now OS also reinstalled. Touchpad working.
Microphone replaced, still NOT working.

6th March : ODD malfunctioning.
ODD replaced (5). Problem Solved.

So, basically my ODD has been replaced 5 times in the past 8 months, and 3 times in the past 3 months. My microphone is STILL not working.

Apart from this my Laptop hangs every other day, there is a blue screen with the following message, which forces me to do a hard reboot.

My Lenovo Lemon. Edit: Now Replaced Free-imag0164.jpg

The case has been escalated to Lenovo Care, and they have now stopped responding to my emails. I got a Feedback Form in my email from their Senior-VP, Customer Support – in which I gave VERY strong negative Feedback, but still nothing is happening.

I am asking for the Laptop to be replaced as problems were taking place in August itself, well within the warranty period. I bought the Onsite Extended Warranty BECAUSE I was facing problems in the first place. It is extremely inconvenient to call the Engineer every month for replacing the ODD. They just formatted my machine to get the Touchpad to work and now they want to format not only the OS, but other drives as well, so that they can get the Microphone to work !!!

I have now stopped using the Laptop for professional work due to its unpredictability and instability. I have purchased a Desktop for official use and the Lenovo Laptop is mostly lying at home.

What can I do so that someone from Lenovo listens to me and I get fairly compensated for the pain and inconvenience their Product Quality is causing me?

SirAlec · 22nd March 2009, 18:36

this time sadly its your ram.

Buy a transcend ram. which is quite cheaper now.

I did warned before about hp and lenovo. didn't i.

Thad E Ginathom · 22nd March 2009, 19:28

Sorry to hear about your laptop woes. I was going to look at Lenovo when our Compaq died recently.

The compaq has a new lease of life, thanks to an independent repair company (Compaq's own agency said it was irreparable and a new motherboard would cost more than a new laptop) but once something starts to fail...

motorheadinc · 22nd March 2009, 19:43

This is what I had always feared when IBM sold their consumer PC division to Lenovo.
Consumer Online Resources & Empowerment Centre Register a complaint. I have heard that the consumer forum is doing a good job. Remember "Jago Grahak Jago" adverts on TV

cooldude1988765 · 22nd March 2009, 19:58

The 3000 series laptops can never live up to the reputation of the thikpads. My friend's laptop also had problems from day 1.

manveet · 23rd March 2009, 01:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooldude1988765

The 3000 series laptops can never live up to the reputation of the thikpads. My friend's laptop also had problems from day 1.

You can say that again. Those Thinkpads were workhorses, not a single problem - and I never felt the need for an extended warranty.

Between my Dad and I, we have used 3 Thinkpads in the last 6-7 years. He moved to the Sony Vaio 12" Laptop 2 years ago and I moved to Lenovo.

In case of the Lenovo, I paid for the extended warranty because of the problems that started during warranty. Add to that, I've already bought a Desktop simply because I'm sick of the Lenovo within a year.

I've had 3 ODD replacements in 3 months, and I use the ODD like once in 20-25 days!!!

manveet · 23rd March 2009, 01:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by motorheadinc

This is what I had always feared when IBM sold their consumer PC division to Lenovo.
Consumer Online Resources & Empowerment Centre Register a complaint. I have heard that the consumer forum is doing a good job. Remember "Jago Grahak Jago" adverts on TV

Thanks, I just had a preliminary look at this. I'll definitely register a complaint there tomorrow itself.

sids911 · 23rd March 2009, 01:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by manveet

You can say that again. Those Thinkpads were workhorses, not a single problem - and I never felt the need for an extended warranty.

Between my Dad and I, we have used 3 Thinkpads in the last 6-7 years. He moved to the Sony Vaio 12" Laptop 2 years ago and I moved to Lenovo.

I am surprised. Any reason why you dint choose a "Lenovo" Thinkpad when u planned for a lenovo?

I am using a Lenovo T61 since a year and zilch issues till now!

Bass&Trouble · 23rd March 2009, 12:14

Thats the most troubles I've ever seen anyone have with a 15 month old notebook. I used to think Lenovo is reliable too. A friend has a 4 year old Thinkpad thats still going strong.

GTO · 23rd March 2009, 12:31

Quote:

I am using a Lenovo T61 since a year and zilch issues till now!

Ditto. I have a T61, R61 and about 30 Lenovo desktops in the office. I can vouch for their robustness; they really can take a lot of abuse and yet perform flawlessly. However, official Lenovo support is terrible (not a patch on Dell).

Manveet : Sorry to hear about your experience. Seems to be you got a lemon. Better you find an after-market specialist.

navin · 23rd March 2009, 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

A friend has a 4 year old Thinkpad thats still going strong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Ditto. I have a T61, R61 and about 30 Lenovo desktops in the office.

I use a T41p and a X61 with 2GB of RAM. The T41p is about 4 years old and the X61 almost 2. no trouble expect for the fact that they do get slower as time goes on.

Vid6639 · 23rd March 2009, 12:50

You guys are using the Thinkpad versions I think. Manveet is using the Y-410 which is a non-thinkpad one and are nowhere near as good.

Sam Kapasi · 23rd March 2009, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Ditto. I have a T61, R61 and about 30 Lenovo desktops in the office.

In our office we have 6 or 7 Lenovo laptops and about 3 Lenovo Desktops. Honestly, we've never needed service or repair until a few weeks ago when one of them had a failed optical drive.

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience - but I have always believed Lenovo computer products are fairly robust.

manveet · 23rd March 2009, 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Ditto. I have a T61, R61 and about 30 Lenovo desktops in the office. I can vouch for their robustness; they really can take a lot of abuse and yet perform flawlessly. (not a patch on Dell).

Quote:

Originally Posted by navin

I use a T41p and a X61 with 2GB of RAM. The T41p is about 4 years old and the X61 almost 2. no trouble expect for the fact that they do get slower as time goes on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

In our office we have 6 or 7 Lenovo laptops and about 3 Lenovo Desktops. Honestly, we've never needed service or repair until a few weeks ago when one of them had a failed optical drive.

Are you guys using the Thinkpad's or non-Thinkpads?

Even I am kind of shocked, one never expects these things to happen with a reputed brand like Lenovo. I mean, if they got so big they must be having a good product at the very least. But what is exasperating is the sheer callousness with which they are ignoring my emails and feedback forms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Manveet : Sorry to hear about your experience. Seems to be you got a lemon. Better you find an after-market specialist.

After-market specialists are not a problem, especially since my office is in Nehru Place. But the point is that why should I spend on extended warranty AND still have to bear the brunt - there is a huge opportunity cost attached to the time it takes to log complaints, entertain the service engineer, send my laptop for formatting, etc. This used to be my primary Laptop, not just another desktop in the office!

Heck, I went in for Onsite warranty (instead of Carry-in) despite the fact that my office is a 2 min walk, and home a 7 minute walk from their service centre!!

And what do you say to the fact that my Microphone is STILL not working and the Customer Service guys refuse to respond.

By evening, I'll post my emails to them along with their reply's, and a picture of the Service Order's that I have filed with me - the sheer no. is crazy.

manveet · 23rd March 2009, 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by sids911

I am surprised. Any reason why you dint choose a "Lenovo" Thinkpad when u planned for a lenovo?

I had used 3 ThinkPads prior to this and gotten slightly bored with the black color and plain design. At the time I went i for the Y410, I really didn't think that there was much difference in a Lenovo "Thinkpad" and "regular" Lenovo.

I mean, now that they were both Lenovo's, I expected the same reliability that I was used to with my IBM Thinkpad. Guess I was wrong afterall.

:(

22nd March 2009, 18:10	#1
manveet Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: New Delhi Posts: 1,105 Thanked: 898 Times View My Garage	My Lenovo Lemon. Edit: Now Replaced Free Due to MAJOR issues being faced with my Lenovo Laptop and the fact that folk at the Company simply aren’t helping me, I am penning my experience here. Even if it doesn't help me, I hope this thread will give people on this Forum an idea about Lenovo Product Quality, and the Customer Support that they offer. I bought a Lenovo Y410 Laptop on 15th December 2007 (15 months ago). Till August 08, I was working in an IT Services firm that had provided me with an HP Laptop, because of which the Lenovo was hardly used – say about 2-3 hrs a week. After I quit this IT Company in August to join the family Business, the Lenovo became my primary Laptop and has given me the following problems since then: 25th July : Optical Disk Drive (ODD) malfunctioning. 2nd August : Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Crashes ODD replaced (1). HDD replaced. 22nd October : ODD malfunctioning ODD replaced (2). I purchase Extended Warranty 3rd December : Keyboard Malfunctions Keys removed and re-fixed. 6th January : ODD malfunctioning. ODD replaced (3). 9th February : ODD malfunctioning. ODD replaced (4). 15th February : Microphone not working 22nd February : Touchpad Not working Touchpad Replaced. Still not working. Microphone replaced. Still not working. Touchpad Replaced again, now OS also reinstalled. Touchpad working. Microphone replaced, still NOT working. 6th March : ODD malfunctioning. ODD replaced (5). Problem Solved. So, basically my ODD has been replaced 5 times in the past 8 months, and 3 times in the past 3 months. My microphone is STILL not working. Apart from this my Laptop hangs every other day, there is a blue screen with the following message, which forces me to do a hard reboot. The case has been escalated to Lenovo Care, and they have now stopped responding to my emails. I got a Feedback Form in my email from their Senior-VP, Customer Support – in which I gave VERY strong negative Feedback, but still nothing is happening. I am asking for the Laptop to be replaced as problems were taking place in August itself, well within the warranty period. I bought the Onsite Extended Warranty BECAUSE I was facing problems in the first place. It is extremely inconvenient to call the Engineer every month for replacing the ODD. They just formatted my machine to get the Touchpad to work and now they want to format not only the OS, but other drives as well, so that they can get the Microphone to work !!! I have now stopped using the Laptop for professional work due to its unpredictability and instability. I have purchased a Desktop for official use and the Lenovo Laptop is mostly lying at home. What can I do so that someone from Lenovo listens to me and I get fairly compensated for the pain and inconvenience their Product Quality is causing me? Last edited by manveet : 22nd March 2009 at 18:14.
	() Thanks

22nd March 2009, 18:36	#2
SirAlec Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: zxc Posts: 3,395 Thanked: 727 Times	this time sadly its your ram. Buy a transcend ram. which is quite cheaper now. I did warned before about hp and lenovo. didn't i.
	() Thanks

22nd March 2009, 19:28	#3
Thad E Ginathom Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Chennai Posts: 11,443 Thanked: 30,027 Times	Sorry to hear about your laptop woes. I was going to look at Lenovo when our Compaq died recently. The compaq has a new lease of life, thanks to an independent repair company (Compaq's own agency said it was irreparable and a new motherboard would cost more than a new laptop) but once something starts to fail...
	() Thanks

22nd March 2009, 19:43	#4
motorheadinc BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: University of Bath Posts: 296 Thanked: Once	This is what I had always feared when IBM sold their consumer PC division to Lenovo. Consumer Online Resources & Empowerment Centre Register a complaint. I have heard that the consumer forum is doing a good job. Remember "Jago Grahak Jago" adverts on TV
	() Thanks

22nd March 2009, 19:58	#5
cooldude1988765 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,055 Thanked: 222 Times	The 3000 series laptops can never live up to the reputation of the thikpads. My friend's laptop also had problems from day 1.
	() Thanks

23rd March 2009, 12:14	#9
Bass&Trouble Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Bombay Posts: 2,756 Thanked: 137 Times	Thats the most troubles I've ever seen anyone have with a 15 month old notebook. I used to think Lenovo is reliable too. A friend has a 4 year old Thinkpad thats still going strong.
	() Thanks

23rd March 2009, 12:50	#12
Vid6639 Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 17,711 Thanked: 44,147 Times View My Garage	You guys are using the Thinkpad versions I think. Manveet is using the Y-410 which is a non-thinkpad one and are nowhere near as good.
	() Thanks