[Highway_beckons]

I bought a Lenovo laptop in Jan 2013 and have had a miserable experience since.
First, product issues. Pls see attached doc – it’s a bit more than you want. Routinely one new prob after another kept happening.
But what was more difficult was my experience with their support . Pls see attached Support Experience Lenovo doc. This was actually an email I sent to Shashikant Raj, who I am told is their India Support Head. It was an escalation I did after 6 months of struggling, in Dec. You can see what a difficult time I’ve had in those 6 months.
The mail exchange with him and others, since Dec, is attached. At that point, in Dec, what was outstanding was the erratic touchpad issue, outstanding since Aug. And, Issues 4 a, b, & c. in attached Product Issues doc.
On the latter, I queried their folks several times since Oct but never never got an answer . Just blatant silence ( You will see in the attached mail the text marked in red). For 4 months!!!
On the former, the faulty touchpad issue, they tried replacing one part after another but the touchpad issue never got solved.
And then one more new problem cropped up – the monitor would go off unless power was connected!!!! - this caused some more frustration which I aired.
The response I got from their India support Head was stunning. Notwithstanding all the bad history, he chose to be brazen, zero on facts, and not at all professional. He says ... (mails attached)

[COLOR=#1F497D]“ I have been tracking this open issue from beginning and my team has gone beyond the call of duty to resolve the issue, even though the machine is out of warranty. I just read thru the last three service reports and my engineers have clearly stated that there is no hardware issue at all, and machine is working fine post their repairs. In addition, even for an out of warranty machine we have already replaced the touch pad & motherboard and issue got fixed. The re-occurrence of issue is primarily due to applications and softwares you run, and even my technical expert last time had resolved similar issue by upgrading drivers. Let me know a good time and I will surely have my technical team reach out to you. If not, I would request if I can get the machine picked up from your place and bring it to my lab for repair.[/COLOR][COLOR=#1F497D] “[/COLOR]

1. The touchpad issue was raised about last August, well before warranty ended in Dec. They couldn’t solve it till date, meanwhile the warranty has expired. And he prefers to claim “we are still supporting you despite warranty expiry”!!!
2. After each attempted fix, I have been emailing him that the problem persists ( see numerous instances in attached mails) and they attempt replacing one part after another (which by itself is fine). But suddenly he claims, the “problem was fixed each time”. I have service reports which tell you the problem persists. (In any case I have to observe the problem for a while before giving my feedback – the service report cannot tell you if the touchpad is fine immediately after a part replacement)
3. His final claim is softwares on the machine are the cause. There’s nothing loaded on it. The touchpad malfunctions even when you’ve just switched on the machine, and just on the desktop ( Windows ‘D’). He’s made the statement without even bothering to check with me or his technicians!


India Lenovo support is disastrous.
And yes, every time a technician is assigned to visit me, the difficulties I have before they are finally done……one such instance is highlighted in the attached mail. what you see there happens every time.
So folks, pls be careful about Lenovo.





Suresh Srinivasan

[hellmet]

Lenovo has horrible, horrible service. My Thinkpad's LCD died within 11 months and it was replaced in warranty (new panel developed dead pixels pretty soon). At that point I purchased additional protection for 2 years but the sales rep sold me some useless cover that covered me for one month for $95. When the motherboard died a few months later (18months old laptop), I sought to use this cover which is when I discovered I was sold bull. After tens of emails exchanged between Lenovo India and USA, I got this in reply, which is not very different from what you received, @OP:

Please help me understand why you are requesting a refund. I'm not seeing any errors made by Lenovo that would justify a refund. There was a $95 purchase for a warranty, and then several months after that warranty had expired Lenovo made an exception to give you a $950 repair at no charge.

^Refund here refers to the $95 "cover" I never got. As you can see, they don't give a rat's behind to the customer. I thought it might have improved but it looks like they're still the same old, same old.

I highly dis-recommend Lenovo to anyone that asks me for laptop suggestions, and believe me, I get a lot of queries being in the IT Admin field. I turn all of them to Dell and suggest they get extended warranty. With Dell, you'll have some peace of mind, although they're also known to make devices that fail often. But with the extended warranty that actually, really works, you're covered.

Lenovo? Never. Ever.

[Trust_In_Thrust]

Dell is great on service front when bought online . I have had great experiences for same. However recently i got a Dell Vostro from a authorised retailer . The service which is excellent when bought from Online is down in dumps when bought from retailer. The issue is the Dell Warranty manager has been showing the warranty of under 100days since i bought it . I have been behind the local sales incharge of dell and retail outlet but they just do not care . It has been over 3months now and warranty is still not updated in system On Calling Dell Online support they just say we can only adhere to what is there in system .
So my advice do not buy from a retailer.

[Turbanator]

Is it a Thinkpad series machine or regular Lenovo stuff , I believe till recent past all Think series were still been served by IBM .

Yes the quality of these including Thinkpad's have taken a hit after Lenovo but they try to do things quickly . I have found its better to give the machine to their service centre than get someone at home / office . These field guys will always have some spare screws after fixing up the things .. To share my experiences - they did replaced - Mother Board & LCD of my X1-Carbon Touch after 2 months of ownership early last year but I had to send machine for 2 weeks to there service centre , they updated me on progress on phone though . I bought an additional 2 Year onsite warranty and recently got keyboard & Power charger changed at home promptly ...

[Highway_beckons]

Thanks Turbanator.

No its Lenovo, not Thinkpad.

[sgiitk]

I must say that I also bought Lenovo with some trepidation. But the Flex2 has been excellent over the three months I have had it. As it turns out now we have three, my son, son-in-law and yours truly.

Only all three have turned off Auto Brightness!

[MaxTorque]

Can someone give an overall idea about these two laptops.

1. Asus X551CA-SX014H Laptop (3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3217U- 4GB RAM- 500GB HDD- 15.6 Inches Screen- Windows 8) (Black with special texture)

2. Asus Versatile Notebook-X551CA-SX014H Series Laptop (3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3217U- 4GB RAM- 500GB HDD- 15.6 Inches Screen- Windows 8- Intel HD Graphics 4000) (Grey)

I am looking for a laptop for personal use (browsing/blogging etc).

[Mpower]

Has anybody had bad experiences with AMD chips? I am finding some great deals on AMD powered Laptops

What is the AMD equivalent of intel i7 & i5.

[sgiitk]

@Mpower; we have used AMD in the past. Excellent but somewhat power hungry!

[ahmad.007]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

Can someone give an overall idea about these two laptops.

1. Asus X551CA-SX014H Laptop (3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3217U- 4GB RAM- 500GB HDD- 15.6 Inches Screen- Windows 8) (Black with special texture)

2. Asus Versatile Notebook-X551CA-SX014H Series Laptop (3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3217U- 4GB RAM- 500GB HDD- 15.6 Inches Screen- Windows 8- Intel HD Graphics 4000) (Grey)

I am looking for a laptop for personal use (browsing/blogging etc).

Both are technically the same. Both have Intel HD 4000 which is a very decent igp for normal use. Go with the one you like more and with a better battery, or whichever is cheaper, your preference.

[ahmad.007]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Has anybody had bad experiences with AMD chips? I am finding some great deals on AMD powered Laptops

What is the AMD equivalent of intel i7 & i5.

No experience. What I know is that AMD processors are not very efficient compared to Intel. On the desktop scenario AMD can compete with Intel, but with higher power consumptions and temperatures. But these don't matter in a PC much. In laptops, if you are getting an A8 or an A10 chip (Amd apu), you can go for it. But A4 & A6 are quite weak. Intel based laptops should be better in battery backup and performance (win-win). If you do not play heavy games or work on heavy softwares you can still go with Amd A10, or A8, if yes, then Intel is definitely the one for you.
There is not really a comparable i5 or i7 AMD equivalent. A10 are equivalent to 2nd/3rd gen i3s, or 1st/2nd gen i5s. A8s are weaker (comparable to core2duos of dektops).
Graphic wise Intel and amd are almost neck to neck, with amd taking slight lead because of a stronger integrated graphic processor.
Can you specify the amd powered laptop you are considering, and the intel competetor? and also the purpose for buying the laptop? I can help you out better then.

[HyperRetard]

Well, I have a Lenovo Z580, which I bought in february 2013.
The specs are third gen i3
500 GB
4 GB RAM
630M.

Now dad wants to buy a new laptop. I was thinking of giving this to him, and buying a new one.

But the issue is that he will not spend anything more than this budget. Is there any laptop which considerably betters the performance offered by my laptop, or should I keep it and get him a cheaper one because all he needs it for is browsing and a bit of MS Word.

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by ahmad.007

Both are technically the same. Both have Intel HD 4000 which is a very decent igp for normal use. Go with the one you like more and with a better battery, or whichever is cheaper, your preference.

Thanks for the reply mate.

[rpads1]

I am also on the lookout for a laptop. Mainly for regular home use, browsing and you tube for the kids , once in a while. Would prefer windows though .
I had bought a Lenovo g570, but built quality is very bad, the monitor hinges broke in 2 months and then the motherboard has gone kaput in 1.5 years.

@ahmad.007 where are you planning to buy them from. I am in Bangalore , and if anyone knows some good shop or online where I can get good deals.

Thanks in advance

[freakmuzik]

Friends,

I'm a student architect and am on the lookout for a new laptop. I'l have to run multiple design software's simultaneously and require something that can handle it well. Budget is upto 80k.

Requirements:

1) i7 processor
2) NVIDIA Graphics card
3) Should be usable for atleast 4 years
4) If the graphics card, etc can be updated, then great

I'm pretty much totally unaware of the brands but have heard Toshiba and Sony to be pretty reliable. Seems Lenovo and Dell has more complaints than the rest. And how about HP? Please suggest something suitable.

Thank you