Lenovo is Setting The Table

At Fred wilson's suggestion, I just finished reading Danny Meyer's Setting The Table, a wonderful book about his management philosophy in creating a number of New York's great restaurants, including Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and the Shake Shack.  Since my office was on the Gramercy Tavern block, I have had many a tasty lunch there.  The book is really about the difference between service and hospitality, and building a culture that engenders good will with employees, customers, the community and investors. Done right, as he has, it leads to a virtuous circle.

I arrived here at CES Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, and realized soon after that I had left my Lenovo T60 power supply at home.  I love the T60, and kept trying to figure out how I could live for 2 days without it. The Blackberry would show me some of my email, but it would be hard to get my thrice daily crossword puzzle fix, and even harder to blog about CES.  Since the T60 supply has a different connector than the old IBM T and X series, none of my colleagues power supplies had cables that would fit.  I looked in the CES directory to see where the Lenovo booth was, and, to my surprise, there was none.  They had decided not to exhibit.

In this funk, I attended the ShowStopper event, a non-sanctioned, but fun party where sixty or so companies each have a 2 foot long table to show their wares to the media.  There is of course, free flowing drinks and food as well.  Right there on the left was a small Lenovo display.  So I went over and asked if I could plug my machine into one of their supplies to at least get some power.  Without hesitation, the Lenovo representative said, "Wait one minute, maybe we can do better." an almost exact quote from the Danny Meyer method of dealing with customer issues.  She returned a minute later and handed me a power supply with a smile, "glad you're a loyal customer."  I have been, and certainly will continue to be. Any company that has its staff focused on great customer experience deserves my business, and yours.

Comments

[Dharmesh Shah]

I've been a loyal Thinkpad user for over a decade.

One of the few times I've been disappointed is when they changed the connector for the power supply on the T60. This is the first time this has happened in years. In the past, it's been really easy borrowing a power supply from one of my colleagues as all of the Thinkpads used the same power adapter.

Having said that, it's good to see the Lenovo is continuing the tradition of Thinkpad.

[Eyal Magen]

I'm in love with my X60 too. However, I was recently preached by Michael that Lenovo is now the Satan (link bellow).

He didn't convert me so far and I was delighted to read about this positive expereince.

http://sixkidsandafulltimejob.blogspot.com/2006/08/no-no-lenovo-bring-back-big-blue.html

[Joseph Kim]

You couldn't be more wrong about Lenovo. Since the handover from IBM Lenovo service has been horrible. Your single, anecdotal experience does not generalize to the actual significant freefall in customer service that Lenovo now has. Trust me I know as an IBM Thinkpad customer since 1999.

Try calling Lenovo customer service for software support of T60... what you will find is that it doesn't exist. They will not support any problems with software including any Windows XP related problems (they will pass you over to Microsoft and Microsoft will pass you back to them). I've called Lenovo like 10 times and have found numerous problems with their customer service. First of all, if you try to get software support you are automatically re-routed to their hardware support in Atlanta. They are completley clueless about any software issues, their records are completely inaccurate (they told me my warranty expired despite the fact that i bought a brand new t60p 2 months ago), they keep re-routing you to other people who re-route you back to the original person, and when they can't figure out the solution they say, "sorry we don't know how to solve your problem you should try to google the solution."

I will never buy a thinkpad again. From what I hear the company to watch now is Acer not Lenovo. Another company I can now recommend is Dell, I believe for a time they outsourced to India and customer service was pretty bad, but from recent experience I've had excellent experiences with them. Too bad their laptops Lenovo sucks and, despite your claim, doesn't know the first thing about customer service.

-jjk

[john]

I love that quote "maybe we can do better"

i had a prob w/ my x41, submitted a request for help on xmas day, and got a call back that eve by a smart, interested support rep. Was really really impressive

[Charlie Crystle]

awesome! I love my T60, but i loved the old power supply ubiquity

[Tom Beck]

I recently ordered a brand new T60P from Lenovo which was my dream computer I had waited for for years. I initially ordered and patiently waited, and waited, and waited.
So I called to find out my shipment had been seized by customs. I ordered on May the 11 only to get it on the 28.
Well I was happy and finally got it only to discover my sound card had issues. After several calls and driver reinstalls (with IBM) they sent me recovery discs to reinstall, they were the wrong discs and they ruined the image of the hard drive preventing a factory reformat. So I called back and they want me to send my brand new computer in to reinstall a refurbished mother board. I said Im not sending in my brand new computer to get tore apart. IBM told me I have to call Lenovo for an approval for an exchange so I did. Lenovo informed me I am past my 21 days(I was on my 23 when I called) for a return so they would request it but it probably wasnt going to happen. I informed them that customer service had pushed back my return time and caused all the issues but they said all they could do was document it. Any way the moral is stick with the companies you trust. Lenovo has lost a new customer.

[Tom Beck]

Sorry I forgot my email address if anyone wanted to respond to my comments above.

[Tom Beck]

Sorry I forgot my email address if anyone wanted to respond to my comments above.

[Mark]

I am a hugely loyal ThinkPad customer. But, I've had a couple of experiences that have disappointed me, too. I travel alot and work out of multiple offices so I sometimes have Howard's powercord problem. My answer is to purchase multiple cords and leave them in the places I normally visit (along with a usb cord for my bberry and a powercord for my electric razor -- TMI, I know). My disappointments are twofold: 1) Lenovo changed the power cord so I had to buy 5 new ones when I bought my T60 2) I ordered two new T60s (one for each home) from the Lenovo website. The website is nearly unusable. Despite the fact that I work in technology and have owned about 20 ThinkPads in my career, I accidentally ordered the widescreen version (it wasn't clearly noted on the website when I ordered, there were no images of what I was buying nor a comparison of screen shapes and sizes). When they arrived, I opened the box and figured out I had ordered the wrong one. So, I called Lenovo and was told there was a restocking fee for the one I had opened. I argued with them but they didn't budge. So, I put a fedex label on the box and sent them back. I called a week later to confirm receipt and ensure my credit card was credited for the return and they told me they hadn't received them. I called Fedex and they couldn't confirm delivery and weren't sure where they were. I had to make more than a dozen calls to Fedex before I reached someone in the appropriate tracing department who could help me. Her first question was whether I put a declared value on the package. In my haste I hadn't. That was a $5,000 dollar mistake in the making. But I figured I'd paid on my Amex card so I would have purchase protection. Then I read the fine print. Guess what? Not covered...the items were in the hands of a third party shipper. After much back and forth, the Fedex tracing person said she knew that Lenovo facility and they had problems before where Lenovo received the packages but didn't make note of it. She figured this had happened in my case. She called Lenovo. A day later I was notified the packages were received by Lenovo. $5K mistake averted -- but I still had to pay the restocking fee. I still need two laptops and I want them to be ThinkPads. Maybe I will try CDW or another provider. I think Lenovo is going down hill. Its disappointing.

[Duane]

We really wanted to love our new Thinkpad x60 but it was defective right out the box. Always-on pixel lighting up the screen in very noticeable place and a defective keyboard; a flap keeps getting stuck in the up position under the enter key and the shift keys don't work about 70% of the time.

Lenova doesn't care about the defective display they sold us. Their solution for the keyboard is to send us a new one and we have to take apart the laptop to replace it.

We haven't had the thing 20 days yet so we are returning it for a refund.

Not a full refund of course. They are charging us a $240 restocking fee.

I can't tell you how disgusted I am with Lenova right now. Hopefully my credit card will pick up where Lenova failed.

[Jason]

lenovo - bad purchase experience with unstable thinkpad x61s and bad customer service. i just brought this brand new X61s, and i was very disappointed. first i had to wait 5 weeks before lenovo can ship it since it was out of stock. once it arrived, it kept crashing on me, i literally had to reboot couple of times a day. i tried calling lenovo for support, it took forever to get thru to someone live, and they were not much help. this is very disappointing since i paid about USD1800 for it and it would even freeze on me every 2 minutes whenever i use msn messenger. they have also shorten the warrantee from 3 years to 1 year, so now i am stuck with it. i will never buy from lenovo/ibm ever again! you just lost a loyal customer !

[Matt Richter]

Wow! You sure forgot your statistics. One story does not data make! I just got a new X61s.... Used the update util, and on a laptop 4 days old Lenovo is saying it needs 572 megs of upgrades to BIOS, drivers and Lenovo installed software. It gets worse.... They placed a hold for the purchase price when my order was placed, and then billed my card when the order was shipped. Fine and dandy. But they didn't release the hold. Called the Lenovo 800 or 877 number. The people there can't do anything about it, they send an e-mail to the credit card division to release the hold. And give me the direct number I'm going to be transferred to, and transfer me... I get an answering machine. Leave a message. What's funny is the out going message says the hours of operation, but not the time zone those hours are pegged to.... Anyway... I leave a message. No return call. No action on the e-mail the customer service line sent. Over the 24 hour response time they promise later, I call the 877 number again! 1 hour 24 minuts on hold! Then I get someone who listens to my issue, finds a DIFFERENT number to call with some transaction identifier, and tells me to call. Now I'm on hold once again..... And to make matters worse, there is no time estimator for how long I'll be in hold limbo....

That's setting the table for you! Setting the table for less and less customers. I'm glad you had a good experience. I'm sure that if I could figure out how to get in touch with a human that could actually do something, I'd get some resolutioin... But I can't seem to figure out how..

I've been on hold for Lenovo for so long that I just had to change wireless phones! The battery on the first one had drained.

Matt

[tatianahunt download]

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Thanks
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[blu]

Ive had a very very bad experience with Leveno -- Too long to explain. I'm looking for a place I can report them to -- some kind of Government agency. This is too much!!

[Sergey Chizhevskiy]

I have very bad experience with Lenovo customer service. My problems began when I decided to order online their new flagman W700ds (4080USD). After paying by wire transfer, order's conditions were suddenly changed - order shipping method was downgraded from "2 bussines days" to "standard", and orders total changed from 4080 to 4070. In tries to understand what's happens I wrote several emails and with huge delays I got incredible answer - "The amount was different as the charge for shipping was removed". I called them and got even more interesting information - my order was on hold by unknown reason al the time, but now they will "speed it up" and I'll get my laptop after 2o bussines days (instead of 11 business day as stated at their site). I have checked my order status and found that estimated delivery is 04/09/09 (order's date is 02/18/09). I am very disappoined. The only choice is to find a way to cancel the order...

After IBM sold their bussines to the new owners, quality of everything - support, customer service and products by itself, were lost. Before the issue I was really a fun of ibm/lenovo, but now I know - never again!!!

[Bridgette]

I just had a very bad customer service with lenovo. I have always bought IBM laptops, their customer service is horrible!

[Fernando]

Thanks for the information!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anna Mari]

Since mankind has declared: "Bread and circuses!" - We endlessly seek and often, both. Catering (since its inception and to this day) remains prosperous and is within close attention to start-ups. Many people are trying to open her own restaurant, cafe or a small area at the food court. But how justified is a bet on a person's need to receive food? It is clear that the "bread of any open mouth, just like to draw attention on your" bakery ". You can find solve this problem the book Danny Meyer's Setting The Table, a wonderful book about his management philosophy in creating a number of New York's great restaurants, including Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and the Shake Shack ( this book, you can download here )

[refurbished computers]

Lenovo doesn't care about the defective display they sold us. Their solution for the keyboard is to send us a new one and we have to take apart the laptop to replace it.

[Ernesto Reyes]

Lenovo had made himself a name in this industry. So probably most users had a great experience too! Even from its name before, the IBM is the brand that competes well over the other.