RE: Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet Edition review

I have been a user of Tablet PCs since their introduction, and have used several units from several manufacturers. While I've had a couple of problems here and there, the manufacturers have always resolved them. A few months ago, I purchased a totally loaded Lenovo X61. While I really like this unit, I've had a few problems. But most importantly, my customer service experience has been nothing short of a nightmare. Here is a copy of an email I sent to three Lenovo Product Managers earlier today. FYI, if anyone knows of a contact person at Lenovo, I'm still looking for a way to resolve my problems.

Here's a copy of the email I sent Lenovo today:

I am writing to you to express my absolute outrage with Lenovo’s customer service. This entire experience has been a total fiasco of the highest degree. Fortunately, I am a technology consultant and advisor, and am frequently in a position to influence decision-making with some significant companies. While I have had to put up with all this Lenovo crap, I find some solace in the fact that I have now been able to reciprocate your complete lack of customer service by influencing customer orders away from Lenovo for well over 500 laptop PC’s in just the last couple of months. I’ve done this by convincing companies that while Lenovo builds fine product, the customer service is something out of a horror story and will result in huge costs in trying to deal with potential problems. And I will continue to go out of my way to convince everyone that will listen that Lenovo’s fine product combined with their horrible customer service equals an unacceptably costly value proposition.
Below I am outlining my continuing Lenovo saga. I want to emphasize that I fully understand the potential problems that can occur with technology purchases (and in particular with Windows Vista PCs); my outrage is with the complete lack of customer service that Lenovo demonstrates over and over and over again. I cannot believe that in today’s business climate that you folks are still in business with the lack of customer service that you have continued to demonstrate to me.

Here’s a brief recap:

In August just prior to my purchase, I called a Lenovo representative to gain clarification on a couple of items (questions on the DVD drive and the Tablet Sleeve). [As it turns out, the information provided to me was totally false. The DVD drive (which fits in the dock) did not ship with an adapter sleeve to allow its use via USB cable (without the dock) while travelling. Also, the Tablet Sleeve was not a notebook style cover, but rather a total protective enclosure (a product for which I have no use).]

I went on to place an order for the finest Lenovo X61 Tablet PC I could purchase (to the tune of more than $4,200!).

Right after receiving the unit, I immediately began trying to contact Lenovo. I subsequently called over eight phone numbers (beginning with the number provided in the information that shipped with the PC) before I reached a person that could help me. Along the way, I left four voice mails (with my contact information and problem as prompted by the phone system auto attendants), and never once got a return phone call. I also tried to contact Lenovo via the web site, but I could not complete the web form because my PC model number was not listed in the drop-down list.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get to someone to provide me a return authorization for the Tablet Sleeve within the allotted timeframe, so I have now paid for something for which I have no use. Just one cost for a bunch of extra product that doesn’t work.
When I finally got in contact with hardware customer service, I explained that I was experiencing the following problems (and by the way, no one was willing to help me with the problem with my Tablet Sleeve purchase, even though I received inaccurate information from Lenovo prior to my purchase, and couldn’t get a hold of the company to return it within the allotted time despite almost heroic efforts on my part). Here’s a list of the problems I am experiencing:

**Tablet Sleeve not the product described to me

**Fingerprint reader - I have now spent a cumulative total of over 3 hours trying to get this to read my fingerprint, and cannot do this successfully (although I have had no problem with other fingerprint readers from other manufacturers).

**USB port frequently connects devices at USB1 speeds (including three MP3 players and a Sprint Mogul Windows Mobile device - and the Sprint Mogul Windows Mogul device will only successfully sync about 20% of the time).

**Touch screen does not work properly (intermittent problem - will only work for a few seconds in a row). (I have gone through every touch-screen training I can find and have researched this extensively, and I cannot get this to work. FYI, I have had no problems with this feature on Tablet PCs from other manufacturers.)

**Norton Internet Security (pre-installed) has been a nightmare. I think I now have this disabled. Did you folks even test this product with your PC?

**The PC is seldom able to even see the DVD (when docked). I usually need to reboot 2-3 times to get it to even see the DVD drive. I can't get the PC to burn a disk with this drive. If I can get the DVD drive to even work, it almost certainly will not stay working long enough to make it useful. (It took me many, many attempts over two and a half months before I could get the LoJack software I purchased from Lenovo to even install!! So that really represented another Lenovo value, didn’t it??) Also, if I do try to use the DVD player, I am unable to undock the PC - it says the DVD is still in use (even if there is no longer a disc in the drive). (FYI, I'm still totally mad that I called Lenovo prior to purchasing the most expensive DVD drive you make for this PC to ensure I could utilize this DVD drive without the dock via USB while traveling - this has now turned out to be a total rip-off, and you now rank as a dishonest con-artists in my book.)

**The dock will almost never charge the PC. (When the PC is docked, the PC's power outlet is purposefully blocked, intending to get its power from the dock - however, I now can't recharge the PC via the dock. And, given the almost useless nature of this dock, I feel totally ripped off for the purchase of the dock/DVD drive/extra power supply.)

So, I finally got through to hardware customer support, and they gave me a couple of things to check out. I did this, and I called back a few days later. However, they had no record of the fact that I had ever called. So we went through the whole thing again. This time they had me try to do an upgrade to the PC. I did this and called them back a few days later. Guess what? They had no record that I had ever called. So I went through the whole thing again (for the third time) and this time demanded a Case Number. They had to transfer me to someone else to get this information, and I got cut off during the transfer of the call. So I called back again and went through the whole thing again. I did get the Case Number, and they shipped me some recovery DVDs. Unfortunately, I cannot keep the DVD drive running long enough to enable me to attempt to fix this problem. So after months of problems and the purchase of several (what to date have been expensive and totally useless) accessories, I am no further along towards getting resolution.

Along the way of this whole fiasco, I asked for a manager or some other department where I could log an overall customer complaint. I made this request four different times, and four times I received four different phone numbers to call. Of those four numbers, one was disconnected, two had no one answer the phone (although I tried to call several times), and one sent me to some other department that could not help me.

So I guess I will continue month after month of attempts to get my problems resolved. You folks should be ashamed of the way you treat your customers. Maybe I am just a small business and not a large Fortune 500 company, but you should refrain from selling to anyone that you cannot treat properly. Believe me, there are many other options in the marketplace, and my experience with others has always been good. So, rest assured that I will be doing everything I possibly can to influence others to never buy product from a company of such disrepute. I can only hope that others who you treat like this will do the same – maybe together we can put crooks like Lenovo out of business. If not, we’re sure going to make a dent in your business along the way.

Click to read the article this is in response to.