Bethany’s Lenovo laptop computer is pretty nice. At least, it is when it’s around. It keeps taking extended vacations at Lenovo’s repair depot, to the point that she had to buy another computer in order to get through finals and computerless life in general. After they held on to her machine for three weeks, she finally asked for a refund instead of getting the evidently defective computer back. That’s when they stopped returning her calls.

I became a Lenovo customer in September of last year, when I bought a laptop from them on the basis of positive things I’d heard about their products and customer service. My laptop worked just fine for two or three months, and then in December the power jack became loose and the laptop stopped functioning. I sent it in for repair, got it back quickly, no worries – right?

In February, the same thing happened again. I called tech support and they promised it would be fixed for good this time, or else Lenovo would offer me alternative options. I sent it in and waited almost a month to get it back. Not surprisingly, a few weeks after it was returned to me, the same issue started recurring.

I called Lenovo, requested a replacement, and got my complaint escalated. The guy who dealt with my issue said that it would be fixed properly this time, and within 5-10 days (this was crucial, since I had plans to leave the country for the summer, and I wanted to take my laptop with me). I agreed, sent my laptop back in, and waited.

And waited. Lenovo didn’t bother to contact me to give me any repair updates, I was stressing out with finals (and actually ended up shelling out for a netbook just to get me through them), and once I realised that it had been three weeks since I’d sent the laptop, I shot a quick email to the guy who was handling my case. He responded to say they were waiting on a part and he was going to look into replacing my laptop; since I was planning to leave the US for three months about three days later, I asked him about the possibility of a refund instead of a repair or a replacement.

This is where he stopped responding. I tried calling, tried emailing again, but nada. As far as I’m concerned, this lack of a response was nothing more than a ridiculous delaying tactic, because today, TEN DAYS after I’d asked for a refund, he emailed me to say that my laptop had been repaired and shipped back. He did not bother to respond to any of my actual concerns.

Since I’ve left the country for the summer, and I hate the idea of waiting three months to test out my laptop after a repair, I’m pretty understandably pissed about this. My warranty runs out a month after I get back, and I’m pretty sure that even if something does go wrong, Lenovo will just delay any actual repair till it’s out of warranty. (Had they at least offered me some kind of warranty extension, I would have been pacified.) I think I’ve been pretty reasonable throughout all this, and I’m furious that Lenovo haven’t even bothered responding to my concerns, especially as it looks like I’ll have the use of my laptop for less than six months out of my first year of ownership.

That’s not very nice. In the past, Lenovo has responded well to executive e-mail carpet bombs, and if you used a credit card to purchase the laptop, it may also be worthwhile to check and see what kind of warranty extension protection they provide.

Update: Lenovo got in touch with Brittany, and has replaced her computer. Yay! She writes:

Thanks to the Consumerist story, Lenovo quickly rectified the
situation – they contacted me offering me a full refund on my laptop!
I’m thrilled to get this kind of response so quickly, and I’m very
grateful both to Consumerist for posting the story, and to Lenovo for
being so helpful in the end

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