glog

I awoke today to find that my Lenovo 3000 n100 (model number: 0768) was not working on battery power. I figured that strange because the computer was only just over 1 year old and had a retail sticker of about $1300 when I purchased it from my favorite online retailer.

 Well, I have had my fair share of issues with electronics in the past and generally have had excellent results in getting the problem resolved. That is not the case with Lenovo…

 I decided to do some searching to see if perhaps my battery was part of their recent Lenovo battery recall

Drat! No such luck. My battery was not covered. So I decided to call up customer service to see what could be done. I explained to them that I had purchased the computer in September of 2006 to which I was told that that was not true, and that I had actually purchased in in June of 2006. “WOW!” I thought, “Big brother is watching me, and I must really have a bad memory!”

So, I went to my favorite online retailer and looked at my order history. Sure enough, I in fact bought it on September 7th 2006. So I called customer service again to see where the discrepancy was.  They again told me reassuringly that I was crazy and had in fact made the purchase in June. To make a somewhat long story short, the question was finally asked, “Did you purchase this product from a retailer?” To which, the answer was “Yes, I did not buy it direct from Lenovo.” The subsequent reply from Lenovo was to the tune of, “Well, too bad but the warranty only extends from the date that the retailer has purchased the product.”

SAY WHAT?!?

That is correct folks, if you buy your Lenovo product from a retailer, your warranty is not worth the paper it is written on. It only extends from the date that the retailer bought the product from Lenovo. I had never heard of anything so ludicrous until today.

Later I found there is a way around this, and all one needs to do is provide a copy of the invoice from the retailer and they will supposedly honor their warranty, though, this is untested.

The Problem?
My laptop only came with a 1 year warranty. Seeing as it is October 10th 2007 (exactly one year + 1 month and 3 days since the order date) that I was no longer covered under warranty, and that even if I had my invoice, there was nothing they could do for me.

 I buy lots and LOTS of computers, have warrantied LOTS of computers and computer parts, as well as miscellaneous other electronic devices and have never been shut down on returning something that was slightly out of warranty. 33 days out of warranty and they refused to even offer any compensation of any kind. No coupons, no “Sorry about your situation,” nada.  I am also a business owner and I know the value of good customer service, even if it is at the Company’s expense and we often have to make good for something that is not directly our fault, and even sometimes outside of our Terms of Service or customer contracts. Responsible businesses know the value of happy customers and the best ones will do anything they can to keep them as customers.

Case in point:
I just returned a Sony Vaio the other day which was over a year old, and coincidentally, a Sony camera which was over 3 years old, which both were repaired free of charge, and returned in less than 2 week on each item.

The icing on the cake:
When I asked if i could send it back to them for repair, they said “It wasn’t possible” and that I would have to find a computer repair shop to repair the device, to which I promptly responded with “Thank you, you have been very helpful” and we ended the wasting each other’s time. It is sometimes hard not to scream at the person on the other end of the line, but it wasn’t her fault I suppose. I still have a hard time believing I can’t send my product to them for repair. Why would they turn down an additional revenue stream? Madness.

Summary:
I won’t be buying any Lenovo products ever again, and I hope you strongly consider their ridiculous warranty policy before you make the purchase. Remember, if you don’t keep your receipt or invoice for 365 days or longer you will be forced to use the date that your retailer purchased the product. In my case this would have taken 3 full months off of my “valuable” 1 year warranty.

What a crock. Or is it crook?