On Wednesday 11 March 2009 14:38:04 Andrea Levin wrote: > Just an update - I followed the Digest's collective counsel to send my > malfunctioning T60 to EZ Serv rather than use carry-in. > > The problems: only two, and minor. Malfunctioning optical drive (not > showing up in 'My Computer'; uninstalling and rebooting in Device Manager > - no go, removing and replacing, ditto.) And - a little worse than cosmetic > - a strange discoloration / opacity on the LCD bezel near the top of the > screen (LCD itself seems ok). > > The thing made the complete circuit in 48 hours. According to the 'Repair > Action Report', the system board was replaced, ditto the optical drive and > the front bezel. > > Not! > > Bezel is the same bezel, easily recognizable. Optical drive still not > recognized by system (a 'new hardware' message popped up, and sputtered > out. The FRU is dated August 2007; since the T60 itself was purchased in > 2006 - ok, it's a 'different' one, if not a 'new' one. > > Apparently, no one tests to make sure problems are FIXED before sending > back to customer?! > > The kindly and smart EZ Serv customer support person I called agreed that > this is unacceptable, noting that the technicians currently being hired > are, essentially, recent grads of proprietary trade schools who can follow > simple instructions, but cannot execute any repair requiring a moment of > critical thinking. Apparently, they do not check to make sure problems are > resolved before shipping back, and falsify the repair sheets. As for the > system board, he noted that - that's just SOP, a catch-all solution; actual > diagnostics are beyond them. Assuming there was nothing wrong with my > original system board, I'm just hoping that quality of the replacement is > not inferior to what they took out. This 2010, and this is ... the new > Lenovo. > > The customer service rep is sending me an optical drive and an LCD bezel; > I'll take them to an authorized repair place and hope for the best. (I'll > first try installing the drive myself, but I suspect it's something other > than the drive itself or system board.) > > Problem number two: When I purchased this machine in April, 2006, I shelled > out $288 for a 4 year Thinkpad Protection extended warranty with carry-in > service; according to Lenovo, this expires...in 2009. I'm not good at > math, but. The customer service guy said that this happens all the time - > and that what will happen should I need service after April 2009 is that an > 'entitlement' will be requested. > > I apologize for the rant, but - I'm really shocked, shocked. > > Andrea
Like Bruce, my experieces have been mostly positive, with a few glaring exceptions (long time members will remember my Toxic A30p ThinkPad), but mostly very good. The problem is that IBM really does strive to do things quickly, and as you question there are times when I don't think they do actually test things. But the fact that you can talk with someone there and have them say they'll fix it goes a long way, for me. There are other laptop companies I've had the displeasure of dealing with that wern't that interested in making repairs right, and didn't always have parts. I had to find a fan for a friends XXX brand laptop *and send it in* to the repair facility to have them make a repair. Truth is stranger than fiction. My latest journey into Lenovo repairs was field repair here at MSU; The nice person came with parts to repair a bad screen on a T60p. Sadly the replacement inverter came pre-dead, so he had to come back two days later with it and finally all was well. So they didn't get good marks for sending out dead parts, but the repair person was quite good. I'll still take IBM EZ serv over most of the others... --STeve Andre' _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
