Dear ladies and gentlemen, I’m writing you because I’m feeling unfairly treated by the technical support. The last years I’ve been a very satisfied Lenovo customer and always had no problems with all my Thinkpad business devices. Some weeks ago I recognized a display issue on my Thinkpad X200 (which has still a warranty state). The display is beeping when its brightness is dimmed down. Beyond that the display is badly lighted. It’s nearly impossible to work with the notebook in a dark and silent environment in that way. Of course I called the technical support and asked for help. After opening a support request my Thinkpad was fetched by UPS. A few days later a technician called me and told me that they couldn’t find an error on my screen. I repeated my problem and the technician said that he would ask another technician to have another look on my device. I also begged for sending me a mail or calling me before the device is sent back. I’m using Thinkpad business devices for almost 8 years now. I had a lot of those devices and I definitely know how it looks like when your screen has a problem. You can see and hear that something is wrong with the screen – even if you’re not an expert. A few days later UPS brought my Thinkpad back – my screen was not fixed. I called the technical support for a second time and told that I’m feeling tricked for just sending back my Thinkpad. I sent several pictures and another error description regarding the display issue. After a few days the technical support called me and said that UPS will pick up my Thinkpad for a second time. UPS came and picked it up. Yesterday I got my Thinkpad back – my screen wasn’t fixed again. That morning I called the technical support (0800 / 5004618) again and asked for a manager or a boss to talk to. An employee told me that there is no manager or a boss. The employee also didn’t wan’t to give me a dedicated phone number or mail address for the complaint department. I find it hard to imagine that there is no one that I can talk to. I’m feeling unfairly treated by the technical support and don’t want to be treated for yet another time. Lenovo would be the first company without complaint department I’ve ever dealt with. After using Google for 5 minutes I found the following mail addresses for complaint management: • CMT_West@lenovo.com • CMT_UK@lenovo.com • CMT_Germany@lenovo.com Why didn’t the employee give me these addresses? Why did I have to look for them on my own? I can’t understand why the employee lied to me. It’s unbelievable that no one wants to help my with my display issue. Working with my Thinkpad is nearly impossible with the annoying issue. Please, Lenovo – help me. I just want that my broken screen is being fixed. I payed for a professional enterprise product and just want to be handled fair and professional.

Hello, as requested by phone today I send you two additional pictures of the display issue while running BIOS. I also recorded the squeaking sound which can be heard when the display is completely dimmed down. I really hope you finally got everything you need for repairing my screeen. As you know I’ve reported that issue nearly two months ago (20.08.2012). You sent my Thinkpad back without reparing it twice. The first ticket had the number XXX – the last one XXX. Regards, Christian Stankowic.

Hello, I just wanted to know what’s the current status of my issue (XXXXXX)? 9 days ago I wrote you a mail with all the details you needed – got no reply so far..

Hello Lenovo, I wrote a mail to the compliant management team a month ago (17th September 2012), because my Thinkpad X200 was sent back twice without being repaired. The device has a squeaking and badly lighted display. It is nearly impossible to work with this issue. Since the case was raised on 20th August 2012 the issue was not fixed. I’ve been a very satisfied Lenovo customer – but this has changed now. I will consider my next notebook’s brand more carefully. There are plenty of other manufacturers who know how to satisfy their customers. Lenovo tried to reach me on 15th October 2012. Since that day nobody has tried to contact me again – neither via phone nor via eMail. I work for first and second level support, too. One of our company‘s rules is to inform our customers about everything we do to fix their issue. Lenovo seems to have other rules – it takes days to be called again in case of that a customer doesn’t answer calls. I never got a mail regarding the progress of my request before I opened a complaint case. Since I opened a complaint case I have to answer questions I have answered twice before. Why do I have to do this? Is Lenovo the first company which doesn’t use ticket systems for customer requests? It looks like nothing had happened since my first request in September 2012. I’m maintaining a blog with a notable amount of readers per day – I’m sure they will be really interested in how Lenovo deals with their customers.

Einige Stunden später habe ich eine Mail erhalten, in der man mir mitteilt, dass ein Beschwerdenfall für mich eröffnet würde (der wievielte jetzt?). Die Kollegen vom Beschwerdenteam werden sich mit mir in Kontakt setzen, sagte man mir – ich bin gespannt wie ein Flitzebogen… Abends veröffentlichte ich diesen Blog-Artikel und promotete ihn auf Twitter:

Neuer Blog-Artikel: “Lenovo – those who do crappy support” http://st-devel.net/lcsde #blog #lenovo #thinkpad #fail @lenovode @LenovoSupport

Dear Mr. Stankowic, Please be informed that our Call centre should contact you in order to proceed with repair of the PC. Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions

Hello Mr.XXX, today someone the call centre tried two times to call me. It was impossible for me to answer the call because my mobile phone only rang once. That also happened a plenty of times before – nobody can answer the phone if your employees only wait a few seconds before hanging up.. Please give me a call – and a chance to answer the phone.

Hello, Someone from the call center gave me a call today and informed me that my notebook shall be picked up by UPS again. During the call we discovered that my mail address in your database is incorrect. Please correct my mail address for the opened tickets (especially XXXXXX) to: info (at) stankowic (hypen) development (dot) net The support also told me that they would send me a mail with a UPS link for arranging the pick up. I got no mail so far – maybe it’s again the wrong mail address? Please have a look at this.

Hello Mr. Stankowic, I have informed the call center. They will resend you this link again.

Einige Stunden später konnte ich die Abholung für den nächsten Tag über UPS buchen.

Geraet ist im Reparaturzentrum angekommen. Reparatur wurde gestartet.

Reparatur in Bearbeitung. Kontaktieren Sie bitte den Kundendienst.

Die englische Version der Trackingseite verrät aber etwas grundlegend anderes:

Repair On Hold – Contact Call Center

“In Progress” und “On Hold” sind zwei verschiedene Dinge – ich schreibe also eine E-Mail an Lenovo:

Hello Mr. XXX, I just had a look in the Lenovo Repair Tracking System which said that I shall contact the customer support: “Reparatur in Bearbeitung. Kontaktieren Sie bitte den Kundendienst.” What is the current state of the repair? Is the screen beeing fixed? Best regards.

Hello Mr. XXX, today I got a call from the Lenovo call center. I was asked to send a problem report for yet another time. I did this a plenty of times before and I’m not willing to do this for yet another time. The employee told me that he would forward my last problem report to the ticket. I asked if it’s possible that the technician (who checks my X200) calls me DIRECTLY. She said this is not possible. Above all the employee said she sent me a few mails – I got no mails so far. This means my mail address hasn’t been updated – I requested that in my last mail to you. I’ve been waiting for more than 2 months for Lenovo to repair my notebook – it has been picked by UPS three times. Is it that difficult to replace a broken display? It’s a STUPID 70 USD spare part! I’m sure the pick-ups by UPS more expensive than simply replacing my notebook in the first request. I’m more than crossed about how bad the Lenovo support does his job. As you might have seen I’m writing about this ridiculous story on my online blog and on Twitter – it seems that Lenovo is not interested in making their customers happy (at least for their image). It would have been much easier for me to do this on my own – I paid a lot of money for a business device and got absolutely crappy support. I’m not willing to wait for additional 2 months for repairing a expensive “business” product. So – PLEASE repair my notebook FINALLY or give me the money for the spare part that I can do this on my own..

Später erhalte ich eine Antwort von Lenovo:

Hello Mr. Stankowic, Firstly I want to apologize for the inconveniences caused to you. I am checking with the call center what is causing the issue. They have been informed about your corrected email address. I would like to offer you warranty extension of 2 Months for the time loss you have had. Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions Thank you

Ich antworte:

Hello Mr. XXX, I’d like to wait until my notebook has been finally fixed before upgrading my warranty. I’m waiting more than two months by now and I’m sure that it will still take a few additional weeks. After that my warranty could be upgraded to the time frame I’ve waited (so the additional warranty depends on the service). What is the current state of my reparation? Nobody can tell me – neither the call center employees nor the reparation tracking.

Reparatur durchgefuehrt – Geraet befindet sich auf dem Rueckweg zum Kunden

Später erhalte ich eine UPS-Trackingnummer. Ich werde mir das Gerät genau anschauen, wenn es hier ist…

Hello Mr. XXX, the notebook arrived – but the issue is still the same. What’s next?

Dear Mr. Stankowic, Could you please provide Invoice for the PC – I will request replacement approval from our higher management. I apologize for such inconveniences. Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions Thank you and wishing you a nice day

Meine Antwort:

Hello Mr. XXX, I bought this notebook used from a private person. Unfortunately I got no invoice for the notebook – only the Lenovo serial number which shows that the device is in warranty. Regards from germany.

Antwort von Lenovo:

Hello dear, Could you please provide picture of Serial Number on the back of your machine? Thank you

Ich sende das Bild zu.

Hello, I just wanted to ask if you got my last mail with the requested picture? What is the current progress state of my issue? Regards, Christian Stankowic.

Später erhalte ich eine Antwort:

Hello Mr. Stankowic, I have received the picture. As soon as I receive replacement approval from higher management I will request from our service partner MKCL to proceed further. Could you please confirm your collecting and delivering address? Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions Thank you and wishing you a nice day

Ich antworte:

Hello, it is the best to send to my business address like we did before: … Regards

Hello Mr.XXX, what is the current state of the replacement? You know – I’m waiting since august by now which is NOT acceptable..

Später erhalte ich gleich zwei Mails – eine von Lenovo…

Dear Mr, Stankowic, Please be informed that our service partner MKCL should contact you shortly. They will set collection before they will proceed with replacement machine. Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions Thank you and wishing you a nice day

…und eine von MKCL:

Sehr geehrter Herr Christian Stankowic, die MKCL Deutschland GmbH ist von Lenovo als Dienstleister damit beauftragt worden, sich um die Abwicklung Ihres defekten Lenovo Gerätes zu kümmern. Wir werden Sie in Kürze kontaktieren, um den weiteren Ablauf mit Ihnen zu besprechen.

• Mattes 12.5″ LED-Display mit 1366×768 Pixel und 200 nits
• Intel Core i5-3320M (Ivy Bit.. äh Bridge) Dual Core-Prozessor (4 Threads)
• 4 GB DDR3 Arbeitsspeicher (16 GB möglich)
• n-Draft WLAN und Bluetooth 4.0
• SSD bzw. WWAN nachrüstbar
• Fingerprint und USB 3.0
• Nicht beleuchtete Tastatur, UltraNav und ThinkLight
• 6 Zellen Akku
• vorinstalliertes Windows 8 x64 (*schluck*)

Da muss ich natürlich nicht lange überlegen und sage zu. 🙂 Später erhalte ich eine Abholungsinformation von DHL – morgen wird das defekte Gerät abgeholt. Hoffentlich wird das Gerät nicht verschrottet – wäre sehr schade, da eigentlich nur ein 50 EUR-Bauteil defekt ist.