Avoid Lenovo EZserv Depot repair like the plague!

[badLenovo]

Dear potential Lenovo customer,

Please think twice before you buy a Lenovo machine that has basic warranty that requires you as the customer to Carry-In or Mail-In your broken machine for repair/exchange at EZserv depot, a designated service center. Why? They 1) won't contact you for any issue that may delay the repair, 2) do not know what they are doing, and 3) may even send your machine back to you un-repaired, yet claiming (in writing) that there is nothing wrong with the machine and it passed all test.

This is what is happening to me now. I have an Ideapad S10e netbook that suffered a LCD screen inverter burnt-out at about 60 days after purchase. A LCD screen inverter burnt-out issue is when the back light of the LCD screen no longer lit up upon power on. If you turn on your machine in a completely dark room, you will see the POST and your operating system boot up in a very dim image on the LCD screen. The repair is a simple replacement of the inverter, and this repair process does not require the presence of a hard drive to effectively diagnose, repair, and validate the repair.

Upon calling the Lenovo customer service, I explained the issue to the tech and he concluded that it need to be sent in for repair. I asked him and got approval for shipping the S10e netbook without the hard drive or the secondary stick of memory module (there is still a built in 512MB memory module remaining inside the netbook). The reason I did not wanted to sent in the hard drive because 1) they do not need that part to effect a repair of the problem, and 2) I do not want to loose any data if they suddenly want to "reimage" the hard drive.

Two weeks after the initial call to report the problem, UPS tracking listed the netbook as received by the EZserv depot. I waited till the third week to call Lenovo customer support ask if everything is ok and what is the status of the repair. I was then told by Lenovo customer support that EZserv depot told them that the unit does not have the hard drive and the second memory module, and thus, they can not replace the burnt-out LCD inverter with out it. I explained to the Lenovo customer support staff that any tech worth their salt do not need those parts to perform a repair of a burnt-out LCD inverter issue. Since the EZserv depot insisted, the Lenovo customer support tech sent me a box with a FedEx return label to send in my hard drive and second memory module. Here is one question, you as potential Lenovo customer should ask yourself - why did the EZserv depot or Lenovo customer support not contact me to ask for the hard drive and second stick of memory moduels? They have my contact phone number and email address.

Upon receipt of and the mailing out of the box for the hard drive and second memory module, four weeks has passed. I waited until the fifth week before calling to ask for status. This time, Lenovo customer support said the case history listed the status as EZserv depot waiting for the hard drive and memory module. I provided the FedEx tracking number from their label. Turned out the package has arrived at the depot for more than a week, and no one has associated the package with my repair case. They said they will start working on it. Here is another question, you as a potential Lenovo customer should ask yourself - why do a customer has to call in constantly to get them to make progress on repair?

Another week has passed since EZserv depot is prodded into starting work on the repair. I called to ask what is going on. The fun part is, they now tell me the case listed the computer as a G530 laptop. I provided the serial number, and ask them to verify. They insisted that it is still a G530 laptop. After I persist in denying my case history is for a G530, they finally was able to figure out that it was a S10e. The Lenovo customer service also said the case history now listed the status as repair. The Lenovo customer service representative said EZserv depot should be contacting me that day to let me know about shipping back the S10e netbook.

I waited a whole week for the call or email that never came. I called Lenovo customer service and what is going on? I ask to speak to a supervisor. I then explained to him that this long delay is uncalled for and demanded to know where is my S10e netbook? He said the case note listed the repair technician comment that there is nothing wrong with the S10e netbook. I explained to him that a burnt-out inverter does not automatically fixes itself. I also asked him to please verify that this netbook is repaired before shipping it back to me. This supervisor said he will personally look into it and get back to me within 48 hours.

72 hours passed without a call or an email from the supervisor. I called Lenovo customer support asking for that supervisor. Since I only received his first name as an identification, they were not able to locate him. Another supervisor took the call. Let's call him supervisor B. I explained to supervisor B that Lenovo can do one of two things - 1) locate the netbook in question and ship it back to me repaired, or 2) give me my money back. Supervisor B said he will find out where it is and let me know by the end of his day.

Supervisor B did called back to tell me that the unit has been located and it will be shipped back to me as soon as possible. The next day, he even called to let me know what the FedEx tracking number is. Why can't more Lenovo staffs are like this supervisor B, you should ask yourself.

Well, I got the netbook four business days later instead of two business days. I can not fault them for typing in the wrong street number on the shipping label. Maybe supervisor B was really leaning on his staff to get this out as soon as possible.

Upon opening up the box and turning on the netbook, I discovered the initial issue of burnt-out LCD inverter is still there!!! With disbelieve, I stared at the copy of the repair technician note included in the box. It said -- unit passed all tests. Unless that tech works in a totally dark room, there is no way they could have said this unit is fully functional. Unbelievable!!!

I am still in the mist of dealing with Lenovo on this. They want me to send the unit back in for repair again. They won't provide in writing what is the remedy if the unit comes back unrepair again. I am very sure that this will be the last Lenovo unit I will ever own.

Here are the take aways you should have --

1) Don't get any Lenovo warranty that will put you under the mercy of the EZserv depot.

2) Don't get any Lenovo warranty that does not have some form of contact for the repair process other than just you calling them. Why should you baby sit the process?

3) My best advice to you -- Don't get Lenovo, period.

Thanks,
a soon to be ex-Lenovo user.

[alfie2]

as someone who works in the manufacturing floor, I can tell you that what you did was not ideal nor helpful for the workers.( making our job difficult)
When a piece of RMA comes back to factory for repair, our FA department need the whole machine for repair not partial machine. the technicans are not allow to put parts from other machines into your machine. technican/FA staff must fillout application forms requesting the new parts as well as reason for them if the parts are not in the machine in the first place they are, in fact, not allow to get them, period.


large organization has rules, my man.( probably, because parts can get missing...who will be responsible?)

also, most of the time, your original machine is totally replaced rather than repaired, due to costs involved, so a whole machine return is the best option.

actually in your case, or similar cases, the unrepaired machine would be sent back to you with letter requesting the whole machine.

HTH

[badLenovo]

Hi alfie2,
Thank you for your input. I totally understand what you said about "large organization [having] rules". However, here are the points you may want to consider as this post is a discussion of Lenovo's warranty repair service level:

1) The Lenovo customer support technician in the initial phone contact did authorized the removal of the hard drive. If the "large organization has rules", why does the initial Lenovo customer support technician not know it?

2) If "... in [my case], or similar cases, the unrepaired machine would be sent back to [me] with letter requesting the whole machine", why was it not done? I would have accepted that. Better yet, a phone call or an email to notify me that they must have the removed parts would be very acceptable level of communication. Instead, I have to be the one making phone calls after phone calls to Lenovo, asking if they have everything they need or asking for the status of the repair process. Also, as stated in the post, I gave them plenty of time (a week) between receiving a part and me placing the phone call.

3) After having all the parts, can you tell me how can a depot repair technician write in the repair report that there is nothing wrong with the unit and that it passed all test? A burnt out inverter does not fixes itself, and a simple power on test would glaringly show that the burnt out inverter issue is still not repair.

This complaint is not about what rules a large organization has not or not has. It is about the service and communication level Lenovo is providing to the consumers.

Thanks,
a soon to be ex-Lenovo user.

[glc]

Sorry to hear about your isolated problem. I'm pretty confident that all manufacturers have problems like this from time to time. I'm not going to tar and feather a manufacturer unless there are a LOT of complaints, and I did a Google search and found relatively few complaints about Lenovo's depot service. I'll sure trust Lenovo's notebook service long before I'd trust HP's.

[Thedood0]

Hello, I have somewhat of the same issue...I sent my laptop in (Y450) with a problem of having the AC adaptor short out the female end inside my laptop. It either needs a new female end, or a quicker way is just a new motherboard. The board itself is not fried, I used the last bleeding ebbs of battery to save all of my needed stuff, and trasfer what i needed over to flash drives. I sent it in, and they recieved it; on the same day they said it required parts. So i waited...Its been exactly two weeks since the parts 'shipped'. Now in the past, I ordered a motherboard for an older computer, and it came from china somewhere, I ordered it on a wednesday, it arrived the following week on friday. It seems that such a large company such as Lenovo should have no trouble getting any parts it needs from anywhere in the world in a week. I called in once, and the guy said that they could not find the part, its arrival should have been around the 11th of , It is now the 16th... So either they lost the ship as it came across the atlantic, or the fedex plain went down (haha...Wilson... XD ), I just find it interesting that lenovo supposedly doesen't even know where there own repair parts are... So anyway i called in again on the 15th, and the guy said that he would have a tech talk to me, and that they would send me a text with the tracking number for my part. Now it was cool of them to give me the tracking number, For their own stuff, but that never arrived...Neither did the call from the Tech. Now i use this computer for a lot of schooling stuff, and it really puts a damper on my daily tasks when i have to do all of my computing at the Library, and then go home and take care of all the other stuff i have there. Not to mention i have ALOT of typing assignments going on... Being unable to work on them at home is really starting to be painful. I think i would not be as angery if lenovo would actually talk. I have recieved nothing regaurding the help i asked for, as well as nothing about how my laptop is doing. Either they don't update their "repair status" part of their website,(Which i did conferm that they diden't have the part, and they diden't know where the part was, and diden't know how long it would take to fix it) or they are undermanned and it is taking forver to get anything done... If Lenovo would tell the recipiant about the issues involving the issue delaying the reapir, I would'ent be so torqed if they would just say "We are sorry for your delay in repair, as we are experiancing an undermanned technical crew" or "We are sorry, but the Fedex plane carrying your repair part crashed, But we did rescue Wilson." Would even suffice... If they told the person why they were having issues it would make a world of difference.... Just TALK TO US PLEASE!!!!