Review Lenovo - stay away from - abysmal tech support.

[lejeczek]

hi users,

I really needed to tell this one short story of a close friend of mine and I thought I'd share it here so others would be able to realize how bad it can be when you got a laptop from Lenovo, at least here in Europe, and you need Lenovo's support.

Almost a brand new Ideapad 530s AMD died on me, after a month from purchase - it happens - I guess anybody can say. Now, the story begins...
We, my friend, live in UK and here is where the story began, but it judges the whole Lenovo's European division, as it will soon be described.

So, Lenovo tech support was contacted and after some investigation over the phone and email a collection and delivery to Germany for repair was arranged. Repair took a solid three weeks as faulty part turned out to be motherboard. When a "working" laptop arrived back to my friend's we realized two things - A) original 256GB NVMe M.2 stick was gone and a 128GB SSD was installed instead. B) A new motherboard had missing crucial bits in the firmware which are vital in order to identify the laptop (but any hardware) uniquely, which resulted in all Lenovo's software was unable to identify the laptop. In BIOS and when you run, for example: Lenovo System Update we got: "Serial Number: INVALID" "Product Number: INVALID" - which meant big trouble.

So again, back to Lenovo suppor via their web portal. First reply from Lenovo's tech member was:

"The reason why Product name, Serial Number and MTM number
are showing as Invalid is because the Motherboard was
replaced in your previous repair and the data has not been
carried over. However this does not pose any issues
regarding your device.
Please let me know if you are experiencing any other
issues however this issue in itself is nothing to worry about."

Can you imagine that? Tech support not realizing what problem that poses!!
After us explaining that one obvious problem is Lenovo's software do not work, no updates, missing drivers, no diagnostics, Lenovo's tech support realized, acknowledged and arranged a second collection and delivery for repair to Germany, the actual repair took place in Eupen Repair Czech S.R.O. - Authorized Service Partner Lenovo.

This time it took only a few days, as it should have been a simple repair, right. Original 256GB NVMe was put back, but no reason nor explanation as to why it was took out during first repair, was offered to my friend.
So we powered on the laptop and we start Lenovo software to check BIOS updates + other updates and before we see any of those we get..... "Serial Number: INVALID" "Product Number: INVALID" .... and speechless! we were rendered.

My friend contacted Lenovo's support just now and an email in reply "apologized" for troubles and offered another collection, delivery and repair.....

And like us, all this experience with Lenovo would make you very, well, very... dissatisfied?
Well, here you have it and if you read this short story, then hopefully you are now more informed and better prepared to make a good decision if you want to buy a laptop.

cheers to everybody,
L.

 

[americanaudiophile]

As I understand it the UK has pretty good buyer protection laws compared to the US. You should contact the seller and strongly insist that you receive a brand new replacement or a refund. Sometimes you have to be adamant and you may have to move up the tech support food chain before you can get the service you are entitled to.

 

[lejeczek]

As I understand it the UK has pretty good buyer protection laws compared to the US. You should contact the seller and strongly insist that you receive a brand new replacement or a refund. Sometimes you have to be adamant and you may have to move up the tech support food chain before you can get the service you are entitled to.

Sure sure, but I still hope you got the point (so will the others) - none of what we got from Lenovo should ever be allowed by a good & decent & solid consumer electronics manufacturer, which - my experience told me - Lenovo is not. And Lenovo is not a newcomer, they have been around for a whileeee! and yet they have not gotten it right.

 

[webworkings]

This is why when I don't get the right info the first time, the next time I speak to someone higher up. My fav is when they try to say you can't or there isn't someone higher. SMH Sadly sometimes it is the company, and sometimes it is the 'tech' who isn't a tech that you converse with that is the actual problem.

 

[hang-the-9]

I have done a lot of warranty repairs through Lenovo, many dozens over many years, only had an issue like yours once where they did not set a new motherboard serial number. They sent a tech out to fix it. As always, a single bad experience, or even a few, does not mean there are wide issues with a company.

Compared to other companies I would still pick Lenovo systems. You won't find a single company that has a 100% satisfaction rate.

In fact the number of issues with Lenovo computers that needed a full new motherboard has been hugely less than Dell, HP or Toshiba, like a 4-1 ratio less.

 

[lejeczek]

I have done a lot of warranty repairs through Lenovo, many dozens over many years, only had an issue like yours once where they did not set a new motherboard serial number. They sent a tech out to fix it. As always, a single bad experience, or even a few, does not mean there are wide issues with a company.

Compared to other companies I would still pick Lenovo systems. You won't find a single company that has a 100% satisfaction rate.

In fact the number of issues with Lenovo computers that needed a full new motherboard has been hugely less than Dell, HP or Toshiba, like a 4-1 ratio less.

Sorry man but no. Not just one bad experience but a series(for now short, lets see what happens next) of bummers and really bad ones, and that during just one support request ticket.
That friend of mine has over twenty years of experience as an IT manager and has dealt with likes of HP, Dell, etc. (both big & small hardware) and he decided to give Lenovo a try a year ago so got a few laptops from Lenovo. I trust him when he says - I can pass a judgement, I have not seen this poor service from any other vendor in whole my time with computers.