Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)
"JHEM" <James@ESAD_SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> writes:
> > Huh? IBM stopped doing Thinkpad warranty and support about 5 years
> > ago. It's been outsourced to some other company since then. By the
> > pathetic standards of most laptop vendors, it's still not bad, but
> > it's nowhere near as good as it used to be.
>
> Yes, depot level warranty repairs are outsourced to Solectron in Memphis,
> but they're almost as good as when IBM performed all repairs in-house.
They are not. They go to much greater lengths to find ways to
avoiding repairing stuff. IBM used to fix stuff that they could have
gotten out of fixing, since it led to selling more Thinkpads, which
was good for IBM. Solectron or whoever it is has no incentive to fix
more than the minimum necessary to fulfill their IBM contracts, since
it doesn't matter to them whether IBM sells more Thinkpads or not.
I'm still steamed about Solectron refusing to fix the obviously
malfunctioning hard drive from my A20p, which was making noises like
fingernails down a blackboard, because despite the noises the drive
still passed the SMART fitness test. The noise made the computer
practically unbearable to use and I had to replace the drive at my own
expense.
> Support is still performed in-house. When you call phone support for
> hardware or software issues, you'll be speaking with an IBM employee
> in one of their support centers in either the US or Canada if you
> call from anywhere in North America.
No, I don't think so. Sometimes I've reached a support call center in
Ireland, though that experience was perfectly nice.
"JHEM" <James@ESAD_SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> writes:
> > Huh? IBM stopped doing Thinkpad warranty and support about 5 years
> > ago. It's been outsourced to some other company since then. By the
> > pathetic standards of most laptop vendors, it's still not bad, but
> > it's nowhere near as good as it used to be.
>
> Yes, depot level warranty repairs are outsourced to Solectron in Memphis,
> but they're almost as good as when IBM performed all repairs in-house.
They are not. They go to much greater lengths to find ways to
avoiding repairing stuff. IBM used to fix stuff that they could have
gotten out of fixing, since it led to selling more Thinkpads, which
was good for IBM. Solectron or whoever it is has no incentive to fix
more than the minimum necessary to fulfill their IBM contracts, since
it doesn't matter to them whether IBM sells more Thinkpads or not.
I'm still steamed about Solectron refusing to fix the obviously
malfunctioning hard drive from my A20p, which was making noises like
fingernails down a blackboard, because despite the noises the drive
still passed the SMART fitness test. The noise made the computer
practically unbearable to use and I had to replace the drive at my own
expense.
> Support is still performed in-house. When you call phone support for
> hardware or software issues, you'll be speaking with an IBM employee
> in one of their support centers in either the US or Canada if you
> call from anywhere in North America.
No, I don't think so. Sometimes I've reached a support call center in
Ireland, though that experience was perfectly nice.
/phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
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