Lenovo, biggest disappointment ever

or "I will never buy any computer from you again." Wed 05 October 2016

This happend two years ago and I felt some people would be interested on some feedbacks on Lenovo customer support.

After years of struggling with a 6 years old laptop during my Computer Science lessons, I decided it was time to upgrade to a much better, lighter and powerful laptop. Some friends had Lenovo laptops and were really happy with theirs. The quality of the product, the relatively cheap price and the fact it was number one laptop seller in the world definitely convinced me to buy one of their laptop. Therefore, I bought a Lenovo S440 for 900-1000€ (new but not low model of the brand).

After one week, I broke the Q key and had to send it to repair. The keyboard still seemed cheap after that but I was way more careful while using it (the Fn key was unbelievably fragile).

After a year, I started my internship in Amsterdam as a JAVA web developer and two months after, the laptop started to act weirdly. The HDMI output was randomly working: it detected screens attached to it only after longer and longer time. At the beginning it was only for few minutes, then hours and then I couldn't get it to work at all. I even tried to reinstall Windows on it to check if it wasn't some drivers failing on Linux. But no, same for Windows.

It is almost unthinkable to develop programs on a 14 inches screen without dual screening. I therefore sent my Thinkpad into repair November the 10th 2014 while Lenovo told me it would take 5 worked days to get it back. It was perfect timing since I was about to take a week of holiday. I finally received it 3 weeks later (instead of 5 worked days), December the 2nd 2014. I called and mailed them several times during the wait without them having the courtesy to answer any of my contact attempts.

So finally, I can work again. I don't mind I had to wait a bit more since I had my personal big desktop computer I could take to work (but try to ride your bike with a desktop as backpack and you'll see how inconvenient it is). Well... no. They sent me back a laptop which is DEFINITELY NOT WORKING ANY BETTER. They even sent my laptop with a missing rubber foot (or anti-slip pad or however you call it). The HDMI is still not working and worse, both Windows and Linux don't even detect there is a HDMI output available. They didn't even take the time to test the laptop before sending it back.

Of course, I tested with multiple screens and cables. Not working at all.

I called them, sent a mail, sent a reminder after a week and still got no answer from them.

After posting a rant on Twitter and Facebook and calling them some more times, I finally got a mail from Lenovo on December 18th 2014, offering a free replacement of my laptop. I would only need to give a date and place where to pick up the faulty unit and a date and place where to deliver the new one after we agreed on the replacement unit.

I chose a T440s for twice the price of my S440 (keep in mind if I had no desktop computer with me back then, I would not have been able to work at all during my internship, thus cancelling it) which seemed to be a fairly good compensation.

I left Amsterdam January 22nd 2015 as I ended my internship and had to go back to France to pursue my studies. I specifically asked Lenovo to send the replacement laptop to my home in France but guess what... They messed things up again and sent the replacement laptop to my former office in Amsterdam and never told me it had been delivered. I just had to guess it was there (no package tracing). So two months after the pickup, I mailed them to ask what was happening and discovered the cold truth of their complete incompetence. I had them send it back to France and finally, I got it around mid-April 2015.

Thanks Lenovo for your miserable customer support and being without any laptop (excellent situation for a developer) for more than 6 MONTHS. Be sure, I'll NEVER buy any Lenovo laptop again. NEVER.