Lenovo and UPS: A problematic pairing

Twice this year I ordered a computer directly from Lenovo and they shipped it via UPS. Both shipments got screwed up.

Back in January I wrote about how UPS lost my computer. That machine, a desktop, was supposedly delivered to the wrong address. Lenovo built and sent a replacement computer and a few days after the replacement computer arrived, and roughly a month after the first one was shipped, the first machine magically showed up.

On October 8th Lenovo shipped me a new S10 Netbook (see The Lenovo S10 Netbook is here, count me in. On the 9th, I checked the delivery status with UPS only to find that the tracking number didn't exist.

The next day, when the UPS tracking number still wasn't in the system, I called Lenovo. They couldn't explain what happened and queued my query to another group with a promise to call back in a couple days.

By the 13th, UPS knew about package.

My package "experienced an exception". The address label was missing or illegible. That's a first for me.

Lenovo called on the 13th to say that the package had no label and they would have a new estimated delivery date tomorrow.
Update: The computer arrived before the new delivery date estimate.

Making a poor situation worse was that three out of the four times I spoke to someone from Lenovo on the telephone, I couldn't hear the person due to background noise as loud as Fenway Park in the World Series. That, combined with the accents of the Lenovo employees, meant that every sentence had to be repeated.

Of course, you can also communicate with Lenovo by email, except that an email about this wasn't responded to for 3.5 days.

UPS seems to be the only shipper used by Lenovo.

Update October 20, 2008. This did not end well.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

[emersonxsu]

yep, I think its service in US sucks too. So is its warranty service proveder .

[dzenc]

Wow. I can understand your frustration. I would be upset if that happened to me as well.<br /><br />Fortunately, I've had the opposite experience with both Lenovo and UPS. Lenovo has always been fabulous to deal with and UPS has consistently delivered their products on time with zero hassles.<br /><br />I've ordered at least 10 items (3+ laptops plus numerous accessories) over the past 2 years from Lenovo (all shipped via UPS), and the worst experience I've had is that they wouldn't leave the package at the door when I wasn't home because they required a signature. (Which, when delivering an expensive laptop, seems entirely reasonable to me).<br /><br />The only other shipping issue I've had is a laptop which got delayed for 1 day while arriving from Hong Kong (where it was manufactured) because it was held over in US customs. It seems to me that there isn't much that can be done by Lenovo or UPS if the US government decides to hold on to your laptop.<br /><br />I've also had great experiences dealing with Lenovo customer service. The on-site service is incredible. On the few occasions that I've had a problem with my laptop, it's taken one phone call and the repair technician has been on-site within 48-hours to fix the problem.<br /><br />In the worst-case scenario, where the repair person wasn't able to fix the problem, they actually GAVE ME MY MONEY BACK (100% of it) on a 3-month old ThinkPad, and I went and purchased a brand-new ThinkPad with *better* equipment at a *cheaper* price. And I haven't had a problem since!<br /><br />Who gives you that kind of customer service these days? <br /><br />I would recommend a ThinkPad to anyone. Just make sure you get the on-site service plan because the depot service IS NOT handled by the same people who perform the on-site service (and I've heard horror stories about the depot service).<br /><br />I hope you get your issues resolved quickly. Good Luck!<br /><br />-Dan

[mhinnewyork]

Dan - I'm a big ThinkPad fan myself. I have used their depot service once and it was fine. Fortunately I only needed it once and that's with using many ThinkPads over the years. Michael Horowitz

[frasercrane]

As you have replied many times in these blogs, one person's two instances of problems does NOT mean everyone else will have similar problems Are these two incidents somehow better predicters than someone else's incidents? Just because I have never encountered any issues with Lenovo or UPS does not mean someone else won't. If there are statistics showing a trend, they should be noted; otherwise, there's no useful info here. In fact, what does defensive computing have to do with UPS and buying a Lenovo? BTW good luck with your isolated purchase incidents.