I have a Lenovo T60 that has been problematic for the past 3 months – it spontaneously reboots losing any unsaved work.

We orignally placed a service call April 17, 2008 for this notebook:


New Case #: 40L8JMG
Former Case’s: 0006BZH
DNM8VLJ
40L8VLJ
Model: T60
Type: 6371-6MU
S/N: L3-AN569 07/04
Ordered: 3 May 2007
Order #: 109017

• 17 Apr. 08: Service @ 1-800-426-7378 and were assigned Case #40-L8VLJ and were told the 1yr warranty expired on12 Apr. 2008 and were instructed we would need proof of purchase if we were to contest this expiry date.
• 22 Apr. 08: Located the original Order Confirmation and called service @ 1-800-426-7378 and was told that I would need to fax the information to Entitlement at 1-800-373-4920 and there was nothing he could do to help us out.
• 23 Apr. 08: Called service @ 1-800-426-7378 and was told that the records had not been changed and that it would take at least a week for the information to be entered into the system. I was given a number for entitlement 1-888-956-7227 to follow up. Not impressed that a company that advertises their eBusiness and the speed of their networking takes a week to process a warranty date.
• 23 Apr. 08: Called 1-888-956-7227 and was routed several times to a line that was no longer in service and cut off. After several rounds of the “selection number relay” which progresses into the “hold” marathon gave up in frustration and went home – at least the dog loves me.
• 24 Apr. 08: It’s a fresh new day and undaunted I got right back the phone relay-marathon and, after trying other options I finally managed to talk to a real person only to be told that this was the wrong number, and was given 1-877-897-6272.
• 24 Apr. 08: Called 1-877-897-6272 and after a single round of phone relay/marathon, was told that this was an American location and I needed to call 1-866-968-4465 the Canadian location.
• 24 Apr. 08: Called 1-866-4465 only to find the office hours were Monday to Friday 8AM to 6PM Eastern Standard Time.
• 25 Apr. 08: Called 1-866-4465 and was told that the records showed that our warranty had expired and he could not help me – he could only go by his records in the database. He advised me to talk to entitlement but there was no number for entitlement. In frustration I regaled him of my experience with my corporate deployment of Dell notebooks and how their philosophy was to look after the customer first, and how I had this same experience with Dell Support and they actually took me at my word and got the machine back up and running first and worried about the warranty date after. I also told him the best way to resolve this issue is to purchase a Dell notebook.
• 25 Apr. 08: Registered for the Electronic Service Call and left a brief summary of this Saga
• 25 Apr. 08: Talked to Walter Sentmore – the first person that was willing to help me out. This man should get a promotion! Walter tracked down someone in Entitlement and gave me the number 1-800-426-8741 before he transferred me to Tonika. While Tonika was giving me new incident number we were cut off.
• 25 Apr. 08: I called the number Tonika gave me and reached Loretta Brooks – another person that is doing a fine job and deserves some recognition. Loretta informed me that this was an American site and was very helpful transferring me to the Canadian site, and gave me the number 1-800-426-7235 option 3 – 1 – 1- 1 just in case I got cut off again. This of course doomed me to be cut off again mid-transfer.
• 25 Apr. 08: Called the number (1-800-426-7265) that Loretta provided and found that it rings and hangs up
• 25 Apr. 08: Tried to call Loretta back and got through to Geraldine, who was very helpful and was transferred back to the same number I started out with 1-800-426-7378. Eventually I was assigned a new case number 0006BZH and was to be transferred to entitlement and, unbelievably was cut off . . . . dial tone!!!
• 25 Apr. 08: My bad! I called the support number back – you know the one I started out with on Tuesday and was told that I was not actually being transferred to entitlement but the case was being transferred to entitlement. Apparently there is no way to actually speak with anyone in entitlement – you just have to trust that the case will be looked after and they will get back to you. I suppose I might have more faith that I will get any satisfaction if I hadn’t faxed entitlement on Tuesday and got four days of runaround only to arrive at the same place today.
• 28 Apr. 08 – Fearing that the notebook warranty would run out before anything was done to repair it called Alex Naumov and purchased an extended warranty. Was told that it would take a few days to process and I could expect an emailed invoice by the end of the week.
• 2 May 08 – Have not received emailed invoice. Several calls and an email to Alex went unanswered.
• 5 May 08 – Called Alex again only to learn that he is away until Wednesday. Tried to follow link to the person looking after Alex’s accounts without success.
• 7 May 08 – tried several times to get through to Alex without success. Sent an urgent email requesting invoice.
• 8 May 08 – Alex returned my call and emailed the invoice for the warranty. I was told that the invoice number should be sufficient to finally get this notebook serviced.
• 9 May 08 – Called service and spoke with Michael S. alas, he is unable to do anything with the invoice number and…… wait for it…..the crowning moment of futility ……. Yes, our warranty has now expired!!! Unbelievable!!! We were originally cut off warranty due to IBM’s poor record keeping and now I am 11 days into an extended warranty that I can’t access because of poor record keeping. Ironically, I am only 6 days removed from the original expired warranty that IBM won’t honor despite the fact that the problem was reported back on April 17 which was 5 days past the original incorrect warranty expiry date.
• 9 May 08 – Incredibly, I am once again faxing an Invoice to Entitlement to get warranty information updated in hopes of getting service for this notebook. You would think that a company that sells network equipment and advertises “On Demand Business” would be able to enter this information into their system in sales and have it accessible to service without requiring the customer print it and fax it to another department in the same company. When IBM asks the question “What Makes You Special” I have to think that it must be the patience of Job and a non-IBM setup that provides the reliable means to share this saga with the world and whoever is willing to listen.


Hopefully this notebook will be repaired before the extended warranty expires. I am not optimistic.