LeMOnovo resolves computer mess!

December 26th, 2007

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All I wanted was a computer… my trusty Dell that I’d had for years died the afternoon before the start of the Chisago Transmission Project hearing, couldn’t have been worse timing — I swear Xcel arranged that one. Alan ordered a Dell to be shipped to the hearing site the next day, and it wasn’t, and when pressed, they said they couldn’t guarantee that it was even in stock, much less that they’d ship it (so do explain why they’re charging for overnight delivery???). Needless to say that was cancelled, but that took a couple days to accomplish. So he then ran to the store and got a Lenovo 3000N, which I got the next day, Saturday, and started loading it up and everything, and when I got to the scanner, the damn thing crashed. With no time (the hearing resumed on Monday), I frantically restored (yes, the system restore worked very well) and got it going again, and again, at the scanner, it crashed, but just before it did, I got a little screen that the scanner was not compatible with Vista. Oh, great, and so then I started googling, using a reliable desktop that Alan had put together from junked computers, and found that Vista isn’t compatible with all sorts of things. I called Lenovo to see what I could do about Vista and was told I needed to get a compatible scanner — ahem… I DON’T THINK SO!! I told them Vista sucked, and I wanted XP, and they said, no, I couldn’t get XP because they only did that exchange with ones with the upper grade Vista, wonderful… I have XP but of course Microsoft has these rules… So then I restored again and got it going and of course by now the Chisago hearing is long done, and I’m out in Delaware and gave up on my scanners and figured I’d just use that with the desktops here and there, OK, fine, and I was cruising along, and then the keyboard stopped. First one letter, and then a couple and within a few minutes, the keyboard was DEAD, no keyboard whatsoever. And I had a brief to write. Great, thanks… can you spell PISSED. My normally low blood pressure was through the roof. The Lenovo phone guy said that he couldn’t just give me instructions to take it apart and fix it, that it had to be fixed by one of their warranty fixers or mail it in (oh, so that means how long without my brains?). OK, he gives me a case number and refers me to a list of providers. Of the four in Delaware, not one phone number was correct, so I googled the names, and called, only two were still in business and of those two, NONE would do work on one they hadn’t sold. Oh, great, so I have to ship it off.  We ran to the local Office Big Box and got a USB keyboard and I finished up the brief.  Lenovo sent out a mailing box and I sent it in after downloading everything into a separate drive. And since Vista was a problem throughout, I said in big capital letters “NEEDS NEW KEYBOARD, AND INSTALL XP, VISTA SUCKS.” It came back with a new keyboard, and I guess Vista had been reloaded because a lot of things that were there when I’d sent it in were not there when I got it back… sigh… Also missing was the ThinkVantage which has the save and restore functions I needed. Because by that time, I was bent on getting XP into this machine, and the internet descriptions of how to do that said to save everything just in case. Oh well… The new keyboard worked, and it was time to reload AGAIN, but I didn’t want to do that in Vista, I’d had enough, and in utter frustration about Vista, I brought it to my local computer guy and threw up my hands and said, GET RID OF VISTA AND GET XP IN THIS, and so he did, and once again, I was happy, cruising along, getting everything set up and reloaded and all that crap for the umpteenth time, and all was well for a couple weeks until the keyboard went out again. AGAIN!!! I lost it, utterly lost it, we got another USB keyboard (because the other one was in Delaware of course) and called Lenovo and bitched and of course it was the same, mail it in or bring it to a local, and I wasn’t about to go through calling a list of bad phone numbers again, so I dutifully got my new case number and proceeded to rant and rave and stomp around the house, and meanwhile Alan’s feeling terrible because he’d gotten it for me and it was a LeMOnovo, how would he know, it wasn’t his fault, and we’re both getting pisseder and pisseder. Is a lemon computer grounds for divorce??? Are they liable for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress??? Somehow I think the warranty is insufficient…

So Alan’s looking on the internet for ideas and he finds David Churbuck, Lenovo Grand Pooh-Bah of Marketing, and his cellphone is on his blog. Really, he lists his number and says call if you’ve got a Lenovo problem. 508-360-6147 And it’s an interesting blog! I think he’s on a one-person mission to salvage the reputations of corporate types (ahem… salvaging reputations of corporations just isn’t within the realm of possibilities) and in this case, he did just that. One call and a quick return, an email exchange, and then a few back and forth phone calls with another corporate guy and next thing you know, I have a Lenovo box in my porch on Xmas Eve (not that I’m anything but agnostic, mind you). Call it a belated Happy B-Day! THANK YOU!!!

I’ve loaded everything in, it’s working, haven’t had a glitch… Yes, I’m paranoid, but I think it’s OK. OK enough to say it here. Alan’s a bit more paranoid than I, but I’m ready to say that Lenovo has indeed rectified this “situation.” Time will tell, but I think it’s fixed!!!

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