Customer Care Experience with Lenovo

In this post, I'm writing about my experience with Lenovo's UK customer service. I believe Lenovo is a good product but according to my experience with their customer service it seems to have major flaws. I found dealing with them extremely difficult because of the inconsistencies in their ordering system; poor communication; and being ambiguous when providing information. This is a critical blog post and you might find it adverse, but note this is based on facts, and they caused me trouble that would have been avoided if they could have provided me sufficient and consistent information about their ordering system either on the company web site or directly to me.

Order and Cancellation

Below is the timeline of the process.

Wednesday, 2nd November - Built up a computer and placed an order, paid by credit card.

Friday, 4th November - Realized there was a big discount for the model I've just ordered so my immediate plan was to cancel my order, and place an other order for the same model. I initiated to cancel my order via the website.

Sunday, 6th November - Confirmation email received that I've submitted a request to cancel the order but it envisages that it might not be possible to cancel.

A request has been submitted to cancel shipment of your order. In some
cases, we are unable to do so, as orders are processed for shipment
immediately upon completion 

Monday, 7th November - Since the status of my order showed still "Order in Process" I called the customer service and asked to cancel my order. The agent said that's fine and asked me my order number and billing address. He didn't say it might not be possible. He left me believing that we cancelled the order.

Tueasday, 8th November - Next day, on Tuesday, I checked the website and my order showed still "Order in Process". I sent message via their website and got the following message.

Your request for your order  to be cancelled is currently in process.

I asked them when can I expect that the cancellation is completed. I got the confirmation that they received my message but they refused to answer.

Wednesday, 9th November - On Wednesday, I got the order confirmation of the laptop. and I got an email about the status of my cancel request.

we attempted to cancel the following products from your order. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop shipment and you will be charged for these items.

However, they failed to explain how they attempted to cancel the order.

From now they ignored all of my messages I sent via ther website even though I explicitly stated that response required.

Tuesday, 15th November - They attempted to deliver the product. I refused to accept it at the time of delivery.

Return of the Product

They initiated a return of my order at the same time I got the confirmation email that the product is being shipped.

Your request to return items ordered will expire in 7 days. You must follow the instructions below before your request expires.
To arrange a return of your product, please contact customer service.
Reply Due By:  16 November 2011

I contacted them both by replying the email and via the website numerous time about this but they refused to answer.

It's interesting by the way, that in one email they claim not to monitor the particular email address and they can't see my reply but in another email coming from the same address they expect a reply on.

I called the customer service and their response was to refuse the delivery without asking any identification from me.

Also, I contacted UPS to stop the shipment but they were unable to do, they told me only the sender could do but Lenovo says it is unable to do so.

Days later, interestingly just after they attempted to deliver the product, I got an email from them looks like below.

We have received your request to cancel shipment of your order;
unfortunately we were unable to do so. Your order was processed for
shipment immediately upon completion, and no changes were able to be
made.
If you do not wish to receive the shipment and you would like a refund,
you may refuse delivery.

This is the message I should have received before the day of delivery. In fact, I have received it at the same day the attempted to deliver the product that I've refused. I can imagine their goal is to deliver the package, no matter that you have cancelled. Even though it seems the law is at their side it seems unfair to me.

Refund of the Product

Below is the timeline of the process.

Thursday, 17th November - I've received the following email from customer care.

We show that the package was returned to the warehouse as undeliverable.
The warehouse will be processing a refund for the order, you will
receive an email once the refund has been processed.

 The following is stated on their website.

Your refund credit will appear on your card 5 - 7 business days after we receive your returned product at our warehouse.

So I should have received the refund on 28th November in the worst case. But that was not the case...

Friday, 2nd December - Since they didn’t process my refund within the time frame they supposed to do I requested a status update and got the following answer.

Please can you confirm that you have refused the delivery of this
product and at which date you have done so.

Sunday, 4th December - Got an email claiming they are processing the refund.

We would like to apologise foe the inconvenience and delay.
We are processing your refund for order: 17435170724. Please allow 5 - 7
days for the credit to be applied to your credit card.

I didn't receive the refunt within the time frame they provided above.

Wednesday 14th December - They confirmed again they they received my notebook back to their warehouse on 1st December. WTF? They have already confirmed this on 17th November.

We can confirm that your order: OID 17435170724 was returned to the
warehouse 1 December.
We apologise for the delay in issuing this refund. We have escalated
your case to the relevant department (ticket no. 476051 for further
reference).

Tuesday 20th December - Lenovo confirmed that didn’t have an estimation when they process the refund.

We understand your frustration and apologize for this situation, I can
assure you we are working on resolving your case.

Your case is currently with our Escalations team under the ticket
number: 476051 and is being handled as soon as possible in the highest
priority.

Unfortunatley we do not have an estimated date for completion of your
case, But rest assured we are focusing our efforts to get your refund
processed as fast as possible. 

I've sent the following reply.

According to the consumer rights you should refund within 30 days but we agreed otherwise; you should refund within 5-7 days once you received the product back in your warehouse. You have already confirmed that you have received the product back in your warehouse and the refund is in progress.

Please note that I don't accept that you can't provide a date of completion of my case. I hereby ask you to provide date of completion of my refund.

It seems to me you are violating the the above agreement, and it's against the law to keep money not belog to you -- In this case my money.

Thursday 22nd December - Confirmed that the order has refunded.

They charged me on 14th November and the refund appeared on my credit card on 28th December.

Customer Service Telephone Experience

I called them only at the early stage of process because I soon got tired of them, and I thought it was better to have written communication instead.

Once I called them and provided my order number via automatic. After about 8 minutes an agent with very primitive English accepted my call. He clearly read pre-defined text when I asked him to explain the situation about cancellation of the order. And when I asked him about things he said: "I know, I know" "Because of the warehouse in China". I didn't really understand what he want to say.

So I decided to call the customer service back again this time I didn't provide my order number. A nice speaking preson is at the end of the line and he told me that I should refuse the delivery if I can they will pick up the package. It was getting very suspicious to me and raised the question are there cases you cannot refuse the delivery? But he keep saying the same and didn't really answer my question.

Inference

There is a high likelihood you cannot cancel the order or the shipment once you've placed the order and paid. It's likely that the product is going to be shipped and delivered even though you've initiated to cancel it in short time. The law might be at Lenovo's site they however clearly have an unfair ordering policy that they don't mention on their website.

Fighting back your money from Lenovo is painful. Their website reflects that refund is a straightforward and quick; 5 - 7 days but I think it's less than straightforward, took more than a month for me to get back my money I shouldn't had been charged for.

They fail to mention this on the phone, too, and just keep repeating the same. This makes me suspicious they would hide about other important things, too when it comes to deal with warranty or other issues require customer service.

Their system is inconsistent at numerous point and I think this could lead to other unexpected surprises dealing with them.

What I realized their number one priority is selling, not the customer.

Written on 7 January 2012, England.