FYI: Lenovo / Thinkpads Suck in Customs

Hmmm. “Stuck in customs” That must be Canadian for “Backordered”.

Yes, they are good and I do like them. However, I can't honestly support any company whose major owner is the Chinese government.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a buy America type. I know that GM outsources most parts and work on their cars and I generally go with only the best I can buy – like Honda or Toyota, but to support the Chinese government just sucks. They should have their MFN status pulled and terrifs stuck on their goods, IMHO.

I work for Lenovo and we have 1000 systems right now stuck in customs… what a nightmare. Next time you want to order a system let me know and I will get you free priority next day shipping (after it gets out of customs..lol).
cmorra@ca.lenovo.com

You should have bought an Apple, dude!

Its been more than a week, I have had the same issue, Lenovo has been very ignorant about the problem. They didn't ship the boxes with correct docs and now its stuck in customs. Its in Ontario California USA not Ontario Canada. I am soooooo mad cause now I am losing money without a working laptop. Aahhhh so frustrating.

One caution on the T43P. I just got one. It won't boot off any drives but IBM/Lenovo labeled drives without stopping at the POST! IBM/Lenovo has updated the BIOS to check the drive firmware is their drive firmware. In addition the Hitachi travelstar drives are NOT updateable with the IBM Firmware updater. Means I have 1 80GB and two 100GB 7200RPM Hitachi drives that can only be used in the ultrabay.

After weeks and weeks on end, ups said it is lost.
Then it finally showed up yesterday.
NEVER AGAIN!!!

lenovo sucks.
It took 2 months to ship on an order proposed to be out in two weeks. Called yesterday to tell us now stuck in customs and believe will be out next week. Within time still waiting, they have a faster processor, faster hard drive, and the price has droped. There response, return the one in route and wait another two months.

Any update on the customs hassles?
I have a T42 that's been stuck there for two weeks.

My first experience with Lenovo and God it suks! I just cannot believe that they ship *each* laptop directly from China and dont have any warehouse in US. Why cant IBM handle that warehouse, afterall its still “IBM Thinkpad” not “Lenovo Thinkpad”. The website still mentions the “Availability” as within 2 weeks. Yeah the definition of “**” at the bottom of the page is “availability in inventory”, but for my order it took 8 weeks (yeah 8 weeks!) for the order to just SHIP. They changed the status from “Within 6 weeks to Within 2 weeks to Within 2-4 weeks”. Now the laptop is stuck in customs. I wonder if shipment to a wrong address is to follow this ordeal!
I'm not a die hard fan of IBM thinkpad, but the Z60t looked cool. I'd suggest anybody going for an IBM to look at this aspect of IBM Vs Others
A Dell in hand is worth way more than a Thinkpad stuck in customs!

Just ordered a Z60m, the est. ship date is 03/31/06!!!!! I don't how how could they need such a long time to build a laptop。。。

Came to this page searching for “Lenovo Customs”. I ordered a T43 on 11/30/05 and was shipped on 12/14/05 and is stuck in Customs at Kentucky since 12/15. I called Lenovo and they told that there are some 150 packages stuck in customs. I have no problems in waiting but the thing that is wrong from Lenovo side is that they never disclose it before accepting the order. I wanted to have the laptop before Christmas weekend and now thats already past… :-(
Anyways it seems that the problem is not specific to my package and many people face it.

I ordered a T43 on Dec 2. It was shipped out of Hong Kong on Dec 14. It has been in Louisville customs since 12/16. I had to call Lenovo for a tracking number. There have been 6 “Import Scans”.
I really wanted my computer before Christmas – no such luck! And they couldn't even get it here before the new year.
The Lenovo guy that I called said that it was “unusual” for it take this long. He couldn't elaborate anymore.
I want to know who screwed up. Is it because Lenovo didn't send the right customs documents? Or is there some snafu in Louisville?

Same problem here, except mine is stuck in Hong Kong. I bought it specifically for a trip starting in two weeks. If I don’t have it in time, I’m going to flip.

[...] So I ordered a Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop from NewEgg- it arrived yesterday and it’s leaving tomorrow for a trip to the Lenovo hospital for screwed up laptops. Why? I can’t get the display the work properly – the text is garbled beyond recognition – has been from the moment I started it up.I was on the phone last night at 11:30 PM with Lenovo support in GA trying to troubleshoot the problem but that was a dead-end. We checked BIOS versions, driver versions etc. but they ended up putting a box in the mail for me so I’ll be packing my new laptop up tomorrow for what will hopefully be a quick visit to the Lenovo hospital. I will say that Lenovo’s support services have been good so far. The website is easy to use, the pre-installed software is useful, and drivers and updates are easy to access. It was fairly easy to get a support technician on the phone, she was here in the U.S. and fairly competent although I think we got to the "send it back" solution a little too quickly – it was late so I’m willing to look past this – 24 hours real-person support is pretty cool.I’ll update this repost when the 3000 N100 returns from the hospital. I bought this laptop because it was well reviewed and Chris Pirillo had nice things to say about Lenovo.  Posted by Cale on Jun 27, 2006 [...]

Am one of those “real” tech support persons in GA and it is an absolute pleasure working with some of you in getting you up and running.

I ordered a T60 widescreen on 12/30/06. It cames on 1/8/07 that is pretty good coz the rep told me that it will come late. However, the unit is a lemon. The widescreen is the worse LCD display I have ever had in my life. It is even worser than my old T21! If you compare it side-by-side with Dell 8200, Lenovo 300N, Apple’s PowerMac, you can instantly tell the difference. Anyway, I called customer service to request a RMA for exchange. The customer service of Lenovo sucks big time. They are very unprofessional as comparing to the experience that I had with IBM T21 few years ago. They forgot to send me a pre-paid shipping label. So, I called them again… talking to those unprofessional agents again. Finally, the unit was sent back to IBM and now, it has been more than 1 week, I still haven’t heard a single word from Lenovo. It is so ridicoulous! So, I called Lenovo again today. Now, they said I have to wait for 10 days before I can get the replacement unit. So, I count the number of days I need to get a good unit. The answer is at least 30 days! (from Dec 30, 06 to Feb 9)…… I would not recommend anyone to buy anything from Lenovo! IBM era is over. Lenovo’s support is lousy! Never buy from Lenovo even though I am a fan of IBM.

I ordered a z61T in december’06 with a shipping date due on Jan 16. Not only did i not receive the notebook but the custosmer service reps and managers have been lying about the delay.

I spent more than 20 hours on the phone with the Lenovo customer service reps and they still dont know when my notebook will be shipped, one chap gives a discount and another takes back the discount and puts the price back to the original. One manager says it will be shipped in 2 days and the other says in 3 weeks.

They are all over the place, lying, lying and giving me pure BS. My order delivery date and price are so volatile, they keep changing every week.

/me is in a quandary. I wasted so much of my time just to understand whats going on.

/me is also still shamelessly somehow waiting for my thinkpad

lenovo you purely suck :(

my v100 is stuck in customs too…nice

Hey, cancel your Thinkpad orders if you haven’t yet gotten your laptop. I just got off the phone with Lenova support. My brand new laptop has an always-on pixel lit up in a very key area of the screen, additionally the keyboard shift keys don’t work most of the time and there is some sort of flap under the enter key that keeps making the enter key not depress all the way.

Lenova doesn’t care about the defective display they sold us, and they want to send us a keyboard and have us take apart the laptop and replace it. That’s all the options and they won’t let us talk to a supervisor.

So we got an RMA to return it for a refund. That is going to cost us 15%, or $240 in real money.

Brand new defective Thinkpad laptop, $1600. $240 for a refund. Will be contacting credit card insurance.

I’ve learned my lesson. No more Thinkpad.

i have a ibm t21 made in mexico it is a very very very very good laptop but once lenovo bought ibm’s thinkpad department they started to suck big time of couse that tarnished ibm’s repand there legendary thinkpad. but of corse chris doesn’t know what he’s saying i have tried every laptop made from ibm’s to itronix. and when my mother worked at at&t they used the thinkpads and supposeably they lasted the longest if you want something tough to last for like 10 years then get a panasonic toughbook if you are cheap then get a dell. but if your stupid like most peps then you end up getting a dell made in china so ibm t series are good the pre paid shipping lable isn’t the laptops fault yet human fault like most pepole make mistakes there afraid to admit it im not but i have had plenty of laptops in my day and the best are older modles such as t series ibm’s panasonic cf-27 the compaq lte5400 also hp pavillion ze4900 series and there is one more i have tried and i like are the fujitsu stylistic lt and point 1600 those are great now the worst are dells crapy hinges and the plastics suck now lenovo’s plastics suck to there not intergraded with magnesium like advertied just strate plastic and is very thin. also they are plan crapy chinese shit but anyways dell is the same and also sony has had the cheapest cap’s like dells mobo’s also a few modle sharp laptops are very great to own and reliable. i have tried ibooks and there ok but im a microsoft geek so i had to get use to it but there crapy especially with startup shut down.

I have been using IBM laptops for 15 years and the latest one i bought was Z60 ( whatever called Lenovo ).

But since Lenovo bought the PC division from IBM, things are worst and worst. I had many bad experience with customer service. I bought a laptop without a CD and have to pay 50 bucks if I want to have a copy.

I will buy a apple mac soon and will get rid of this Lenovo. Most of my friends start hating Lenovo products and services.