Hi

This blog is about the nightmare of travelling with a Lenovo computer.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad T410 laptop purchased in Germany. On 9 September 2011, a Friday afternoon, when I switched the computer on in Manaus, Brazil, it showed the message “fan error” and went off again. Further attempts to switch it on led to the same result.

By Saturday morning, I had found out the phone number of Lenovo’s ThinkPad support in Brazil: 0800-701-4815. But unfortunately, their business hours are only Monday to Friday, 8 A.M. to 6 P.M.

So I called them Monday morning, 12 September. I reported the problem and was told that the local service partner in Manaus, Digital TI (www.digitalti.com.br), would get in touch with me within 48 hours to fix the computer.

On 14 September, when the 48 hours were over and I hadn’t heard from Digital TI, I called them. I was told that due to a technical problem, they had only received Lenovo’s email about my computer the previous day, i.e. with a one-day delay, but that they had already ordered the necessary spare part from Lenovo, which should arrive Friday, 16 September, or Monday, 19 September.

Monday, 19 September, I called Digital TI again to ask if the spare part had arrived. As the company’s operator failed to put me through to the technical support department in three separate calls, I gave up for the day and tried again Tuesday morning. After two more unsuccessful attempts to put me through on the phone, I decided to pay Digital TI a visit.

When I got there, I was told that the shipment of the spare part had not even been authorized by Lenovo yet, but that Digital TI would try immediately to get the shipment approved. They’d get back to me by noon the following day, Wednesday, 21 September.

They didn’t get back to me. So I went there again Wednesday afternoon, only to learn that the spare part shipment had still not been approved and that the only person who could approve it was at a conference and couldn’t be reached.

The next day, Thursday, 22 September, I went to Digital TI once again and was told that the shipment had been approved and that the spare part should arrive at the beginning of the following week.

After that, I didn’t hear from Digital TI anymore until I went there yet again on Tuesday, 27 September, to find out what was going on. And I couldn’t believe what they told me that day, though it wasn’t any different from what they had told me the previous week: The shipment of the spare part had not yet been approved by Lenovo, but they would do their best do get it approved immediately, so that it would arrive in Manaus in about four working days.

Later that week, Digital TI told me that the shipment of the spare part had finally been approved, but when I returned there the following week, it had still not arrived, so that Digital TI ordered it once more.

On Friday, 7 October, Digital TI forwarded me an email which shows that Lenovo did actually approve the shipment of the spare part on 29 September. Nevertheless, they simply didn’t send it.

Through the forwarded email, I got to know the name and email address of Cybele Alves (calves@lenovo.com), the woman at Lenovo who informed Digital TI that the shipment of the spare part had been approved. So I’ve sent her three emails, asking what is going on, but she doesn’t answer.

Today, 13 October, a month and a day after I first called Lenovo, I got an email from Digital TI telling me that the necessary spare part is in the process of being imported. It beggars belief that it should take Lenovo that long to say that they simply don’t have the piece here in Brazil.