Kudos to Lenovo: Customer service redefined, or re-established?

Kudos to Lenovo who I called yesterday to get a replacement key for my X1 laptop keypad.

After spending time on their website including finding the part number, sku and other information, I could not figure out how to actually order the part. Concerned about calling and getting routed between different call centers as is too often the case, I finally decided to give a try on the phone route.

I was surprised, no, shocked at how quick and easy it was once I got routed to the Atlanta Lenovo support center to get what I needed.

Thus late yesterday late afternoon when I called, the Atlanta Lenovo agent was able to take my laptop serial number, make and model, description of what part was needed all without transferring to other persons. They then made arrangements for not a new replacement key, rather an entire new keyboard with total phone time probably less than 15 minutes.

This morning by 10:30AM CT a box with the new replacement keyboard arrived. In-between calls and other work, in a matter of minutes the old keyboard was removed, the new one installed, tested and I now get to type normally instead of dealing with a broken Y key.

In less than 24 hours from making the call, UPS arrived back to pickup the old keyboard to return to the depot.

Here are some photos for you propeller (tech heads or geek’s) beginning with the X1 keyboard and broken key before the replacement.

The following shows the keyboard removed looking towards the screen with the key board flat cables still installed. Note that the small black connectors (two of them) flip-up and the cables slide out (or in for installation).

In this photo, you can see one of the two keyboard connectors, plus where the Samsung SSD I installed replaces the HDD that the X1 shipped with. Also shown are the Sierra wireless 4G card that I use while traveling that provides an alternative when others are trying to figure out how to use available public WiFi.

In this image, you can see the DRAM (e.g. memory) along with two connectors where the keyboard cables connect to before cables have been reconnected.

With the new cables connected, keyboard reinstalled and tested, the old key board has been boxed up up, return shipping sticker applied, UPS called and the box picked up, on its way back to Lenovo.

For that, Kudos to Lenovo for delivering on what in the past taken for granted as good customer service and support, however in these days, all to often is the exception.

Next time somebody asks why I use Lenovo ThinkPad’s guess what story I will tell them.

Ok, nuff said for now

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

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