Keith Lofstrom's IBM Rant Page

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http://www.keithl.com/ibm.html

Note - see semi-retraction below - rant left in place for historical purposes.

IBM: Love them or hate them? Well, I love what they are doing with open source. Their semiconductor fab is pretty good.

Their warranty support sucks.

They used to be great. I was sold on their product when I purchased a Thinkpad 560, many years ago, and it needed repair. I boxed it up in the original container, sent it to them at around 4PM. The tech called the next day, said it was fixed, and offered to upgrade the BIOS, with my permission. I had the machine repaired, upgraded, and back in my hands in less than 48 hours. Such above-and-beyond service is what IBM is famous for; that is why I used to be such a fan.

The first warning was when I got a marketing questionaire, asking what I liked about IBM. They asked about value per money (IBM is overpriced), performance (mediocre), software (no Linux), etc. They did not ask about the two reasons I bought IBM - service, and the trackpoint. Obviously, IBM did not know *why* they had customers. A bad sign.

The next warning was when they outsourced their repair to Solectron. This is like outsourcing your heart.

The third warning was when the travel charger I purchased fell apart. The silly thing has a 12V auto plug with a plastic screw/socket holding it together; because of a lousy fit, the screw fell out and the internal parts got lost. The power brick portion still worked fine. I asked for a replacement adapter, a part that is not labelled with an FRU. After a few days of arguing that the device that I purchased three months ago was still under the one year warranty despite their lousy records, they finally shipped me ... another power brick. Without the auto plug.

Then they sold their laptop division to the chinese company, Levono. Maybe it would get better? Hah ...

I travel around a LOT with my Thinkpad, and it gets plugged and unplugged from the ethernet about 3 times a day. They used a cheap connector for the internal ethernet, and finally one of the pins broke. I used a PCMCIA ethernet card, it was not worth sending in for just that. The paint flaked off the RAM cover. The bottom bumper failed. Finally, the machine started getting intermittent. So, still under warranty, I sent it in for repair. I instructed them to leave the RAM cover alone, BTW, I did not need another episode of flaking paint.

Getting their attention was a struggle. I first put a note up on the support website. After no answer for two days, I called. I have the shipping box the Thinkpad arrived in after the last repair, but they insisted on an extra day of delay while they shipped me a new box.

After a few days of no repair, I finally got a call from an officious sounding woman at Solectron. She said the machine (under an extended warranty that I paid hundreds of dollars for) had "user damage" and would cost $800 to repair. Because of the broken wire on the connector, they refused to fix it without more money, even though the cheap-ass connector that they designed in was the reason for the failure. What really frosts me is that I told them about the broken connector before I shipped them the unit; they could have told me they wouldn't fix it under warranty. They used the excuse of the broken connector to not do any of the other repairs I asked for.

Well, the machine just arrived. They did nothing about the intermittent failure, the bottom bumper is still broken ( a 5 second repair), the second RAM socket is now nonfunctional, and they replaced the RAM cover against my wishes. So I lost 8 days of use, and the machine is in worse shape than when I shipped it. That isn't just sloppy, that is malicious.

OK. I will live with less RAM. I will find a replacement ethernet socket and repair that myself. I will live with the damned system freezes - perhaps I can find something when I open the case. Though the machine still has 9 months left on the so-called warranty, IBM/Levono/Selectron is not honoring that warranty, so voiding it does not matter.

Metal fatigue in an inadequate connector is not "user damage", it is bad design. This posting is intented as user damage, and I hope that it damages some bad ideas and behaviors that have grown like cancer at IBM. And I hope everyone reading this will join me in a search for a different laptop manufacturer that is willing to stand by their products.

IBM and Levono, you blew it. I hope that other potential customers will read this, and corporate customers with some clout will inform IBM of the error of their ways. Perhaps IBM or Levono will learn something, and the idiots that gutted their service and support will be given the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere.

Important Semi-retraction At the suggestion of a fellow from North Carolina that fixes Thinkpads, I tried again to get the main board replaced; this time, I succeeded and the transaction was quite smooth. I first tried the web page request for service - no response for 24 hours, so I called the support number. This time, I talked with a pleasant gentleman whose speech was quite understandable; with his reassurance that I would be taken care of right this time, I send in my laptop on Monday afternoon. The machine arrived back on Wednesday morning, with a properly repaired RAM socket. So I assume I was unlucky with some of my previous attempts, and got some responsible and helpful people this time. I am sorry if my broadbrush complaint about Levono and Solectron besmirched the good people that work there.

The take home lesson is that large companies can have real saints working for them, and real jerks as well. Keep at it until you find a saint.

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last revision April 5, 2006