The verdict is in on IBM
...and the verdict is GUILTY. Guilty of providing excellent service, that is!
Okay, enough of the camp. Seriously, they really did an outstanding job fixing my Thinkpad -- far better than I had been expecting.
My Thinkpad's problem was pretty severe. It seems that after using the computer for three years, ten or more hours a day, and opening and shutting the lid (the part with the screen) at least once each day, the hinge wore out. That is, the hinge that holds the lid to the main unit. The connections inside that hinge -- the ones that send the video information to the screen -- had become so frazzled that the bottom inch and a half of the screen would swirl with random pixels... and then fade to white, conveniently rendering that crucial bottom inch and a half of the screen totally unusable.
Since I still had a month left on my three-year warranty, I called up IBM to see what could be done, thinking of course that they'd find every reason to charge me for the problem, or say that I must have dropped it or something. I thought, even if I have to shell out a couple hundred bucks to get this thing fixed, it would still be cheaper than fully replacing it.
So IBM sent me a box to pack my laptop in -- they paid for shipping, both ways -- and I sent the laptop off. I steeled myself for the inevitable phone call:
"Mr. Howell, it appears that this laptop has suffered damage that did not, as you say, come from daily use, but more likely from an incident in which it appears to have been dropped."...but that call didn't happen. They did call me once, to report that one of the problems I'd listed was no longer a problem. Which was great.
"But I didn't drop it, it wore out."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Howell, I understand that, but all I know is what the tech people tell me, and they say it was dropped, and I don't have the authority to change that status."
"Can I talk to the tech people?"
"No, I'm sorry, we can't do that. I'm showing here that if you would like to have the unit repaired, we can do that, but it's going to cost you... let's see... Ahem. I'm showing here that to repair the unit, it's going to cost $867.24."
"Forget about it. Send it back."
"Okay, we'll do that. We thank you for being a customer, and thank you for calling IBM."
They completely replaced the screen -- and I can't understate how amazing this is -- and I'm pretty sure they replaced the whole lid as well. They also took care of replacing the speakers, which, for some reason, always rattled. No charge for any of it. Just a fixed laptop, back in my hands at 10:30 am. Total turnaround: four business days.
These are the moments when you're grateful for the headaches you didn't have in doing something that shouldn't be an ordeal, but for some reason always turns into one. To contrast, I bought my desktop from Dell, and instead of sending me the full $100 rebate they offered with the machine, they cut the check for $50. Which wasn't the deal. And two weeks into it, I still haven't heard from their customer service [sic] department to fix this. Sigh. But back to the raving: IBM just earned a customer for life. I've always been a fan of their laptops' design and features -- now I'm completely sold on the company. I highly highly highly recommend.
Posted by Matt at June 12, 2003 11:16 AM
