I got lots of email about my Lenovo post and tweets yesterday.

Lenovo never did answer the phone.

Even the internal Microsoft Lenovo Reps never followed up.

But,

"Mark" from Lenovo read my blog posting and emailed me.

When I replied he immediately phoned me.

Not only did he commit to ship me a new keyboard, but he spent time with me on the Lenovo web site to determine exactly which phone number I called so that he could follow up at Lenovo to improve both the phone response and the web site.

Now I know some of you are saying, "yea, but you work for Microsoft and I've had bad service from you guys, so you have nothing to complain about!"

Bad service at Microsoft makes me furious and I literally spend hours every day "servicing" developers who contact me from all over the world. All the guys I work with at Microsoft feel the same way I do about helping our customers.

So, it's not when systematic things (like a phone system problem or a web design mistake) cause a terrible customer support experience that makes me nuts, it's when that bad experience is followed by apathy !

"Lenovo Mark" (I do know his real name but didn't ask his permission to publish it so I'll call him "Lenovo Mark") took an enthusiastic approach to solving what was a simple problem.

Though he offered to have an on-site tech to my office "next day", I declined since all I needed was a replacement keyboard.

Mark shipped it over night. It arrived before 10:00AM today, it took 5 minutes to install and I'm typing on it right now.

No company is perfect, but even the actions of one person reveal the "culture" of a company.

If I hated my Lenovo Laptops, I suppose it would matter less to me, but I LIKE the hardware.

Thanks to Mark for turning a horrible support experience into a great one !

---- FOLLOW UP

It turns our I was on hold with a SALES line. After looking up my warantee information I clicked in a call link labeled services whihch was not, in fact, for "service" as in technical support, but as in the sale of "services".

Upon more detailed searching I did find a list of "Technical Support NUmbers"

Mark challenged me to try THAT support call and see how long I waited !

I called three times.

I NEVER got put on hold, and the longest it took me to get to a real human service representative was 70 Seconds (Note, that's SECONDS not minutes.)

Though I did spend 4 hours on hold with Lenovo - it was not with Technical Support !

Could the web site have been more clear - yes.

Could the copious verbal messages on the service sales live provided some iodentification that would have suggested I was in the wrong place - yes.

Could the Lenovo customer been a bit smarter - ok, yes : )

It almost makes me look forward to the next time I need support.