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.
That’s great that you got your problem solved. But really, what would the chances have been for some regular "Joe" without a powerful and widely-read blog of obtaining the same result? Not great.I hate to nitpick with you Joe, but you’re letting Lenovo off the hook way too easy here. I’ve seen it happen before with radio talk show hosts, bloggers — anyone who has a bully pulpit to publicize their bad experiences with a company. Of course, the company is interested in nipping bad customer juju in the bud, especially when it gets mass-circulated. But for every squeaky wheel that gets silenced, a thousand otherwise voiceless users are still left out in the cold.You say that "even the actions of one person reveal the ‘culture’ of a company." Really? If you really believe that, I challenge you (or anyone else) to put it to the test. Call the support line a month from now and see how quickly your call gets answered then. Let’s truly see how much Lenovo Mark reflects the true "culture" of this company. Good luck.
Of course I had an advatage
But I know what happens when I have this sort of encounter with a customer.I follow up, I drive change, I bitch, moan and complain for the customer, I go up themanagement chain if I don’t get responses. Big organizations don’t change on a dime and support is tricy as it diorectly cuts into proffits. You would be STAGGERED at the laziness of the avereage person. More thna half of the questions I get in email would have been easily solved with a simple google search but the sender was just too lazy to do it on their onw. My point is – there is hope.I will take your suggestion though – in a few months I’ll call the support line and blog my results 
Joe,Thanks for the kind words and follow up on this.I do appreciate your blogging ethics and sense of fairness.I will follow up with our web teams to see what can be done to improve our navigation path and clarity of our phrasing.Going through the site with you, I completely understand your click rationale.Best regards,Mark
Once again, this is good to hear for one who is starting to look for a new machine!I’m glad Mark spotted your earlier blog and set things straight because I had written them off before.
I think you have to give them some credit for also searching for what is being said about them online and then reacting if needed. A lot of manufacturers don’t even do that.
I agree John !!