For the last few weeks, the machine started displaying odd behavior, such as rebooting if I moved it or picked it up, and freezing up. Finally, last weekend, when it froze up and I attempted to reboot it, it merely showed me the splash screen and refused to boot any further.

When I called support, I was told that the billing department was not in during the weekends and that I would have to call back on Monday to be pre-approved before I could send the laptop in. When I did call back, no one could figure out what I was talking about. Finally after about a half hour on hold, I was transferred to billing, who took my credit card information and told me I'd be getting a box to send the laptop in. I was quoted a general range of prices, depending on what the problem might be.

I sent the laptop in, and never did hear from anyone what the problem was or what would be done to fix it. To my surprise, I received it back quickly, with a sheet explaining that my motherboard and CPU had been replaced. So I started up the laptop, and lo and behold, it still refused to boot past the splash screen.

When I called customer service back to explain that I had received my laptop back supposedly fixed, but still with exactly the same problem as when I sent it in, I was told that it had been fixed and tested and had worked fine with their hard drive. However, when I asked if they had tested it with my hard drive, he admitted that they hadn't.

He further told me since the machine could boot to BIOS but not Windows, that that was a Windows software issue and not their problem. He told me that if I wanted them to re-image my hard drive, it would cost a further $187 (on top of the $600 I found out they had charged for the hardware replacement). I was also told that if I wanted to do it myself, I needed to reinstall Windows. I asked how I was supposed to do that if I couldn't boot my laptop. He said I needed a recovery disk. However he also told me that they no longer provided recovery disks and that I would have to contact my re-seller for one. He also gave me a URL for new drivers he said I needed to download (it was not explained to me how I would download drivers if I couldn't boot the machine. I know there are ways, but I was pretty frustrated by then).

And that was it. He told me, "So that's what you need to do, OK?"

I have been very disappointed with IBM's Thinkpad support for many years now. So, I cannot say that I am surprised with the problems that people have been having with Lenovo.

My last straw with IBM was with a Thinkpad X21 (now a few years old). This thing is a piece of crap. I had an on-site warranty, but the chuckle-heads that IBM contracts to repair things are a joke. One of the repair techs admitted that he had never worked on a Thinkpad before---usually only the larger IBM products. (It was really sad, too. Really big guy, really tiny screws don't go together.)

Anyhow, I gave up on the on-site thing, and started sending it to their IBM's laptop repair facility on a regular basis, so I got another laptop (an HP 1100 Tablet PC---one of the few laptops that have a touchpoint-like pointer) to use when mine was constantly away being tweaked.

So, after no fewer than nine trips to IBM, they never did fix the problem (if you raise the X21 without a docking station with one hand, the X21 will hang or turn off.) (There is way too much flex in this laptop case.) I cannot complain too much about IBM's thinkpad support because I have only had the computer returned to me twice where it will not start.

Needless to say, I will not be purchasing another Thinkpad for a looooong while. It was not the only Thinkpad I have had problems with, and I have had some good experiences with HP and Sony laptops. As for DELL, Halloween is a good time to discuss the horror stories I have heard from many people.

[end rant mode]

I guess I am trying to say that IBM's support had been waining for a few years now, and Lenovo is being blamed for what has been the inevitable result of IBM's support trends for this product line.

It is really too bad when the CEOs, top managers, and Boards of Directors of major companies become subservient to their bottom line such that they care more about the bottom line and lining their collective greedy pockets than preserving the reputation and long life of their companies. This has become a way of life for the industrial life blood of the American culture and the computer industry is not immune. We wonder why our crucial steel industry has declined so much and lost so much stock value and it is because the owners and CEO's have raped the value of their companies by allowing the production plants themselves to wear out and deteriorate and thus the products decline in quality until the best steel products in quantity now come from off-shore. The same can be said for textiles, cement production, semiconductors, silicon wafers for semiconductors, production equipment for semiconductors, and more recently with the aircraft manufacturing industry.

A major aircraft manufacturer has been domestically laying off their highly experienced engineers and technical specialists for many years and shipping those functions off to India, Moscow, Russia, and other parts unknown. When incompetent engineers and support people at IBM screw up, a computer catastrophically fails and people get very irritated. When designs for airplanes are produced by incompetent and inexperienced engineers and then manufactured by incompetent and inexperienced personnel, airplanes fail catastrophically and people die. But what the heck, the people who caused this problem in the first place are long gone, having siphoned off millions in bonuses, dividends, and golden parachutes into their pockets and are well into retirement with no guilty conscience that serious debris and destruction has been left in their wake. They have their money, they just don't care about anyone else.

Universal greed is a total abomination and is rapidly decreasing the real intrinsic value of many companies, in some cases making their stock market price not representative of their true value. True company value is diminished and walks out the door every time an experienced person quits or is laid off, often by the thousands. When those functions are moved off-shore to be provided by low-paid inexperienced and incompetent engineers, the intrinsic value to the company is further severely diminished because the product of their labors will likely be deficient and flawed meaning that the results of their labors translate directly into defective final products, which may be airplanes. In many cases, the supposed savings created by eliminating experienced personnel is then converted to a bogus savings and bogus profit which is then converted to a bogus corporate dividend which is then siphoned off and pocketed by the CEOs and top managers with bonuses and the major stock holders with dividends before the market price tumbles and leaves the rest of us with essentially worthless stock.

It used to be that products were once chosen based on their features. Now the prudent buyer of products with significant value will also check the financial stability of the manufacturer and perhaps even the internal management philosophies. HP used to be considered the #1 employer in the USA for the treatment of its employees, the quality of its products, and a sure knowledge that anything you bought at HP would not only be the technical leader in its field, but that the quality would be unsurpased. More recent HP leadership has totally violated HP's own internal core values and now we see the result. It appears that IBM is going that way as well. What a shame for national treasures that have now become tarnished and corroded. We aren't dead yet because the wise among with us always choose carefully and vote with our wallets. Maybe it is not too late for some industries to turn around. Maybe it is too late. If it is too late, then we had all best get used to be service providers and get along on service provider's wages because that is the inevitable outcome.

- It started when I tried to place a web order in the evening for a tax exempt institution.

- The tax exempt status has to be set up by phone.

- They man the phones only 5 days a week. What other web merchant does that?

- Even when they claim to be open, you have to leave voicemail for the sales people!

- who then don't call back within the time they said they would.

- The salesman then transferred me to a third world country connected by a low quality phone line to someone who could hardly speak English.

- That person then ignored my statement about the problem I was having retrieving my cart and told me to try the stock answers that had already failed.