schlitt.info - php, photography and private stuff
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:Author: 		Tobias Schlitt
:Date:			Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:29:46 +0100
:Revision: 		1
:Copyright:		CC by-nc-sa


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That's why I pay so much for a notebook...
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:Description:
    Yesterday (and today) I had an experience, which showed me once again, why
    I pay so much for a high quality notebook. During our (currently daily)
    learning sessions, the keyboard of my 1.5 years old IBM Thinkpad T43p lost
    it's backspace key. Somewhat annoyed I opened a support call on the IBM
    website (luckily, IBM has 3 years of guarantee) about it and (while having
    the chance) I added anothe issue with the notebook I now had for about 2-3
    months. This one was, that I had a bunch of weird light-gray dots on my
    display, which actually looked like tiny liquid splashes. I was not able
    to kill them with a towel and therefore added the phenomenon to the
    support call, too. Anyway, I did not expect IBM to react on that issue,
    because it simply did not look like a guarantee issue to me.

Yesterday (and today) I had an experience, which showed me once again, why I
pay so much for a high quality notebook. During our (currently daily) learning
sessions, the keyboard of my 1.5 years old IBM Thinkpad T43p lost it's
backspace key. Somewhat annoyed I opened a support call on the IBM website
(luckily, IBM has 3 years of guarantee) about it and (while having the chance)
I added anothe issue with the notebook I now had for about 2-3 months. This
one was, that I had a bunch of weird light-gray dots on my display, which
actually looked like tiny liquid splashes. I was not able to kill them with a
towel and therefore added the phenomenon to the support call, too. Anyway, I
did not expect IBM to react on that issue, because it simply did not look like
a guarantee issue to me.

After entering the support ticket, I went for a coffee, leaving my cellphone
in another room. When I returned back (about half an hour later), IBM had
already tried to call me back. A look at the trouble ticket showed me, that
they already had taken 3 steps: 1. "Customer called". 2. "Problem strategy
defined". And 3. "Mechanican will come out". The 3rd step actually wondered me
most, because I don't have the extended on-site guarantee and expected to get
a request to send the notebook. Whatever, 2 hours later, IBM tried calling me
again and finally reached me. The question was, if I would be at home today
between 11 and 1, which I agreed on, and they promised to send me a technican
for repair.

Around 12 today the mechanican turned up, took a look at my keyboard and
(which wondered me a bit) at the display. Around 45 minutes later I had a
brand new keyboard and '*a brand new display* in my thinkpad and he was gone
again.

I am really amazed by this support! Not really 20 hours after my support call
arrived, they finished repair, sent someone on-site and also exchanged the
display. Fantastic! Now I really know, why I pay such a price for a piece of
hardware!


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Comments
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- caillou at Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:13:51 +0100

  nice to read this... here in switzerland, things are not that good with ibm.
  take a look at our old x60 blog about the replacement battery:

  http://www.williambrownstreet.net/Linuxblog/index.php?itemid=43

  cheerz ... caillou

- till at Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:15:37 +0100

  I just love my IBM x40. Using it (almost) every day 10+ hours, it hasn't let
  me down once in over three years now.

  If anyone can match that with Dell, Toshiba, Acer or something else, I'd be
  interested to hear them. ;)