The Last ThinkPad I Will Ever Own

This post is inspired by frustration, humiliation, and finally disappointment.  After being a loyal ThinkPad customer for almost 15 years, my relationship with the brand must come to an end.  Mind you, this is no small concern.  Brand loyalty is the holy grail among companies and organizations who understand the power of customer lifetime value (CLTV).  Lenovo, the proud (relatively) new owners of the ThinkPad brand apparently don’t understand CLTV.

Despite their being under contract with rival Dell, I convinced my employer to purchase a ThinkPad for me, citing my excellent run with them in the past.  So, I acquired my first Lenovo brand ThinkPad (all of the previous ones, about 8 of them in total, had been made by IBM).  Upon arrival, my brand new premium priced top-of-the-line X200s had a sound problem.  A loud static-y “pop” at the end of playing back audio files.  Not good for a professor who uses the laptop through a loud PA in an auditorium full of business students.  Lenovo customer service had me send it back in for repair under warranty.  Patiently, I did as I was told.  During the week it was gone, I fell back to using my trusty IBM X31 that I’ve had for almost four years now.  The Lenovo was returned a week later with a signed letter from the technician.  Parts had been replaced and it was their goal to ensure “I was completely satisfied” with the service.   After sending it in, waiting a week, and receiving it back, the “repaired” ThinkPad had the same problem.

I called again and was dumb-founded by Lenovo’s request to return it again to the same place as before, despite the fact that they offer on-site warranty service.  They were quick to remind me that I had not paid for that service, which is true.  But my argument with them was that the second time around should constitute an extra effort on their part to go above and beyond their policy in the interest of customer service.  They refused.  With hat in hand, I must tell my organization that the ThinkPad is not what it once was.  Hence the humiliation.

As a consumer behavior researcher, it is an interesting phenomenon to actually feel so let down by a brand that I’ve been loyal to for so long. Lenovo took a great brand and ran the quality into the ground on two fronts: engineering and customer service. I once extolled the virtues of ThinkPads at every chance.  Now, the relationship is over.  It’s sad, really.  Hence, the disappointment.  Hence, this post.  Hence, the case study I intend to write up on this.  Hence, the passionate negative word-of-mouth I will disseminate using every opportunity I have as a consumer and certainly as a professor in marketing — henceforth and forever until the end of time. 

Goodbye and good luck Lenovo.  Your executive turnover and 27.4% drop in year-on-year profits makes sense to me now.

Yours,

Dr. Rader