• ExchangeSaga

The exchange saga — Murphy's law in action

This is a log of a problem that DavidEccles had with one of his laptops, pombe. The time is from when the specific instance of the problem was first noticed, to when issues relating to the replacement had been resolved.

Note: I use IBM and Lenovo interchangeably here.

• 06/01/06 -- Phoned an IBM technical support person (D1), who somehow encouraged me to log a complaint regarding the laptop being "repaired" multiple times without a fix
• 10/01/06 -- Called by D2, who left a message asking me to call back
  • Called back, noticed that laptop appeared to be working again. Decided to wait until the next time it broke down
• 11/01/06 -- Phoned IBM Support, told that they would call back
  • Called by a person at the IBM Service centre, who got me to take the laptop apart, and remove a few things until it started to beep at me. That beep never happened, even after removing the hard drive and memory
  • Called by another IBM person (G1), who gave me a call reference number, and mentioned that someone would be sent to look at the computer in person
• 12/01/06 -- Phoned IBM again, told that a technician might arrive before 5pm the next day (13th). After realising that I couldn't make that, it was rescheduled for Monday
  • Called by the technician (A1), who left a message asking me to ring back to arrange a time
• 13/01/06 -- Phoned A1, arranging a meeting on Monday (16th)
• 16/01/06 -- A1 arrived, replaced thermal grease on the CPU. Laptop worked after that, so A1 left.
  • sent email to A1, after the laptop went into the freeze state during the night. I noticed that if I removed the battery and left the laptop for 20 minutes, then it recovered. This was likely to be due to the laptop being in the early stages of the problem.
• 17/01/06 -- Noticed that the laptop didn't recover after being left overnight with the battery out and power disconnected (It was suggested that this would reset the sensors in the laptop, so it could start again), so I phoned A1 again. It was mentioned that a new system board and CPU would be ordered.
  • Phoned D2, who mentioned that they would get in touch with the help centre to try to speed things through.
  • I noticed that pushing my palms hard down on the keyboard (when the laptop was turned off) would make things start working again. This suggested to me that there was a connection / wire somewhere that had come loose.
• 19/01/06 -- Called by D2, who left a message saying that IBM/Lenovo had agreed to replace the machine with another model.
  • I phoned D2 back to confirm that I accepted the offer of replacement, and was told that I would be called back when a suitable replacement model number would be found.
• 20/01/06 -- Phoned by D2, who suggested a replacement model 184732M. This model has a 802.11B/G wireless card, 1.73GHz CPU, and ATI M22-64(x300) video card.
  • I phoned back, realised that my laptop had a 40GB hard drive, and accepted the replacement.
  • D2 called me back, and said that a letter of replacement would be faxed to the SBS offiice
  • I signed off the letter of replacement, and faxed it back to IBM. The letter basically said that I accepted the offer of a 184732M in exchange for my old laptop, and that exchange would be the end of the issues with my laptop.

• 21/01/06 -- pombe froze while running Linux, and wouldn't restart when I cycled the power. I pushed down on the keyboard, and things started working again.

• 23/01/06 -- I phoned D2, and it was confirmed that the fax had been received. The computer was apparently meant to arrive at my doorstep by the end of the month.
• 03/02/05 -- I phoned up IBM, and was passed onto a new customer service representative, J1, who will manage my case from now on. The ETA of the laptop was now February 15th.
• 07/02/05 -- The laptop appeared at my house, dropped off by Fliway Couriers

  • I phoned J1, mentioned that the laptop had arrived, and arranged pickup of pombe for the next Monday

  • Later on in the day when I unpacked the replacement, I noticed that the laptop had a cracked screen, so phoned up J1 to tell them the bad news.
  • Called on my cellphone by someone who sounded like D1, to be called back on the landline at my house.
  • Called back by D1 (or similar), logged a DOA complaint, and was told to expect a DOA number in a few days.
• 09/02/06 -- Called by D1 (or similar), given a DOA number
  • Phoned J1, to work out what to do next, transferred to V1. V1 said that I needed to speak with M1, who would phone me when they returned from a break.
  • About an hour later, I phoned M1, and left a message for M1 to phone me.
  • I then phoned J1, but again got a voicemail message, and left a message for J1 to phone me.
  • Called by another IBM technical support person, M2, who mentioned that they would now take over arranging the pickup of laptops and delivery of replacements.
  • Called about an hour later by J1, who said that M2 would be sorting out my laptop replacements.
• 14/02/06 -- I phoned M2, asking for an update on the status of the laptop. I was told that I would be phoned "shortly".
  • 5 hours later, I phoned M2 again, but didn't get a real person this time. I left a message asking to be phoned on my cellphone.
  • Phoned up J1 (no real person), and left a message asking to be phoned on my cellphone.
  • Called by V1, who told me that M2 was getting a few things together about my problem, but nothing more specific was available. I was told that it should be sorted in 2-3 days.
• 16/02/06 -- I was called by V1, who told me that M2 had arranged the pickup of the old computer, and the replacement should be delivered at home on ~24th February. They were trying to get that sped up. I asked them to call me back in about an hour, to talk about the pickup process.
  • I phoned V1 about 3 hours later (no real person), and left a message asking them to call me back.
• 17/02/06 -- I phoned M1 and received a GPU number (apparently required for picking up the laptop), and was told that the replacement should get to me no later than the 24th.
  • I phoned up M1 (no real person), because it was mentioned that they were looking for details on the original purchase of the laptop. I left a message mentioning the date of purchase (15th March, 2004), serial number and invoice number of the laptop.
• 20/02/06 -- Called at home by Fliway Couriers. This time I wasn't there, but they were told to call my cellphone.
  • Called by V1, who told me that the old laptop would be picked up in the next day or so. I was given an additional code for the return of the replacement.
• 22/02/06 -- Phoned up Fliway, getting confused about the different numbers, and was told that I needed to phone up IBM to get a job number from them before Fliway could deal with me.
  • I Phoned up M2, who said that the GPU number should be enough of a reference for Fliways.
  • I phoned up Fliway again, and got an out of office reply, saying that they should be called back during business hours the next day.
• 23/02/06 -- Phoned up Fliway regarding the pickup of the laptop. Neither the GPU number nor the other reference number helped in tracking down the job. I was told that I would be phoned back once they had worked out what was going on.

• 24/02/06 -- Phoned up Fliway, wondering if cutora could be picked up at the same time as the cracked replacement.

  • Called by Fliways and I gave them the invoice number of the DOA laptop. I was told that I would be phoned back on my cellphone before lunchtime.
• 27/02/06 -- Phoned up IBM and mentioned my problem to the operator, S1, who put me through to IBM service, then to customer care. I was given a new case number, and told that I would be called back within 1 business day.
  • I phoned up Ascent and spoke to C1 regarding the purchase of my original laptop. I mentioned that IBM were still struggling with finding details about my original purchase, and was told that if I got a fax number, then the original invoice could be sent through by Ascent.
  • I phoned up M2, who told me that there was a constraint on a computer part that would not be resolved until mid-March. I was told that a 184722M model was available instead. He gave me a fax number for sending the invoice to.
  • I phoned up Ascent and gave them the fax number. During this phone call, I got a message from Fliway regarding the pickup of the laptops.

  • I phoned back Fliway, and arranged the pickups for the next morning. By that time, they had sorted out what the numbers that I had been given meant (GPU: replacement laptop; other reference number: pombe).

  • I phoned up M2 to let them know about the Fliway pickup the next day.
• 28/02/06 -- Both broken laptops were picked up from my home by Fliway Couriers.
  • Called by C1 at Ascent, who had found the invoice and would fax it off to M2.
  • Called by an IBM "Middle man", who was not aware of the change in availability of the parts. I was told that V1 would phone me back ASAP (before the end of Australian business that day).
  • Received an email from M2 regarding the replacement. Another model (18605EM) had been found that should be available fairly quickly. The difference was that this one has Intel 900 graphics, rather than an ATI x300.
  • I sent off a reply to M2, letting them know that the replacement was acceptable.
• 02/03/06 -- I phoned up IBM, and spoke to a customer care person in Wellington, P1, who would work out what was going on and get back to me in 10 minutes or so.
  • Called by P1 (about 20 minutes later), who said that my new case number from the 27th had not been logged. P1 mentioned that they would talk to V1 to work out what was going on.
  • Called again by P1, who gave me a direct Wellington number, and mentioned that they were trying to contact M2, who had a "do not disturb" setting on his contact device.
  • Received an email from M2, who said that the new laptop would be delivered on Monday 06/03/06.
• 06/03/06 -- I phoned up Fliway (their Auckland branch), and was told that I needed to get a consignment number from Lenovo.
  • I phoned up P1, who mentioned that they would hunt round and get back to me about the delivery.
  • Called by P1, who had an export number, but not a consignment number, and didn't think the export number would be useful (didn't give me that number). P1 had been trying to get in touch with the Auckland contact, but had no luck at that point.
  • Called again by P1, who said that the new laptop had arrived in Auckland, and would get to Wellington by 12 noon the next day.
• 07/03/06 -- The new laptop model 18605EM arrived at home with no apparent defects. I phoned P1, and left a message about the arrival of the laptop.

  • I noticed that the 515Mb of extra memory that I had purchased for cutora was not compatible with the new laptop, so phoned P1 again, and left a message about this.

• 08/03/06 -- Called by P1, who told me that someone else (S2) might phone up regarding the memory. I told P1 that I should be okay, as it appeared to be a DDR/DDR2 compatibility problem, and not an issue with the construction of the laptop itself.

At the end of it all, I managed to clock up at least 64 phone calls, over a period of two months. Average talk time was probably about 10 minutes, and I tried whenever I called to make cellphone toll-free calls (if I was in a suitable place for good cellphone reception). My impressions at the end of it were that the individual people were great and very helpful, but the combination of code numbers required to get to the next step, and a lack of communication between people, meant that the issues took a long time to be resolved.