Last Friday Lenovo told me my new laptop would ship this Monday, or “much much sooner”. Monday I called to check the status – seeing as how the online status page still was not updated – to be told that due to constraints it would not ship until the 27th. The agent was unable to explain how over the weekend the ship date slipped 10 days. Aggravating.

Today I decided to check once more. The online order page was updated, now showing the purchase price (again) after weeks of showing zero. I thought, wow, maybe this train will leave the station after all. Called in again, today they tell me that it will now ship on the 29th! In one day it has slipped another 2 days!

I decided to cancel. I need to get a machine here in time to get my stuff settled before the Summit, and more I just have no faith in Lenovo at this point. I suspect the product will be good when it ships, but if something breaks I’d hate the thought of shipping it back. Nothing about their service so far has been good.

The agent asked me to reconsider. I stick with cancel. He mentions that I will lose my discount. Ok, thanks, still want to cancel. He tells me it will ship on the 29th, or maybe sooner. Yeah, cancel. Finally defeated,he explains that they cannot “guarantee cancellation” and that it will take 3-5 days. What does that mean? I don’t know. I suggested that I could guarantee I wouldn’t pay. End of call,a couple hours later I got the cancellation confirmation, which I guess doesn’t always take 3-5 days.

I contemplated trying to reach out to someone way up at Lenovo, and had it been a case of a product received but not correct I might have. Instead, I’m going to vote with my wallet and spend that good chunk of money with another vendor. Will that vendor be better? Hard to know, but at least will be different!

All it would have taken to keep me as a customer was solid, accurate, honest communication. I was already sold. I researched, picked it, and could wait until the 29th if it came to that.