Lenovo Outlet Store – 4 Tips For A Better Experience
Buying at the Lenovo Outlet store can give you a great machine at an incredible price, but at the same time, the experience can be a rather frustrating one.
The Lenovo factory outlet doesn’t have the greatest organization and ordering system in place, and there are all too many reports of people who have never received a confirmation of their order, had their order cancelled without their knowledge, or had their order processed but by the time they got it it was a good three weeks after the order had been placed. There have also been many cases of customers getting an item with different specifications that described on the site; in most cases the item was superior to the description, but in some it was inferior.
There are some tactics that you can use to make sure that you have the best experience possible, and to make sure that you do indeed get what you order.
1) Keep detailed records of all your transactions, and of what the product’s specifications were described on the site when you placed your order. Don’t bother saving an html copy of the webpage– you either need to take a screenshot or save a PDF of the page. You can use Adobe Acrobat, but if you don’t have it there are numerous free PDF Creators available online.
Make sure that the PDF lists all the system specs. You will want to have the machine type plus the serial number. In Lenovo Outlets this is commonly written out in the format XXXNNNNNNN. XXX refers to the first 3 digits of the number of the machine type, and the NNNNNNN refers to the serial number).
You also absolutely MUST take a screenshot or save a PDF of the order confirmation page. This is the page you will come to immediately after you place your order on which your name and billing address is listed, along with the items you purchased and the price that you paid. This is an essential step, since the Lenovo Outlet Center does not always send out an order confirmation email, and if they do, that email may only contain the order number, without giving a customer number, no listing any of the specifics of what you actually ordered.
2) Call the company after 24 hours to make sure that your order has been placed. If someone else ordered the same item as you right before you did, your order will have been cancelled, but you will not be notified.
3) About shipping– the shipping dates you will be given are completely unreliable. They may change several times, and you may receive your order before the listed shipping date. If it is taking a long time, getting on the phone can possibly speed up the process a bit, but it might just give you further aggravation.
4) If upon receiving your Lenovo Outlet order you find that it is not the same item that you ordered and paid for, contact customer service. They will likely ask you to send in proof of your order as well as proof the specifications that were advertised. You will be able to e-mail them the screenshots or PDFs that you have, and the issue should be resolved within a few business days.
Buying from Lenovo Outlets stores can save you a lot of money and give you a really wonderful machine, but it’s not for the faint of heart, or for those who need their new ThinkPad by Friday. But if you follow these tips for a better Lenovo Outlet experience you can make sure that you get an incredible deal without losing your money or your mind.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Hi Morry,
Thanks so much for the useful tips. Any ideas where I can find a phone number to contact the Outlet? It’s no longer listed on their website.
Cheers,
R
November 21st, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Hi Rakhi,
Sorry, I haven’t been able to find the number either.
The best I can give you is their regular sales department number, 1-866-968-4465.
They might be able to give you some way to contact them.
Best,
Morry
March 5th, 2010 at 3:06 am
I ordered the machine of my dreams a W700ds for half the price. I didnt mind paying $3000 for the refurbished machine. The experience was absolutely horrible. I called them as soon as I ordered, they said they had it in their system. They sent me a expected ship date. When I checked the status website on that date, they had moved that date to a week later. This happened for 3 weeks. I called them again. They said they are going to expedite the order. They kept postponing the order for 2 more weeks. I got frustrated and canceled the order. Later I found out no one I know ever received their order within 3 months. Cant believe how much Lenovo has messed up the reputation IBM built up.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Just thought I would share a good experience. I ordered an S10-3t from the Lenovo outlet on 6-3-10. I did not receive a confirmation email so went looking for answers and found this website. My heart sank when I heard about other’s experiences. However, I checked my account on Lenovo outlet’s website. I believe you can check order status under “customer service”. It said my order had shipped on the 6th and gave a tracking number. My laptop arrived on June 10th. It was exactly what I ordered and I love it. My experience may have been better then some because they had many available of the style I ordered.
Hope this company’s reputation is improving.
September 11th, 2010 at 5:17 am
their CS number is (866)428-4465, it’s on my confirmation email
I called them regarding a billing issue and they solved it promptly. (definitely located somewhere oversea, hard-to-understand Indian accent, but problem was taken care of)
March 31st, 2011 at 5:30 am
Lenovo Outlet is horrible, I ordered a “refurbished” Thinkpad T 410 laptop, made a PDF of the specs, sent several emails to confirm what I was getting, never got a reply, the laptop came about 1 1/2 weeks later in a beat up box with parts moving around loose inside, not wrapped or secured at all. I opened it to find the battery and one half the power cord loose inside the box moving around, and the laptop was “sealed”, with flimsy plastic wrapping and the other half of the power cord was sitting on top of the laptop, sliding back and forth in shipment, scratching the top. There was no invoice no info nothing.
I could have bought a laptop locally on Craigslist or on eBay and got a better deal and not thrown together like this package was. I immediately sent an email to Lenovo but never got a reply and same on the phone. I plan to send it back even though they charge 15% re-stock fee. The worst experience I have had in 10 years owning Thinkpad laptops. Never again. After this I will make sure to post on Facebook and every other site I can to warn other to stay away. Lenovo is not the company it used to be….
June 11th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Lenovo outlet site is a horrible place, please don’t buy anything from them. Once you place the order, kiss your money goodbye, there will not accept any returns. Even though the user agreement does not say anything about cancellation, lenovo outlet does not let you cancel your order. Even when Order is not shipped yet. The worest customer support site. It’s site for customer rip-off.
August 30th, 2011 at 6:53 am
I will certainly consider buying once again from Lenovo outlet store. I bought a new e220s for 20% percent cheaper price. I got an instant confirmation email, very quick shipping, and I had the brand new machine delivered in less than one week although the estimated -shipping- date, not arrival, was in 10 days.
Moreover, right after I completed the order, I realized in the condirmation email that I gave a missing address. I called the customer service, a very kind and helpful lady connected the call to billing whatever dept, saying that if I wish to correct the order itself it would delay my order, but the people in that dept could just make sure it will be sent to the correct address. They did.
I got an e220s. For some reason the outlet store description for e220s had lithium ion battery with max 3 hour battery life where actually e220s has lithium polymer with 6 hours max (in one of those precise tests with some medium brightness, maybe 60%, etc). The bad thing: some other websites selling e220s also states “Li-ion” which made me think maybe it actually has Li-ion. I took the risk, mine has the LiPolymer. Probably, the outlet store people wrote those descriptions without actually caring about whatever specifics.