Defective X230 - what should I do now?

Question

Hello,
Two weeks ago I bought a new X230 from Germany's Lenovo online shop. It arrived on Thursday, and my initial experience is, to put it mildly, frustrating.
While customizing the system I chose the 3-year onsite next-business-day + accidental damage protection warranty - the most comprehensive one offered. I received an e-mail that I had to register my warranty, but the link to do so was incorrect and redirected to the main Lenovo page for the US. Thanks to this forum, I found the correct link (on ibm.com!) and registered my warranty on Friday. I received a confirmation e-mail that the warranty was now registered to that system. Today (Saturday), I tried the "Warranty Status Lookup" thing here: http://support.lenovo.com/de_DE/product-service/warranty-status/default.page After I input my serial number and machine type and click Submit, the form just reloads empty. Ugh.
The laptop had several defects on arrival:
1) On Thursday I immediately noticed that the hard drive was damaged - it wouldn't even pass the simple diagnostic test in the laptop's BIOS. I booted an Ubuntu LiveCD and it immediately complained about SMART errors. So the hard disk is DOA.
2) An hour later the system hung pretty badly. I ran memtest and around the 40% mark, it started counting millions of errors. So the RAM is DOA too.
At this point I am confused as to what I need to do. On the Lenovo website, the "Support phone list" directs me to 0800-5004618 (8-18 Monday Friday). But it warned me that my device has to be in warranty for me to get support, so I decided to wait for my OS-NBD warranty to be registered before I called, and by the time the confirmation e-mail came back, it was already 18:30 on Friday. The e-mail with the (wrong) registration link mentions that I can call 0800 55 54 54 after registration, available 24/7. Guess what: "The number you have dialed is not correct. Please check the number and try again." Are you kidding me?!
3) Just today (Saturday) I found a third defect. The "Premium HD" panel has a dead (black) pixel right in the center. Searching on this forum reveals the very troubling information that a single pixel may not be enough to consider the LCD faulty, which it is. This screen is not acceptable to me. So I wonder what their policy is for a screen that is "premium HD" (whatever that means) and that has accidental damage protection warranty.
After all of this, and if Lenovo would refuse to replace the screen, I would like to return the system to Lenovo and get a refund. Given that I received it on 8 Nov 2012, I should still be able to do so. Of course, I love Lenovo hardware and would much prefer that they simply replace the defective components.
Could someone please give me a hint what I should do now? And in particular, how could I initiate a return, if it should come to that?
Thank you very much!
Solved!
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Answer 1

Hello again,
First of all thank you koyab for the quick reply! Let me describe how things went.
I called Lenovo and was told to write them an e-mail with all the registration data for the computer. I did that immediately but nothing happened for a week.
During that week I discovered that the RAM was not defective after all; rather it was installed incorrectly, and did not make good contact with the slot. I am glad the whole motherboard did not get shorted out! After I removed the RAM and installed it again, it worked perfectly.
I called again and was told that the guy responsible for my case had simply forgotten about it. I was asked again what the defects were (even though I had described them in my e-mail) and some kind of hardwre support ticket was opened. The support person asked me to send screenshots of all defects as proof, by e-mail. He gave me a link to some kind of Lenovo diagnostic utility (based on Debian) that I was expected to use to make the screenshots of.
I downloaded the utility, and even though I am an advanced Linux user and followed the (Linux-based) instructions to create a bootable USB very precisely, the resulting bootable USB would boot and immediately fail, unable to find some of its files. So instead I sent a screenshot of the BIOS-built-in Lenovo diagnostic screen. Nothing happened for another week.
I called a third time and described my problems again. I was asked whether I wanted the entire machine replaced, or just the defective parts (including the screen). I explained about the RAM and asked for a new LCD and a new hard drive. I was told that a technician would call me within 48 hours to come on-site and replace the screen, while a new hard drive would arrive by mail.
Three days later (>48 hours) I was finally contacted and two days after that a technician was here to replace my LCD and bring me the new hard drive too. The machine is perfect now. Finally!
Conclusions:
1) The hardware is great. Lenovo still makes the best high-end laptops, and is possibly the last manufacturer who still allows customizing hardware before purchase. (I only wish I could buy a X230 without Windows.)
2) Quality control is very bad. Mine came with 3 defects, one due to obviously sloppy assembly, and out of the box would take a very long time to boot (due to the damaged hard drive). I expect better for 1700 EUR.
3) Service is a mixed bag. On the one hand I am very happy that my screen was replaced without any issue. On the other hand I bought the "on-site next-business-day warranty with accidental damage protection", but resolving my dead-on-arrival issues took over 3 weeks, 3 phone calls, 2 detailed e-mail explanations, 4 screenshots, downloading and failing to run 1 obscure diagnostic utility, and considerable technical knowledge on my part. That is not next-business-day! I had another computer (also a ThinkPad) to use in the meantime, but not everyone is as patient as I am.
So there is a lot of room for improvement on the service side of things. Would I still recommend a ThinkPad to anyone else after this mess? Absolutely! But Lenovo must improve its service procedures to at least match the competition.