Poor treatment of customer by warranty repair support

My worst customer support experience – from my most trusted manufacturer!
I have been using PCs and laptops since 1987 when the first IBM PCs came out with floppy drives.
I always trusted IBM – PCs, Thinkpads and Lenovos. But now I have to stop unless this issue is resolved to my satisfaction.
On Oct 24th night my Ideapad Y470 laptop emitted some smoke. I turned it off and waited for it to cool down.
Then I opened the back to see if there was anything burnt – it looked fine. I started it up and it was fine but gave some messages about the AMD graphics driver recovering from errors. After a little time it crashed (blue screen).
Next day I tried starting it up – laptop booted off a diagnostics DVD that I created from Lenovo support site. It passed all my hardware except for the graphics card (the diagnostics did not cover the AMD graphics card). I ran the tests more than once.
Motherboard, PCI, hard disk and memory were cleared multiple times by diagnostics.
I tried System Restore and System Repair but it did not help. Finally I started in safe mode and disabled the AMD Radeon 7690M graphics device. Now the machine worked fine. I ran a full virus scan. It completed fine (machine ran 2 hours doing the scan). I did my backup and created a system recovery DVD set. Then I called Lenovo support, since I had an extended warranty.
Now my REAL PROBLEMS began.
For some reason only known to Lenovo I had to ship it to Texas. Previously when my son’s Thinkpad laptop was repaired I could do it locally at Greenwich CT, and I had no problems.
I CLEARLY stated that the laptop was functional. I could start it up in safe mode, disable the AMD graphics in Device Manager, and work. In fact I ran a full virus scan, backed up more than 10 GB of data to USB and also created a repair and recovery 3-DVD set.
I was told by my Lenovo support person to send it in the state where the AMD graphics is enabled and caused the laptop to crash on startup. Why? Anyway I did as I was asked.
After the laptop arrived at the repair center I see a message saying it’s not covered for repairs. Supposedly “Accidental Damage”. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE LAPTOP WHEN IT WAS SHIPPED.
When I called they were saying “damage to the main board” and cover costs $399. And they blamed me for the mainboard damage (never mind the smoke etc??)). They talked to me as though, since I opened the cover at the back I must have damaged it! Very poor treatment of customers if you ask me.
I guess replacing the AMD Radeon graphics interface cannot be done without replacing the main board?
I finally asked them if the machine is still booting up and to return the machine. I have not received a clear reply to my question whether it started up (if technician damaged the main board of course it won’t boot anymore). When I sent the laptop it was starting up in safe mode, I could switch off the AMD graphics and use the laptop.
I have been a Lenovo customer for MANY YEARS – I have bought 4 laptops from Lenovo. If this problem is not resolved to my satisfaction I will not be your customer anymore and I will not recommend them again ever.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I escalated the issue and was called by a Lenovo escalation manager - I described the entire problem from start to finish. He approved my repair. So my faith in Lenovo/IBM has been restored. Now I need to wait for the laptop to be fixed and returned!
Thanks to all who responded and to Lenovo too!

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Poor treatment of customer by warranty repair support

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