Why is shipping @ Lenovo so slow and disorganized???

Question

I just wanted to relate a story about a purchase I tried to make thru the Lenovo Site.
We needed a new portable workstation for off site programming for one of our service techs. I had heard good things about the new Lenovo computers and I wanted to give them a try after years of buying Dell products for my business. I found a unit on the outlet, a system that was supposedly a built unit that was cancelled before shipment. Great that will be on the shelf no wait I guessed. I placed the order and was told by the site that an email would follow. That was on a Thursday, the next monday I had heard nothing from Lenovo so I called they said that the order was not processed yet to the point that the sales staff could help. I was told that it takes a couple of business days to get the order into their system. A couple of days go by and I finally get an email with a estimated shipping date 2 weeks away. WTF? So I call and they assure me that this is normal and they will ship on the date it says, I can't get any info regarding why is is taking so long, or a concrete ship date. Tech needs new computer like yesterday.Im frustrated but I wait the first week and call back to check the status on monday the following week as the web site gives no info. I am told that the ship date has been moved back another week. Ok that is enuff.. I cancel the items and go to a big name PC and Mac connection and place an order as soon as I get off the phone with Lenovo "New Delhi location". Now here is where it gets good I find the same exact laptop with more RAM for the same price, and this one is new with the full warranty not a refurbished unit. It gets better I placed the order at 1:00 PM on Monday the unit was delivered today at 9:00 AM the following Wednesday.
Now with all that said......
Why is the sales database not live?
Why is the estimated shipping wrong on a prebuilt unit?
Why does it take 72+ hours for one computer to transfer my order to another? especially because this is a "world class" computer company. Where is the Intranet?
Why is no one able to tell me what the status of my order other than its not ready yet?
Why was my card charged three weeks before the unit was scheduled to ship? It was removed when I called and explained that Im not paying for any products that aren't shipped.
Why is the phone staff either unwilling or unable to help?
The other supplier was able to give me a ship date and tracking info at the time of sale, and it was right.
Now here is my personal favorite part. When I cancelled the order with Lenovo they said I would receive an email stating the status of the order was cancelled. This was several hours before I placed the new order with another supplier. This was suppose to be with in the next 24 hours. I received my complete order for the other supplier and I have yet to receive an new info from Lenovo.
This is no way to run an E business site. As some one who provides computer programming to enterprise level companies this system needs some major overhaul work. This is suppose to save customers time and provide better info than an traditional phone ordering system, but from what I have witnessed that is far from the case. Heres to hoping that this isnt a sign of things to come with this unit, I really hope this is worth all the trouble.
PS I received a free laptop case also with my new purchase.

Answer 1

dgoud,
I appreciate your angst on the matter.   However, it's only been 3 days since you ordered and sending back the dock without knowing whether you date can be improved to meet your expectations seems like it might create a bit of churn, and subject you to restocking fees on the dock unnecessarily...  I'd like to help.
How about this, can you send me a PM with your order number and let me see on Monday if I can provide you with a more definitive date?
In terms of what you have read online, I would also suggest separating the Canadian order experiences from the US experiences.   Last summer June-August, the US experienced some delays on T61 systems, and discussion about that certainly filled the forums, but it was all resolved, and things have generally been running pretty well as a whole since.   Earlier this year, the Canadian ordering system went through some changes, and there has been a lot of discussion online about it.  Cycle times have been weeks, and in the first part of the year were really quite long for some customers, but are definitively improving now. 
In the US, the system provides Estimated Ship Dates based on default component lead times.  Often these provide a rather conservative / pessimistic view, and I can understand your apprehension concerning a mid April delivery.  
But let's see if we can resolve this.
All,
I think it's fine to have general discussion here on shipping experiences, but I might suggest that if someone has specific order concerns or experiences that they post to the dedicated shipping threads present in each of the boards.  
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