I purchased a ThinkPad Edge 11 for my sister in Oct 2010 - it was a decision between buying the Edge 11 and the Toshiba Protege R700 (which I bought a few months previous to this). I ultimately decided that the Edge was the way to go... primarily due to two things (as the specs were quite similar): 1) reliability, and 2) what I presumed would be good support/after-care (as IBM ThinkPads are the business choice right?!)

From the offset we have had nothing but problems:

- The first machine that arrived would not complete the windows initial setup, at the last screen it just froze
- After sending it for repair (not even having used it once yet!) it came back and would hang whilst shutting down (eventually this was fixed)
- And now after turning on there is *no* profiles available to log-in as... ie. she cannot log into windows. As she is a doctor and working in the other side of the country, I cannot help her with data recovery, windows formatting etc.
- She rang Lenovo support on Tuesday 11th Jan 2011 and they got her to do a hard drive test. She then rang back with the result of it the day after (Wed 12th) as requested, and she was informed that a new hard drive was required. (With her having to removing the hard disk and installing the new one herself?! - this I did not read in the warranty notes! I honestly thought the basic warranty would be return-to-base at worst!)
- The technical service representative said that the query has been escalated to a manager as the laptop has had quite a few problems already and someone would call her back the day after - no call/message/voicemail came on Thurs 13th as promised

This is definitely not what I expected from Lenovo - I thought Dell were bad with their infamous NVidia graphic card problems with my M1330 - but they redeemed themselves after giving me a 100% refund 3 years after purchasing it seeing as though it had just been laying in a drawer for the later 2 years of it!!

Right now my sister is using a GBP 150 netbook instead!

It sounds to me like she had a bad hard drive all along. Certain parts that are very easy to replace (like a hard drive) are considered CRU's by Lenovo. That stands for customer replaceable units. This is not something new. This repair method has been around for years, even when IBM had the PC division. If you take a look at the maintenance manual for the edge I think it might be a few screws involved. There are usually movies as well.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 74825.html

It's a little too late now; but assuming you bought the Edge from a local store, the best move would be to go back to the store immediately and get an exchange. If the store would not do that then its a testament to something I've opined to people for years. Do not shop just anywhere. The more expensive and\or more complex the product the more important it is to know your retailer. Do not look only to save a few bucks. Many times the lowest price comes with the greatest risk.

I never buy any electronic gadget from a retailer who does not have a clear, consistent, consumer friendly return policy. Examples? Amazon.com (30 days refund or exchange, no questions asked. Amazon pays return post, in fact you print out an Amazon sticker of your choice, FedX or UPS & have them pick it up or you take it in.), Newegg.com, Walmart, etc. These retailers have competitive pricing and good return policies. You just need to know the policy and follow it.

Besides Apple, I advise against buying directly from a factory store. A good retailer is preferable. A good store, online or brick & mortar sees you as the customer. Factory retail outlets are confused about that. Again, Apple is a strong exception but then at those prices, why not practice 'buyer knows best' ?

When you get a new gadget, from a toaster to a computer, carefully save the box, literature, packing AND THE RECEIPT. I tape them to the box. If you are surprised at Lenovo warranty service, wait until you need to use Toshiba warranty service or just simple support!

By the way, Gateway once had the top four computing magazines so bought off that they all ranted and raved about Gateway quality, prices, service, & support. They were still strictly mail order then. So was Dell and Acer. I bought an expensive top of the line business server from Gateway when they were rated king of the desktop makers. I got "on site service" with my package. Problems began immediately. It came without the CD ROM I ordered. They sent it. I installed it.
Not a quick and easy thing as it is now. I had to have them replace two monitors (Gateway made) in 9 months. The
third one died a few days after the end of one year warranty. They would not replace or fix it, though it was 3 months old. Six months in, the motherboard blew. They sent me one. I asked for "On site" service as I did not want to disrupt business to essentially rebuild my new tower computer. Gateway refused. Said "on site" is up to the technician. Of course, this was not written anywhere, not even fine print, for buyers, and of course, the techs never chose to send "on site". So, I had to replace the board. A week after warranty, the new board blew.

All this happened in the golden age of computing support and service. 18 months later a New Gateway CEO decided to look good on paper. He quickly increased profits by dropping the monthly five page fancy Gateway ads from the top four computing magasines. Almost immediately, the first articles came out criticising Gateway quality and service. That year Dell won the magazine's awards for user's choice, best service and best quality, make, and prices. Imagine that! Moral of the story? Always keep in mind why Consumer Reports has always rejected advertising and has a strict policy of buying the products it tests. Why? So, their tests cannot be rigged by manufacturers sending unusually perfect items for testing and
so the company that buys the most advertising space cannot force favourable reviews. At Large ("independent") product reviewers & writers cannot be blindly trusted either. For years they were uncritical (as were the magazines) of Windows and helped spread disinformation about Linux.

I do not know if these are dishonest people. I do know the expensive ads & the freebies (Kim Komado gets a lot of very expensive freebies) make the writers feel warm & fuzzy about the manufacturers. You decide.

--Bruised