patkim
Cyborg Agent
Here I would like to post a recent laptop buying experience. I am not strictly complaining but I am completely stunned at this experience of laptop buying from amazon India.
Sometime ago my relative was looking for a low-end budget laptop. His budget was not over 25K INR. He wanted 1 TB HDD as a must, so I just suggested to look for a model with 8GB RAM to compensate for slow HDD and he on his own settled on this *www.amazon.in/Lenovo-14-inch-35-56...80-b8ec-91037c790a64&pd_rd_i=B0B2JVV426&psc=1
As per amazon listing this model Lenovo E41-55 comes with 1 TB HDD, 8GB RAM and Windows 11 Home preinstalled.
Despite amazon listing, I searched the MTM on Lenovo part list and found that for that MTM the compatible parts only indicated 4GB RAM and NoMedia meaning there’s no OS on the product.
So, I was a bit wary and so I wrote to Lenovo asking for clarification but after a few follow-ups they asked for product serial number before they could confirm anything, which was not possible as it was a pre-sales query.
After the laptop arrived, it was shipped with Windows 11 OEM sticker on back panel and 8GB RAM. Everything looked good. Windows Key was genuine and with 8GB it was working well. Buyer was happy! We registered the serial num on Lenovo website for warranty and the official machine config came up which showed that the machine only has 4 GB RAM and FreeDOS just like how the earlier MTM search had indicated.
So, I called Lenovo customer care and they as well confirmed that the machine config registered for that specific serial number at Lenovo is correct and the system ships with DOS and 4GB RAM for that serial number.
I investigated further and found that there’s no OEM Key in Firmware. I also ran WMIC MEMORYCHIP LIST FULL and was surprised to find two 4GB RAM sticks of different speeds combined on the motherboard. It’s highly unlikely that Lenovo would have taken such an approach of combining different speed RAM sticks.
I also wrote to escalation email ids in Lenovo and got a written confirmation that the product only ships with DOS and 4GB RAM.
It was then clear that the product has been modified after it left the Lenovo factory either by the dealer or the amazon retailer. What this means is that the modifications done won’t be covered under warranty. Suppose mobo fails then I won’t be getting another OEM Windows 11 with the replacement. Or if the added RAM fails Lenovo will treat it as an upgrade and won’t give me a replacement.
I wrote to seller asking for clarification but they just made a thin blank statement asking me to return the product stating that there’s some error. The same product with that 8GB and Windows 11 is still available on sell with 1 year warranty and amazon listing proudly shows additional protection plan for Extended warranty which is again a sort of cheating.
I escalated this observation to amazon. By the time I could collect all evidences the return window had closed but amazon accepted our claim and were ready to offer complete return & refund to us even beyond the return window, but by then otherwise the laptop was working fine and we had already populated lot of confidential data on HDD so going for return and refund was a painful process so we decided to keep the product. And even if he would have gone for 4GB I would have anyways added another 4GB to it later as 8GB is a must for smoother performance.
For me this is first of this kind of experience (product modifications by amazon dealers or sellers beyond factory config) which from Lenovo MTM checks I suspected but still could not confirm. The problem I generally find is tech support are quick in responding if you mention the serial number but for pre-sales it’s not possible and responses are many a times vague for pre-sales.
I cannot even now trust the amazon listing. For me this is still a sort of cheating because the ignorantly blissful buyer is under a wrong impression that entire product is under warranty.
So future buyers be aware, I am not saying not to buy it but be aware of what it actually is. The MTM is 82FJ009JIH which after my concern, seller has also purposely removed from the description page.
I won’t mind buying a modified product if the modifications are disclosed upfront as a disclaimer.
This is where I like Acer for their warranty void stickers, except service center no one should modify the product. I have written to Lenovo this experience and suggested them to implement such a practice of warranty void stickers on their laptops.
I am likely to post it with more details and screenshots on my personal blog as well soon.
Sometime ago my relative was looking for a low-end budget laptop. His budget was not over 25K INR. He wanted 1 TB HDD as a must, so I just suggested to look for a model with 8GB RAM to compensate for slow HDD and he on his own settled on this *www.amazon.in/Lenovo-14-inch-35-56...80-b8ec-91037c790a64&pd_rd_i=B0B2JVV426&psc=1
As per amazon listing this model Lenovo E41-55 comes with 1 TB HDD, 8GB RAM and Windows 11 Home preinstalled.
Despite amazon listing, I searched the MTM on Lenovo part list and found that for that MTM the compatible parts only indicated 4GB RAM and NoMedia meaning there’s no OS on the product.
So, I was a bit wary and so I wrote to Lenovo asking for clarification but after a few follow-ups they asked for product serial number before they could confirm anything, which was not possible as it was a pre-sales query.
After the laptop arrived, it was shipped with Windows 11 OEM sticker on back panel and 8GB RAM. Everything looked good. Windows Key was genuine and with 8GB it was working well. Buyer was happy! We registered the serial num on Lenovo website for warranty and the official machine config came up which showed that the machine only has 4 GB RAM and FreeDOS just like how the earlier MTM search had indicated.
So, I called Lenovo customer care and they as well confirmed that the machine config registered for that specific serial number at Lenovo is correct and the system ships with DOS and 4GB RAM for that serial number.
I investigated further and found that there’s no OEM Key in Firmware. I also ran WMIC MEMORYCHIP LIST FULL and was surprised to find two 4GB RAM sticks of different speeds combined on the motherboard. It’s highly unlikely that Lenovo would have taken such an approach of combining different speed RAM sticks.
I also wrote to escalation email ids in Lenovo and got a written confirmation that the product only ships with DOS and 4GB RAM.
It was then clear that the product has been modified after it left the Lenovo factory either by the dealer or the amazon retailer. What this means is that the modifications done won’t be covered under warranty. Suppose mobo fails then I won’t be getting another OEM Windows 11 with the replacement. Or if the added RAM fails Lenovo will treat it as an upgrade and won’t give me a replacement.
I wrote to seller asking for clarification but they just made a thin blank statement asking me to return the product stating that there’s some error. The same product with that 8GB and Windows 11 is still available on sell with 1 year warranty and amazon listing proudly shows additional protection plan for Extended warranty which is again a sort of cheating.
I escalated this observation to amazon. By the time I could collect all evidences the return window had closed but amazon accepted our claim and were ready to offer complete return & refund to us even beyond the return window, but by then otherwise the laptop was working fine and we had already populated lot of confidential data on HDD so going for return and refund was a painful process so we decided to keep the product. And even if he would have gone for 4GB I would have anyways added another 4GB to it later as 8GB is a must for smoother performance.
For me this is first of this kind of experience (product modifications by amazon dealers or sellers beyond factory config) which from Lenovo MTM checks I suspected but still could not confirm. The problem I generally find is tech support are quick in responding if you mention the serial number but for pre-sales it’s not possible and responses are many a times vague for pre-sales.
I cannot even now trust the amazon listing. For me this is still a sort of cheating because the ignorantly blissful buyer is under a wrong impression that entire product is under warranty.
So future buyers be aware, I am not saying not to buy it but be aware of what it actually is. The MTM is 82FJ009JIH which after my concern, seller has also purposely removed from the description page.
I won’t mind buying a modified product if the modifications are disclosed upfront as a disclaimer.
This is where I like Acer for their warranty void stickers, except service center no one should modify the product. I have written to Lenovo this experience and suggested them to implement such a practice of warranty void stickers on their laptops.
I am likely to post it with more details and screenshots on my personal blog as well soon.
vision urgently
