Is Lenovo Warranty Upgrade a Scam?

Save Medicare on 06/09/2024 - 08:16
Last edited 06/09/2024 - 09:47 by 1 other user

Right now, I can buy a T14s G4 AMD on the Lenovo website for $1532, which comes with 1 year onsite warranty.

An upgrade to 3 year onsite warranty is $211.81. This is the cheapest 3 year warranty upgrade, and there are other costs attached for next business day etc

My question is that how can Lenovo in good conscience charge extra for a 3 year warranty?

Surely the operating life of a $1500 laptop should be more than 1 year (certainly the ATO won't let me depreciate it over 1 year), and charging consumers extra for 3 years warranty is a blatant money grab when it should be automatically protected under Australiani Consumer Law?

I ended up buying from a US eBay seller with 30 months NBD on site for cheaper (even considering cashback)

Poll Options

  • 14
    Scam
  • 28
    Not a scam
Computing 14inch Computer Laptop Lenovo

Related Stores

lenovo.com.au
lenovo.com.au

Comments

  • jm7 on 06/09/2024 - 08:18
    +7

    Most extended warranty is a waste of money, unless it extends your rights beyond ACL.

    • garetz on 06/09/2024 - 15:24
      -1

      There is no extended warranty that extends your rights beyond acl, thats why acl is the standard.

      • 2025 on 10/09/2024 - 11:45

        There is, ACL basically says the product should go back to the manufacturer for repair. Dell (and others) offer in home/business repair if you pay for the extra warranty.

  • MS Paint on 06/09/2024 - 08:40
    +9

    onsite warranty

    This means they send a technician to you.

    • HeWhoKnows on 10/09/2024 - 09:38
      -4

      Good point
      And OP should note that laptops cop a lot of abuse compared with desktops.
      Lenovo cannot be held resposnsible for "harsh" abuse.

      • rumblytangara on 10/09/2024 - 15:36
        +3

        And OP should note that laptops cop a lot of abuse compared with desktops.

        Why do you need to state the bleedin' obvious?

        Lenovo cannot be held resposnsible for "harsh" abuse.

        The post would have been slightly more useful if you knew anything about Lenovo warranties options, as one of the is for accidental breakage. You drop it, you spill Coke into it, you toss it out a second floor window, and you're covered.

        If I was buying a new Thinkpad for a schoolkid, I'd seriously consider this. I wouldn't buy it for my own machine.

  • rumblytangara on 06/09/2024 - 08:46
    +2

    My question is that how can Lenovo in good conscience charge extra for a 3 year warranty?
    Surely the operating life of a $1500 laptop should be more than 1 year (certainly the ATO won't let me depreciate it over 1 year), and charging consumers extra for 3 years warranty is a blatant money grab when it should be automatically protected under Australiani Consumer Law?

    I hadn't realised that Thinkpads were now sold with a 1 year warranty- I thought they defaulted to 3 years so maybe this is an AU thing or their business model has changed.

    I guess you could argue ACL in Australia, but that extra $ still buys you onsite service and a much faster, pain-free process if anything goes wrong.

    Given that I cannot easily and cheaply source generic replacement motherboards, screens or keyboards for Thinkpads, I would be perfectly willing to buy the extra two years. In fact, that has always been a major factor in personal laptop purchases. I've used Thinkpad service before (have handled dozens of them for work-related reasons as have friends) and they have been far, far better than experiences with Dell or Apple.

    Most extended warranty is a waste of money, unless it extends your rights beyond ACL.

    Arguing via a government body is the last thing I would want to waste my time doing if I had a busted laptop. It's going to take weeks or months of time, and loads of mental capacity and stress or argument. And then you're going to have to pay for a courier to get the laptop back to the manufacturer, or drive there yourself- more time and money.

    Most people (adults, students) these days seem to depend heavily on a single laptop. For a new laptop that I depended on, I either want next business day onsite service or I want spare older machines that I can pull out at a moment's notice (which comes out to just a tad more than what that extended warranty is costing).

    Extended warranties for simple things like a fridge- sure that's probably a waste of money. For something that's as massively complex and crammed with delicate electronics as a laptop? Makes sense to get a decent warranty, especially if that warranty covers accidental breakage and it's being used by a student.

    I know someone who used to work supervising the production of Apple equipment- production processes, tooling changes and issues at Foxconn plants. So they knew the design and manufacturing of mobile devices better than anyone else I've ever met. When the subject of people not buying extended warranties came up, the reaction was a derisive laugh.

    • Save Medicare on 06/09/2024 - 08:56
      +1

      I've used both mail-in and on-site services for thinkpads before. Both went fine, but I take your point that the company would probably do the bare minimum for a statutory warranty claim and make it a mail-in service rather than onsite. A slight problem if you've only got the one device, but if you've got a backup or a tablet or a friend's laptop you can borrow for a week I wouldn't spend the extra $200 on 'extended' warranty which seems to only be extended onsite service if we take it that Lenovo already has a legal mandate to repair within 3 years

  • solidussnake on 06/09/2024 - 08:48
    +2

    Usually its next business day onsite warranty vs fight lenovo send it to them and possiby wait for a month..

  • boomramada on 06/09/2024 - 08:58
    +2

    You only buying a $1532 laptop, by year time it be like $1000.. so on. I wouldnt' be bother with warrenty. Laptops don't die easy these days, even if they did, I would just go and buy a next best thing.

    If its a gaming laptop, then its a different story.

    • rumblytangara on 09/09/2024 - 17:26

      The flaw in this logic is that OP should be looking at replacement cost, not the secondhand price. Unless he is happy scouring the secondhand market and picking up a machine of unknown provenance.

      The value of the warranty should be based on something more along the lines of probability of it failing between years 2-3 multiplied by the cost of a replacement. Probably less than the 200 he mentions still.

  • scotty on 06/09/2024 - 09:43
    +5

    Also need to remember that for big OEMs like Lenovo or Dell, their biggest customers are corporates buying office PCs expecting hassle free warranty claims if anything happens — those IT departments don't have time arguing with customer service about statutory warranty. They just want to call someone and a technician will come the next day to fix / replace broken PC so everyone can get on with business. Extended warranty certainly has its place in those contexts.

    • smalltime0 on 07/09/2024 - 15:18

      They just want to call someone and a technician will come the next day to fix / replace broken PC so everyone can get on with business.

      Didn't one of the majors use to do on-site same business day?

  • FoxJump on 06/09/2024 - 10:45
    +5

    If you rely on your laptop for day-to-day work, ONSITE Next business day warranty is the only warranty worth having. This is above ACL.

  • Gdsamp on 06/09/2024 - 10:48
    +2

    used lenovo on site warranty on 3 occasions for the same thinkpad x395 (which is just about to be out of 5-yr extended warranty next month):
    1x keyboard replacement, 2x motherboard replacement

    it's certainly convenient to have technician come around and do the fix, never had to be without the laptop at any point.
    i would say i got my money's worth. as others say the onsite is above and beyond ACL.

    for other options that don't offer what is beyond the ACL it's probably not worth it.

    • rumblytangara on 06/09/2024 - 10:58

      used lenovo on site warranty on 3 occasions for the same thinkpad x395 (which is just about to be out of 5-yr extended warranty next month):
      1x keyboard replacement, 2x motherboard replacement

      2 mobo replacements? Do you know if this is commonplace for this model? As it sounds almost like a design flaw… I know that some of the Thinkpads from around 2000 had design flaws where the case wasn't rigid enough resulting in flex damage to the motherboards.

      I've only had to use warranty on one of my personal Thinkpads- the rest of my experiences have either been corporate/ex-coporate machines or talking to friends if theirs have blown up.

      • Gdsamp on 06/09/2024 - 11:05
        +1

        Laptop has been used 95% plugged in, with lid closed on laptop stand. I suspect this use case was not suitable for this particular model (e.g. insufficient airflow with lid closed).

        In both cases it seemed to fry something graphics related -
        replacement 1: on-board display displayed no image, just flickering between white and off. output to external monitors fine. Not a display hardware issue, replacement mobo fixed problem.
        replacement 2: would not detect external monitors either by USB-c or hdmi. Not due to driver. onboard display fine Replacement mobo fixed issue.

        first replacement technician probably did not put enough thermal paste on either. I noticed laptop ran hotter after that replacement, and i was planning on opening it up to replace the paste but then 2nd issue happened. 2nd replacement has been good so far.

        • netjock on 06/09/2024 - 11:31

          Should be a big warning label about constantly plugged in and lid closed.

          People still do it thinking it was designed like that. If IT departments want less hassle they'd turn off turbo boost (or whatever they call it) and set it up to be 80% max processor

          • boomramada on 06/09/2024 - 20:13

            @netjock: I got two dell xps always on power and lid closed, not a single issue for years. Then again XPS do have loud ass fans lol

  • BigMac2000 on 07/09/2024 - 12:06
    +1

    Has anyone been able to exercise their ACL rights for a Lenovo laptop?

    I tried pushing HP to do so on my laptop that failed just outside of the 12 months warranty and they would not budge at all. All they could offer was a ridiculously overpriced quote for repair which was more than buying a new laptop. Multiple emails, escalation higher up and got nowhere other than abit of a discount on their quote which was still overpriced compared to buying a new laptop.

    I am now looking at other brands like Lenovo and wondering whether they are any better with ACL, or whether to purchase an extended warranty.

    • Save Medicare on 07/09/2024 - 14:58

      Did you try contacting fair trading /accc?

      • BigMac2000 on 07/09/2024 - 15:14

        Only fair trading- they gave me some vague advice. Honestly didn't have the time to pursue it. Maybe in hindsight I should have done more.

        • rumblytangara on 07/09/2024 - 18:41
          +1

          Fair Trading is toothless- they can't enforce anything, all they can do is communicate to the seller and ask to reach an agreement.

    • 2025 on 10/09/2024 - 11:52

      Call em again and remind them of this news story https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/hp-to-pay-3-million-fo…

  • [Deactivated] on 07/09/2024 - 15:32

    If possible, buy it without any standard warranty for cheaper price i.e $1332 instead of $1532.

  • doctordv8 on 07/09/2024 - 16:25
    +1

    6 months down, still waiting for a 'Onsite' knock on the door.

    Don't waste your money.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join