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I ordered a W520 the 13th. Original expected ship date was 8 days later, April 22nd. Would have been fantastic as I could've gotten the laptop over spring break and had it running the virtual machines I need (4 clients running a version of openSUSE tailored for educational environments and a K12LTSP server). Problem. New expected ship date is 20 days later, May 11th. I plan on calling customer service tomorrow with the slim hope of getting it sooner or at least attempting to get free upgrades. I understand they had a huge demand for the laptop (10% off sale and it wasn't released long ago) but a change of 20 days is unacceptable.
Any ideas on what I should do other than just calling? Or any advice on what I shouldn't do?

Don't be angry, being a jerk doesn't make them want to help you. Stress customer loyalty, your love of Lenovo products, that you think the laptop is a uniquely good choice in that situation, etc.

Thanks. The 20 day change really pissed me off, but I chose this laptop specifically because I feel like I can trust Lenovo. One school I attend uses Lenovos only while another uses HP ProBooks. The Lenovos are far superior, even though they're 5 years older, which really swayed my opinion on the purchase.

grantmeaname wrote:

Don't be angry, being a jerk doesn't make them want to help you.

What he said. That, and customer support HAS NO ability to make the production line go faster or the shippers ship it to you faster.

If it makes you feel better I am in the same boat.. I ordered my laptop with a specialty LCD that has since been backordered 3 weeks. My computer is sitting on a workbench right now with the screen taken off waiting for a new shipment to come in.. The 3 weeks is just a rough estimate too. Who knows how long it will really take.

For what it's worth, I bought a Thinkpad T61p from Lenovo back in 2007, and I after my order was delayed for months I finally had to call in, have that order canceled, and reorder with a different spec. They did at least expedite my order for the trouble. All this was because one of Lenovo's upstream providers couldn't provide a certain component (LCD panel, in my case) in the quantity they'd promised. I can't really fault Lenovo's product once it finally arrives, but they do seem to have a hard time getting new products out the door.

And that's why I don't order anything directly from the manufacturer. If you don't want to wait weeks/months you're better going to Amazon, Newegg, or your other preferred etailer and ordering from what they list as already in stock. I know lots of folks order direct from Lenovo (and Dell, HP, and Apple) but it's always truly dicey in terms of when a product is going to arrive, IMO.

There were several problems with going through an etailer or brick-and-mortar retailer. I wasn't able to find any with the i7-2820QM and 1080P screen that didn't have other options also upgraded (HDD to SSD or more RAM) so the price wasn't feasible and I needed the three year warranty. On the bright side I called in and they said it was supposed to ship Tuesday. Still hasn't shipped yet, but my expected ship date moved up a week so it should ship by May 4th. I think I'm going to go ahead and order the extra RAM. Getting 12GiB of GSkill PC10600 RAM.

I'm wondering if some of these delays people are seeing has to do with supply chain disruptions resulting from the Japanese earthquake.