Elaborating on the same, Sharma said, “For the last three months, there have been repeated issues with Lenovo. Recently, a customer complained about a display problem with a new Lenovo TFT monitor he had purchased from us. We lodged a complaint in the Lenovo Customer Care (LCC) and they promised us that the issue will be tended to as soon as possible. However, the situation still stood at a standstill after 28 days.”

After Sharma lodged the complaint and sent the monitor to RT Outsourcing, the outsourced Lenovo service center in Siliguri, he was told that it would take another two weeks or so to resolve the case. Even after the stipulated time period, LCC gave him a call and said that he needs to re-lodge the complaint, as the issue seems to be resolved according to their records. Sharma, fearing that the same would happen if he were to lodge the complaint again, contacted a Lenovo personnel. This was also a futile exercise.

Getting frustrated with the situation, Sharma then decided to ask The DQ Week to help him with the issue. When The DQ Week contacted Lenovo over the issue, the company personnel alleged that they have been trying to contact the customer over the phone for the last seven days, but the number was unreachable. Hence, LCC decided to drop the matter. Lenovo has now promised to resolve the case imminently and dispatch the monitor to the dealer by Nov 13.

Thanking The DQ Week for its efforts, Sharma said, “I would really like to thank The DQ Week for its earnest efforts in addressing my concerns. Without its help, I don’t know for how long this issue would have dragged.”

“The customer deals with us and not the vendor. So, within the warranty period, the dealer becomes liable for the service issues as the customer knows us and not the vendor. Is we refuse to service and route the customer directly to the service center, often the customer accuses us of cheating him by selling a bad product,” Sharma lamented.

In this case, to avoid any miscommunication with the customer, Sharma has given him a back-up monitor from his own stock till the necessary repairs are made.

Citing similar service-related experience in the past and discussing the performance of the product, Sharma added, “Previously, there has been another service issue with a Lenovo laptop. Soon after we sold it, the customer complained of a faulty adapter and replacing the same took a month's time. However, soon after the adapter was replaced, again the customer complained of a faulty keypad and was advised to visit RT Outsourcing and has again gone for servicing”.

The DQ Week has been receiving complaints from dealers and consumers equally across India about service issues with various products in major reputed brands. The weekly newspaper has been taking a call in uniting the channel community across India on a common forum to deal with the service-related issues, and hopes that vendors will soon wake up to take a call on these kind of issues.