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IBM User Has Second Thoughts About Pad
The Travel Technologist · March 30, 2000

It's not every week that this column features a single issue raised by a single reader. Then again, Steve Holden's gripe isn't with an ordinary company and his experience probably isn't unique.

Holden's complaint involves none other than IBM and its popular line of ThinkPad laptop computers, which are the darlings of hard-core business travelers. The Oakton, Va., Internet and networking consultant is having second thoughts about buying one of Big Blue's best-selling portables last September.

"I've been shafted," he says.

Two weeks after buying the ThinkPad, things started to head south for Holden. "I noticed that Windows 98 would frequently run the ScanDisk utility when rebooting, even though everything had apparently shut down normally," he remembers. "I called the IBM help line, and after we ran a few diagnostics, they asked me to return the system."

Good service was one of Holden's reasons for buying an IBM, so he wasn't surprised to find an Airborne Express package on his doorstep the following day. He packed the ThinkPad up, sent it off, and three days later received a fixed laptop. Or so he thought.

"Everything went well until one Thursday night when Windows was replaced by a blue screen reading 'unable to write to Drive D:' and the disk started making a clunking sound. I was in the middle of some important work, so I rebooted the machine and after scanning the disk everything seemed OK again," he says.

When Holden reported the problem to IBM, a technician recommended that he return the ThinkPad for a replacement disk. Again, an Airborne Express package landed at his doorstep. And again, he sent the machine off.

"After about four days I got a telephone message from IBM saying they could not reproduce the fault and would I call them," he recalls. "Over the course of the next several days I tried to speak to the repair technician, eventually reaching him from my mobile phone. He asked me about the trouble symptoms and explained again that he couldn't find any fault with the disk."

Without being able to duplicate the error, the technician couldn't replace the disk drive. Holden implored him to make an exception, but a supervisor turned the request down. The ThinkPad was returned after IBM re-seated the memory on the troubled drive.

"I installed a couple of items of software, and used the machine lightly for a week or two. Suddenly it wouldn't shut down. This time the IBM help line suggested my problems must be to do with software I had loaded -- I had discovered corruption on a couple of the Windows system file -- and they suggested I reload Windows from the CD-ROM. So I did, against my best instincts and despite being convinced this was a hardware fault," he says.

Two weeks later the disk drive started to clank and clatter yet again with the familiar error message "Unable to write to Drive D:". Holden called the help line immediately, and held the phone to the machine. The technician agreed that there was a problem and forwarded his case to another department. This time, IBM agreed to take the ThinkPad back. Holden enclosed a note on the machine: "Don't even THINK about returning this unit with the same disk in it."

Something must have happened to the note. "Soon after I put the machine into serious use I got the clunking noise again, and sure enough, it looked like I had the same useless piece of junk I had bought four months before," he says.

No one could explain the oversight. All the repair center could - and did - do was ask Holden to send the ThinkPad back one more time. As this column is being written, the laptop is in the shop for a record fourth visit, much to the Holden's chagrin.

"It goes without saying that any profit IBM had hoped to make on this laptop must have been completely swallowed up by 'repair' costs, and that I will walk a country mile before I ever buy any computer equipment with the name 'IBM' on it," he grumbles. "The really sad part is that avoiding IBM will not avoid further problems, since my experience appears to be typical of an industry which has learned that it's only necessary to compete on price to attract increasing volumes of business."

IBM spokesman Mike Sergott is dubious of Holden's story.

"First," he says, "there are very few times when you re-seat the memory. And I've never heard of a unit going back four times."

Sergott added that the diagnostic process involves more than a technician giving a ThinkPad a once-over. The laptop is plugged in to a machine for 24 hours and taken for what's called a "loop test" to see if a fault can be found with the hardware. If a problem isn't pinpointed, the unit gets sent back.

"Basically, if the error isn't being reproduced, they can't classify it as a problem with the hardware. You would have to reproduce the error. If we slap another [disk] drive in there, it won't solve the problem," he explains.

The likely culprit, he added, is the software that Holden installed on the portable, which is the same theory that the technicians have been offering since September.

In the interests of balance, I ought to point out that the 1,800 employees in IBM's personal systems call center handled 4 ½ million calls last year, as well as some 40 million electronic requests for help. In addition, the IBM is really at the top of its game, as the only vendor with 7 consecutive 'A' ratings from PC Magazine's coveted service and reliability survey.

But it can do better.

In Holden's case, the technicians should have offered to replace the defective unit with a new one after the second disk drive crisis. Road warriors buy ThinkPads - and other expensive portables like it - because they believe that if something goes wrong, it'll get fixed, no questions asked. Stories like Holden's, which are extraordinary to be sure, make me wonder if that reputation is entirely deserved.

E-mail me with your opinions at chris@elliott.org and I'll include them in a future column. As always, please include your full name, city of residence and what you do for a living.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site. This story was also published on Biztravel.com.