Windows 7 has been out for quite some time now, and Lenovo customers who purchased a laptop within a reasonable amount of time from the date of Windows 7’s launch were supposed to get a free upgrade from Lenovo.
Well let me tell you that this is not at all what happened. Lenovo hired out it’s upgrade process to Mentor Media Ltd., a company which specialises in, “…cutting edge supply chain management services to customers in many different industries.”
Mentor Media Inc. has been unresponsive, withholding of contact and order information and generally irresponsible throughout this process. For example, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone to contact regarding your order on the Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade page. When you place your order, they do not include your order number in email communications with you. They don’t send you any emails except the one confirming your order. A few weeks ago I received an email stating that even though Windows 7 had been out since October 22nd in stores, it wouldn’t be until late November that Lenovo customers would see their orders.
Then nothing happened – and now it’s December 2nd, 2009. I’m still waiting for my copy of Windows 7 from Lenovo and Mentor Media Ltd. I wouldn’t mind if the upgrade were truly free, but I’ve paid $40 for “shipping” for this item. That’s practically the price of a piece of software to start with – for just a disc! If all I receive in the mail is a disc I’ll be upset. You don’t charge customers $40 to ship an item that should have come with their system. I purchased my system right before Windows 7 was launched. It would have been installed if I had waited a week.
So I called Mentor Media Ltd. by checking the website associated with the root URL of the Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade page. Upon answering, I was asked for my order number. Of course this was on a piece of paper I printed out over a month ago. Thankfully the lady was able to look up my account. I was told that my credit card had been indeed charged the ridiculous shipping fee already and that it should be shipping soon – but that Lenovo had sent out a message to her company saying that it would not honour IdeaPad Windows 7 Upgrades until mid-December!
I asked her when this message got to her company and she told me a week ago. When I explained to her that the responsible thing for her company to do would be to email IdeaPad owners and let them know about the extended delay, she hung up on me – the rotten wench.
So here I am bitter because my MSDN version of Windows 7 is expired on my laptop and my desktop has been replaced with a black screen. The corner says my copy of Windows 7 is not legitimate. Funny, it seems the offer of Windows 7 for free from Lenovo was not legitimate at all.
[edit 2009/12/03]
I’ve just received the first communication since early November from Mentor Media. They’ve sent me an expedited parcel via UPS. So I’ve still essentially paid $40 for a copy of Windows 7 1 month after launch – a copy that should have come with my laptop, but it’s still on it’s way and that’s good, right?
[edit 2009/12/03]
ONTARIO, CA, US 12/03/2009 4:00 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
It’s coming from Ontario, going to Ontario, it’s only a CD and it costs $40 for “shipping”? Yes, I’m still upset about this.
[edit 2009/12/04]
LOUISVILLE, KY, US 12/04/2009 1:56 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
ONTARIO, CA, US 12/03/2009 7:19 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
Hunh? Okay so maybe UPS’s site is just awful. It seems the ONTARIO, CA, US location is moving up the list just underneath of wherever else it’s been. Either that or it started right beside me and got delivered the the United States before coming back to me in Ontario. Either way, something’s very wrong here.
[edit 2009/12/07]
So I remembered someone telling me about an Ontario in the US – so I had the wherewithal to look it up this morning and yes, there’s an Ontario in California. That makes a bit of sense because shipping of anything from the US seems unreasonably expensive.
[edit 2009/12/08]
I’ve finally received the discs. Two discs came, one containing an upgrade version of Windows 7 which seems to work for fresh installs. The second disc contains drivers for a few models of IdeaPad notebooks, including the one I bought. Everything works, and I haven’t received any insane brokerage fees… yet. Only the $40 to have two CDs mailed to me in bubble wrap via UPS from California. 
