Let your dog feces together.
This is a geek post, so if you're here looking for anything else, just look away now. The title up there is the result of Google Translate... "Get your shit together" (English) -> Chinese -> English. Endlessly fun.
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I'm constantly surprised by how much easier it is to get things done online illegally rather than legally.
Case in point: my "FREE Windows 7 UPGRADE" that I was supposed to be supplied by Lenovo for my Thinkpad X200s laptop. The laptop cost about $1500, plus some upgrades, and I was looking forward to getting Win7 on it to see if it would be worthwhile switching my Thinkpad T61 over as well, or whether it was more or less the same as Vista.
Well, I can't say, because it's impossible to submit payment (for my "FREE" upgrade). As I stated on Lenovo's support forums, I've never had to work this hard to give someone money for something they promised they'd give me for free. I've gone through the process multiple times, each with some kind of error on their server's part.
Each time there's an error, apparently they have to manually reset the process (what are they using, punch cards?), so I have to wait about two days to get a new link to their broken payment portal, only to get another error.
The icing on that crap cake came the last time I went to submit my 87RMB payment for shipping (in a country where shipping anything <500g across the country via express courier service costs about 10RMB). I was presented with a new error, to the effect that I had to submit proof of purchasing for them to even consider taking my money.
There's no mention of what form this proof of purchase should take, there's no link to find out, and there's no mention of how to even submit this information when I find out what it's supposed to be. That, and they already have my proof of purchase in the form of my goddamn serial number, order number, and model number.
Gravy. So I send off an email to their support staff, and I am promised a response within 10 business days. This was 12 days ago (they have 2 more days).
Even more gravy, the expiration for the "free" offer is... oh yeah, yesterday.
Contrast all the above with how I could obtain an (actually) free upgrade of Windows 7:
- Visit any one of a number of internet portals.
- Download an image file -- in a matter of hours, if I'm on a particularly slow connection.
- Install, along with any activation cracks necessary.
That's right. One day, and I wouldn't have to deal with any mouth-breathing support staff or send support requests to a black-hole email address.
Take note, Lenovo: a couple 15-year-olds with hex editors and broadband have you beat all to hell, and it would actually be for free, as you promised.
Get your shit together.
As it is, I'm giving them their ten business days to resolve it, then I'm filing with the BBB to see if they can get Lenovo to excrete my copy of Win7. If there isn't a class action suit in the works somewhere -- I am sure there are a few law firm IT department heads out there foaming at the mouth -- I'd be really surprised.