Confed-ITA, Lenovo sort out service center issue

Chennai

September 17th, 2007

Confed-ITA and Lenovo have agreed to work closely on service issues, after
the former sent a complaint notice regarding the service woes of customers and
systems integrators (SI) about Lenovo laptops. The complaint touched upon
Lenovo's limited service centers in Tamil Nadu and the difficulties faced by
customers and SIs.

PN Prasad, VP, Confed-ITA commented, "We are facing a major problem with
regard to service for Lenovo laptops. We do not have enough service centers in
the state for Lenovo, except those in Chennai and Coimbatore. But there are more
customers in upcountry regions that face service problems. Even if it is a small
repair job, the customer or the SI has to go through the only two service
centers in the state. We have to solve the issue on the phone or by couriering
the laptops to the service center in Coimbatore. And we have to incur the
expense of the courier."

The complaint letter was sent to Lenovo and all IT dealers in the state.
"We received an instant response to our complaint from Lenovo. The vendor
stated that they would meet all our demands and promised to open more service
centers in upcountry regions to cater to customers and SIs," Prasad said.

Shedding light on the progress of the complaint, Karthikeyan, President,
Confed-ITA said, "All our requests have been accepted by Lenovo. They have
promised to open up new service centers at Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli followed
by two more centers in the southern region, depending on the need. This is a
welcome sign for us. Not only have we got a good response to our demands, we
have also maintained the rapport we have with the MNC and we want to continue
that."

When contacted Poornima Matthan, spokesperson for Lenovo agreed that they had
accepted all the demands of the association, as they were sensible ones. She
also said that Lenovo plans to open four to six service centers in upcountry
regions where the demands are high. The company also added that it would also
like to maintain a good relationship with its channel partners.