April of the Penguins Heads-or-Tails-Penguin-Girl
in short : do NOT buy Lenovo products for use in South Korea .

there was a joyful time counting-down up to the Millennium, when IBM offered intriguingly thin lap-tops still powerful enough to use at work, and tote around during travel . but since it was swallowed by the Beijing-based Chinese company in 2005 : matters have changed . drastically in the form of SUPPORT for repair, although the outer looks and inner working might seem to continue .

all talk of outer design and power specifications aside : think walking into the Silk Market in central Beijing where most knock-off copies of international fashion brands can be had at um 1% (OK they will quote you 10%, but you have to talk yourself down much below that). the worst and common scenario is however, when you choose NOT to buy anything one of the zillions of store booths in the crammed building : they will shout to contest your transvestity, although police will arrive if they lay a hand on you with any actual violence .

with all its reputable history and culture : this is the Dark Side of mainland China, shown in contrast to Taiwan island (where the streets are clean, people well-mannered and products legal) off its South-Eastern coast across from Piano island linking Ziamen, China’s believed-to-be-seen Hawaii where Waikiki-like beaches adorn in front of ultra-modern high-rise apartments .

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at the fore-front of the great (for the scale is immense), casual (for it happens so often) Korean SCAM are Korean-Chinese, that is : Chinese citizens of Korean ancestry who reside mostly in far-Eastern China just short of North-Korean borders . they have their accents notably different from South Korean regions and work extensively in travel agencies and massage parlours . also the one who receives your calls in broken-Korean, at its Official Support Centre in China . they also have a call centre in South Korea but seldom answers .

their direct-run repair centre is conveniently (the other inconvenient choice would be Gasan Digital Complex far-West outside SEOUL capital boundaries) located at the heart of YongSan Electronics Market : in the crammy building facing department store-like JeonJa-Land (Electronics Land), not that I will ever look forward to visiting . plus about three-dozen contracted locations througout the Peninsula .

most computer-aware consumers know this, but now-and-then the Chinese strike a deal with mass-vendors like eMart super-mart operated by SamSung conglomerate, and offer quite a discount even to knock-off the cheapest On-Line stores (where the most discount exist Post-Millennium over the Korean Peninsulas) .

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the most common reasons Koreans seek support centres immediately after laptop (dominantly refered to as notebook Post-Millennium) purchase is either bad or dead pixels and/or light leakage on its LCD/LED monitor screens . where the difficulties simply add-up almost automatically, resulting utmost frustration, where it begins as Catch-22 to end in no definite answer :

  1. vendors will NOT consider exchange nor refund without defect authorization from this manufacturer’s Support Centre .
  2. upon visiting : supposed-technician will announce bad/dead pixel and/or light leakage is NOT a defect,
  3. but upon insisting : may agree to exchange the LCD/LED monitor after authorization from their manager .
  4. like mails and parcels from China : every step mentioned here-in takes precious (for you) TIME (which they will linger-on), depending on minutes (for in-house calls) to Weeks (for them to repair or exchange).
  5. ofcourse they will not leave-out any more hidden cards, that may hinder your possibility of regaining your paid-for device in one piece efficiently : here enter the courrier service – probably the cheapest one they can hit a discount deal with, which you are bound to use as you cannot wait on-site a few hours, for their obviously negative verdict .
  6. chances are : your device will be broken upon arrival and here again they will NOT accept any responsibility and purge it to the courrier service (which is actually right, and all courrier service have mandatory insurance included by law).
  7. but gain, even local courrier service will try to immitate its Chinese contractors in delaying Weeks on any refund payments duh .

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the only exception here is : if you are an Expatriate from Beijing, ShangHai or Hong Kong who have mastered the elusive art of subtly commanding over the once-colonials .