Their customer services sucks. When I bought my last Thinkpad, I had to buy it 3 times, over the course of two weeks before they finally built it and wait a month to have it shipped once the order actually went through. It was a solid machine (except for the speakers and screen), but I'll never buy another device from them. Instead, I'm typing this up on a fruit company device.
I've not had any problems myself buying new machines for my company but personally I tend to buy 2-3 year old ThinkPads off a eBay. They are less than 20% of the retail cost and are in perfect condition always.
I'm typing this on a T400 Core 2 2.4 Duo, Radeon HD, 8GB RAM, 1440x900 screen, 9-cell unit with 3G card built in and windows 7 x64 pro license sticker purchased in absolutely perfect unused condition for £145 (!). The battery had done charge 11 cycles to give you an idea. Chucked a Samsung 840 Pro in it for £102 and it's a perfect machine.
I have 2 spare ones (T61's) lying around as well so I always have a spare handy.
This puts me in a better position than a new Lenovo or fruit purchaser.
I'm a firm believer of letting someone else pay for the immediate depreciation in value! :)
Uhm I searched on ebay and found it for 199€ (+49€ for 8GB and +29€ for UMTS so a bit more). The seller seems to have many of them, unfortunately it's in Germany (i'm in Europe too but I want a QWERTY keyboard)
I had the exact opposite experience. When I chatted with a service rep, not only did I get help with the configuration, but she was friendly, sent me a personalized email with the details, helped me with the purchase process, and even gave me a discount because I didn't want Windows (I prefer Linux).
And to be honest, most of the help was unsolicited, but was friendly and helpful so I accepted it. My experience buying a ThinkPad was overwhelmingly positive, and I also love the machine (I ponied up for the 1080p screen, which is fanstastic).
