Is Lenovo Malaysia interested in selling their stuff?
I’m trying to buy a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 11″ without an operating system in Malaysia. I’ve seen prices widely quoted at RM1,899. With Microsoft’s operating system, it costs RM2,099.
Lenovo Malaysia does not have an online store like Dell or Apple. I’ve had no problems purchasing Dell and Apple based machines before. Even with a credit card, none of Apple’s or Dell’s resellers attempt to charge me 2% extra so that I bear the cost of credit card processing fees.
Cue to Lenovo. I call up their help line today. They direct me to Ingram Micro who very helpfully tell me they do not deal with end users.
So I visit Low Yat. They seem to have an authorised reseller there. Here’s where it gets interesting. If I buy the Windows version at RM200 more, I get free gifts (USB hub, thumbdrive, and some other random stuff) plus they’ll waive the 2% credit card fee (which they should not be charging to begin with). If I buy the OS-less version, they will not provide me with any gifts, and I would pay 2% on top of the cost of the laptop.
All this seems ridiculous since if I wanted to deal with Dell or Apple I’d never have this problem. And they’ll never tell me to pony up an extra 2% so that I bear the processing costs.
The problem lies in the fact that I like the Edge 11″. I think it will make a perfect portable Linux machine. It might only have an i3 processor, but its a portable 64-bit machine, quite unlike most netbooks one can buy today.
My only problem? I can’t buy it online. And if I have to walk into a store, I’ve got to bring cash or pony up a 2% fee.
I have not given up getting this laptop yet. If anyone has suggestions on how I can get this laptop from a retailer who knows that sending credit card processing fees to the consumer is not allowed, please leave a comment or shoot me an email.
P/S: Lenovo should train their support staff better. I called them with the intention to buy and they led me to a dead end that wouldn’t deal with end users.
