u/lollowhite

Hey everyone, posting this in case someone has gone through something similar with Lenovo in the EU/Italy.

I needed to purchase a laptop with VAT reduced to 4% (Italian Law 104 – disability benefit). Before buying, I contacted Lenovo support to understand the procedure and required documents.

Since there’s no clear email support, I had to go through WhatsApp. An agent told me to go ahead and purchase, and that after the order I would be put in contact with the post-sales team to handle the VAT refund.

So I followed the instructions and placed the order (already paid).

The day after, I contacted support again to proceed with the VAT part… and things got messy:

one agent told me to contact local authorities (??)

another didn’t even know what Law 104 or VAT relief was

I was given random email contacts

finally, someone told me to wait 5 business days

Then I received an automated email (noreply) saying:

VAT refund will only be handled after the order is shipped, and then it will take another 5–7 business days after they open the request.

So right now:

I’ve already paid full price (with full VAT)

there’s no clear confirmation my case is properly registered

support has been inconsistent at best

everything is handled through chat, no proper escalation channel

This feels like a very unstructured process for something that should be standard (VAT relief for disability is not niche in Italy).

Questions:

Has anyone successfully gone through this with Lenovo?

Is it normal that VAT refund is handled after shipping?

Any risk they reject it later even if documents are valid?

TL;DR:

Asked Lenovo how to buy a laptop with 4% VAT (disability benefit, Italy). Was told to buy first and handle it after. Now getting conflicting support, no clear process, and refund only supposedly starts after shipping. Already paid full price. Not sure how reliable this is.