I just speced out a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop for a new employee at work using the Lenovo website.  I chose a half-dozen or so non-standard options, and now I’m stuck, because I’m not the person with the credit card who is going to place the actual order.

Ideally, I’d be able to save the configuration without creating an account with Lenovo, and then send a link to the person with the credit card.  No dice.  There is an e-mail link at the bottom of the shopping card page, but it just sends an overview.  There may or may not be enough information there for someone to recreate the configuration I came up with, but if there is, they’ll have to do it by hand, which takes time and creates opportunities for mistakes.

There is an option to save the cart, but to to so, I have to create an account, which is a pain in the ass.

Lenovo isn’t the only one who does this.  The Apple Store seems to do pretty much exactly the same thing.  It’s the same way too when you are buying a bunch of items from NewEgg.

This isn’t an uncommon situation.  It’s often the case that the person with the want/need and the person with the money are two separate people.  Lots of purchases in homes and businesses, big and small, are group efforts.
Retailers, make it easy for us to work together to trade our money for your goods.  Is that too much to ask?