Acer - very poor support

[mderbyshire]

I think thats what happened in my case. Whoever reads the the feedback from the CityLink site must have forwarded my query to the Plymouth branch (that is there I received my reply from).

I am very happy with how quickly and efficiently they dealt with my query anyway. I am equally happy with how Esplex carried out the repair.

Thank you very much.

 

[Gizzo]

Jmcrorie - just get the model number from the back of the panel and do an internet search. I am in the UK and found a UK source for my panel that shipped from Germany. There were also stocks of the product all over the far east. These display panels are used in several different manufacturers laptops so are easy to find and to compare prices. Why pay rip-off prices from the laptop manufacturer when you can buy it from the wholesalers at a fraction of the price.

 

[ggmad]

Acer N30 LCD screen

The LCD screen on my Acer N30 has developed a large crack, even though it has never been dropped, mishandled, thumped, jumped on, thrown at a wall etc, despite all the previous problems the thing has had. (It's spent more time with Acer than it has working in my car - I only bought it for sat. nav, but as when it did decide to work most times it took me the wrong way)

Acer declare the screen is not covered under their warranty, and want £146.42 to repair it

Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement screen at a reasonable price? (I have 2 electricians in the house so fitting should be no problem)

If all else fails, I suppose I can buy just the N30 without the sat nav (as I already have this) for about £100 from ebay traders, but would prefer to spend less if I can.

 

[Tal-N]

Acer declare the screen is not covered under their warranty, and want £146.42 to repair it

Screens never crack themselves, however they don't always need to be dropped or whatever to develop a crack. The LCD is very delicate so pressure can cause the screen to split. It might but have been something you remember doing which did it but be assured, something caused that damage and it wasn't a manufacturing fault. Inherant faults with screens cause a variety of effects but cracks and 'brusing' are caused due to damage.

In reguards to the PDA taking you the wrong way, get updated maps from Destinator since sometimes these machines have been sitting in a warehouse for 2-3 months meaning the software is usually out of date by the time you get it.

.

 

[Womble]

Acer are CRAP

I purchased an acer laptop for my son last xmas and i have just sent it back to acer for the 5th time in eleven months it has had 2 new hard drives and two new mainbords now it is in for a faulty fan ( i think they never reconnected it on the last repair 7 days ago). The repair for one of the mainbords took over 4 weeks. They said they had trouble getting parts for there own products.
Never but an Acer

 

[andy12345]

Why the hell does the dvd drive not read some cd's

Hello all,
Just registered on this interesting site. I recently purchased an acer aspire 5012wlmi notebook. Within the last 2 months I have come to realise that the dual layer burner seems to be absolute crap at reading discs.

TAL-N you have the experience here, so can you make any sense of this. A game cd would not read at all in the new drive but can be read by a 5 year old ibm thinkpad drive and a 5 year old compaq tower system drive. Also, it had problems reading other discs, all of which, worked fine in the aforementioned 5 year old laptop. Can you please shed some light on this matter?

bye

 

[Tal-N]

The repair for one of the mainbords took over 4 weeks. They said they had trouble getting parts for there own products.
Never but an Acer

One of the reasons why ACER is able to offer lower price laptops and PCs is because they don't have any manufacturing facilities of thier own. ACER in effect is nothing more than a compny which slaps a brand name on services and products supplied by 3rd parties. Acer on-site technitians are a 3rd party company, the customer services in the UK used to be 3rd party until ACER purchased Esplex and every single machine is made in the same factories as the ones which make HP, Packard Bell and Dell machines using a workforce and equipment owned by another compny. Even the designs are made by other compnies which ACER hired to produce designs for their machines. So when it comes to spare parts the company has to get them from these 3rd parties. The closet thing ACER has to a production line is another 3rd party company in the UK which is able to build parts from the component level as a made to order... but again its still 3rd party components.

TAL-N you have the experience here, so can you make any sense of this. A game cd would not read at all in the new drive but can be read by a 5 year old ibm thinkpad drive and a 5 year old compaq tower system drive. Also, it had problems reading other discs, all of which, worked fine in the aforementioned 5 year old laptop. Can you please shed some light on this matter?

The only time a drive would fail to read a certain disc but work fine with others is when its something to do with the reader not being compatible with the type of material used to make the CD itself. however saying that it might also be an emerging issue with the drive. Basically I'd suggest a 3 step process, try a system recovery to reload all software to eliminate a potential software fault. If it still fails to read the disc then give ACER's techs a call and have the unit brought in for a diagnostic. The worse case scenario from that repair is a no fault found letter so you'll either have a fault fixed or be told that the drive is fine and the disc itself simply isn't compatible with the reader for some unknown reason. If you send it in though make them test the cd which isn't working if you can as a normal soak test using generic cd's might not show anything.

Be warned though, the warrenty does not cover incompatibility.

 

[eugene]

Question for Tal-N

Dear Tal-N, I really appreciate your replies and now I got to know more about Acer, and I am not as angry with them as I used to be. Indeed, no other brand is reserved from things that happen to Acer's computers. But still I will not go for Acer the next time I will be buying a computer.

I also have a question for you. My laptop has already been taken 3 times for repair and now I still have the same problem. They tried to fix a hdd, they changed my ram, but I am still having the same problem. The problem is very simple - suddenly, in the middle of my work, the screen goes blank and my laptop reboots (should i say crashes?). Usually after this, a post screen with Acer logo freezes and even BIOS doesn't start. As I searched the web, there are might be a dozen of causes of such a behaivour (faulty mainboard, power problems, video chipset problems, ram crash, etc...). So, tomorrow I am gonna call Acer one more time. BUT if they fix something wrong again?! Is there any way that we can quit this "send-repair-receive-sendagain" circus? Can I simply claim for Acer to replace my unit since it has been taken several times and the problem persists? Does Acer have any policy that allows you to do that? Otherwise, for how long should we keep these "blind repair attemps"? Very soon they will change almost every original part in my laptop. But I am afraid that with this tempo my warranty will expire faster.

I would appreciate your advice.

 

[RobbieS]

Replacement

This has nothing to do with Acer whether you get a replacement or not.

Under UK Consumer law you are entitled to a replacement if you have lost faith in the product that is broken.

If on the first time it fails you request a replacement then the retail company is obliged by law to replace it. Even if you have owned it for more than the stated warranty period, as long as you state that you believe it is a manufacturing defect and it has happened within the time that the product should be reasonably expected to last. ie, if you buy a TV and it fails within three years then you are entitled to a replacement.

This is because a TV should be expected to last around 5-6 years. The onus is now on the retailer to prove that the fault was not present when you bought the product, whereas it used to be the other way around.

You can also use the same argument if the product is being returned for repair for the same thing again and again. If you state that you have lost all faith in the product and demand a replacement then you should get one. If they disagreee then you can contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or Which.

Look here on the Consumer Direct website for all your consumer rights - http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/your-rights/

This is why extended warranties are a waste of money, because basically the law is on your side!

Don't back down with these rights. Read them and use them!

Let us know how you get on.

 

[chrsfrm]

Esplex Service

Hi everyone. Like many after reading this thread I was so concerned when I need to send my laptop foe a simple repair, the Z key having fallen off. Would I ever get it back, especially pre Xmas?
Well, I can only speak as I find. The help line was OK, allowed me to drop the laptop off at Esplex myself as I was going there anyway. That was 6 Dec, got a confirmation text back to say it was all safely received. On 13 Dec i got a mobile call saying repair was all done, would I like to pick up the laptop myself or have delivered free within warranty. I chose the latter and on 14 Dec morning it turned up.....All Done within 8 days.

Just what more could I expect of them.

So, well done Acer & Esplex. Merry Xmas and thanx for a pain-free repair. As I say I can only speak as I find.

Chris.

 

[muckshifter]

Welcome to the forum ... ;-)

We don't mind hearing form both sides of the fence ... are you happy with your laptop, I know my nephew is happy with his, once I put some extra ram in it.

 

[chrsfrm]

Happy with laptop

Hi Muck
Yes I am happy, its a Aspire 1362WLMi, all good so far.

 

[mithent]

Couldn't even get Esplex to take my laptop

Last weekend my Aspire 1694 developed a problem: the power socket seemed to have an intermittent connection, so only by pressing and turning the plug would it actually charge. This was already fairly bad (suddenly - it was fine before) and was only likely to get worse. Considering it was okay the previous day and broken the next, I have no idea what caused it to happen, and the cable was not in a position where someone was likely to have tripped over it.

At any rate, I phoned Acer's technical support on Monday at about 4pm. The person there was friendly, though he informed me that the power socket was not covered under the warranty because it was presumed that I had damaged it (poor build quality could surely not be to blame). I resigned myself to paying for it, and he said that someone would ring me back shortly to take £35 carriage payment and tell me how to organise a courier.

Tuesday, 2pm. They've had several hours to phone me and haven't, so I called up to check. They had my phone number woefully wrong, far more wrong than anyone could mishear it. I corrected that, and they checked my email address: also wrong, although within the bounds of plausibility this time. I presumed that was why they'd not contacted me, and that I'd hear soon.

Wednesday, 2pm. Now they've had seven working hours (allowing for their lunch break) since the last time to call me and collect £35. I call them again, and the manager promises that someone will phone me tomorrow. I don't know why they can't manage it in the next three hours, but..

Eventually, I decide that since I'm paying for this, I might as well look elsewhere, and book it in with TestLink. After a bit of confusion over collection times, I hope that I've booked a courier for Friday ('When's the earliest you'd like it collected?' 'Tomorrow at about noon?' 'No, you phoned after 4pm, the earliest is Friday.' 'Okay, Friday at about noon?' 'No, we can't specify times.' 'Friday!'). So no need for Acer any more, but it was almost 5pm, so I wasn't going to phone them then - I thought I might as well tell them when they phone me tomorrow.

Thursday, 2pm. Still no phone call. I'm going to wait, now, and see if they ever manage to get someone to phone me. I doubt it.

[Edit] Friday, 4pm. TestLink took my laptop earlier today. Acer/Esplex still haven't phoned.. I shan't bother to cancel my ticket with them, then, since they can't take five minutes to phone me.

 

[Tal-N]

If on the first time it fails you request a replacement then the retail company is obliged by law to replace it.

This is the key thing to remember, Acer is not a retailer. They are a manufacturer. By law there is nothing which requires the manufacturer to be required to replace anything outside of what their own warrenty dictates. There is various laws saying what is an acceptable turn around time but on the whole those laws are on the side of the manufacturer not the consumer due to how much time they allow.

 

[RobbieS]

Whether Acer considers themselves to be a manufacturer or not is irrelevant when it comes to consumer law. If they sell goods directly to consumers then they are by definition a retailer.

However, if you bought the item in question from a different retail outlet then the law applies to that company rather than Acer. You need to go back to the place where you purchased it and state your case. The product in question will probably still end up going back to Acer, it's just that the middle-man will be involved in the loop as well.

 

[eugene]

Acer or Retailer? - maybe both?

RobbieS - thanx a lot, you opened my eyes on this stuff.
Tal-N - thanx as well.

After I read RobbieS post I did some search on the costumers rights and e-mailed my retailer (that was online shop in the Netherlands, since for a moment I live in Belgium; the customers rights overhere are pretty much the same as in UK). I clearly stated their responsibilities and my rights and asked for replacement or refund (by the Dutch law I can claim for refund if I can prove that my unit is a product of poor workmanship; well, three Dispatch Reposrts from Acer prove that I am having the same problem since the first month of use; so, the law is on my side). I wrote them my bank account number and asked whether they will pick my unit up or I should ship it. The next day they kindly replied: we are sorry, bla, bla, bla, contact Acer, for it is them who have to do replacement/refund. Right after that I replied and said that it is rubbish! Acer doesn't carry any responsibility for exchange, but a retailer. They didn't reply and kept silence. I wrote them third e-mail, and tried to threaten them with a lawyer. They simply ignored me. Now, I will have to do something on Monday, though don't know what. It is weird!!! They are simply ignoring me. Maybe I should visit them? Why do we then have our rights if we have to fight for them?

By accident I met a person who bought the same laptop from the same retailer and who had the same problems. They refunded her, but it took her two weeks of e-mailing and one personal letter with a signature. Yes, they came, picked up her unit and transferred money back. It seems that I am not as lucky...

If I ever get my refund I will never tie my life with Acer and online retailers again. Now I am very discouraged and still didn't figure out how I could fight might rights.

 

[vikki]

I have just returned my acer notepad bought on 24th Nov 05 as the CD drawer on the unit decided not to work and have been quoted £192.07 for the repair as they have decided that I damaged the unit, infact the notepad has hardly been out of its box as I have been waiting for software for it. The repair is described as a mechanical fault by acer yet I still have to pay to mend a unit under 1 month old. I wish I had read your review before buying an acer product I will never buy acer again and will definately not be recomending them to anyone. Terrible service.

 

[Killeant]

Hi All


Interesting forum.

I just received a Acer aspire 3613 and the case above the keyboard is not cliping in at the left. The clips have snaped.

As ive only had it less than 12 hours im thinking of sending it back but dont want to lose it in an endless cycle of repair.

Does anyone know if you can get spare parts like this?

Ant

 

[muckshifter]

Hi All
Interesting forum.

I just received a Acer aspire 3613 and the case above the keyboard is not cliping in at the left. The clips have snaped.

As ive only had it less than 12 hours im thinking of sending it back but dont want to lose it in an endless cycle of repair.

Does anyone know if you can get spare parts like this?

Ant

6" nails ... or Superglue

 

[itsme]

6" nails ... or Superglue

I tried that and the hammer is still stuck to my hand!!!!