36 replies to this topic

[rvalkass]

My laptop has recently started to develop cracks along the hinges connecting the screen to the base of the laptop. I decided to phone Acer Customer Support to ask them about getting it repaired or replaced. I have had the laptop for roughly a year and it was still in warranty when I first attempted to phone Acer support. Firstly, getting through to Acer is not easy. I have been calling for a few days, each time being on hold for around half an hour before giving up. The number is not an 09 premium rate number, but its not free either

Today, I finally got through to a real person, and I explained my problem to the representative. According to his all-knowing computer, however, my serial number reports the laptop was bought in March '06. This is just plain wrong. Not only is the date roughly 4 months early, but how can a serial number possibly reveal when I bought the machine? When it was made, possibly, but they have no idea how long it was sat on a warehouse shelf before I received it (I didn't buy directly from Acer).

Magically, the guy on the phone also claims to know exactly how long delivery takes for every company. I informed him the invoice showed the date of purchase, and he simply stated that "delivery would have taken 2 days, max". This is also wrong, yet he refused to listen to reason. After much repeating of the facts, I finally got fed up of hearing the price of repair (£41.13 to have the laptop "inspected", and anything from £80 to £160 for the repair, plus VAT and postage) and slammed the phone down.

Three things really annoy me about Acer support:

• The call should be an 0800 number, not 0870 - a warranty should be free support
  
• The amount of time hanging on the phone is ridiculous (and the music was awful )
  
• The representative flatly refused to listen to me, simply repeating the price over and over again

Including postage the total cost comes to anywhere between £165 and £260. For that money I could buy myself a brand new 22" screen! Anyway, since today's call I have found an online conversation log with a friend revealing the date when I received the laptop. These conversation logs have stood up in court, but do you think it would be possible to get a support representative to accept one as proof my laptop was within warranty when I first started calling?

For future reference - do not buy from Acer if you expect customer support. My laptop has broken right before the end of the warranty, so the build quality actually seems to be pretty poor and made just to last the one year warranty.

Edited by rvalkass, 18 July 2007 - 07:47 PM.

[Plenoptic]

Wow! Now I'm really glad I didn't purchase from Acer when I bought my laptop back in March. They were my first choice because they were so cheap but I never really knew much about them so I went over to Gateway. I'll make sure to let people to know that Acer's Customer Support isn't that great. My old computer also had the same problem as you with the hinges being broken. Although I decided just to buy a new one because the other one was slowing down some anyway and wasn't really capable of doing much on it. That was with my old Dell.

[rvalkass]

A little follow-up: Acer finally agreed to repair my laptop for me, and even provided a DHL courier to collect it from my house. This was on the 23rd of July. Despite the floods affecting the routes between my home and Acer's repair centre, my laptop was returned at 10:30am this morning, with the screen replaced with a brand new one. A few scratches from the laptop also seem to have disappeared, and the keyboard looks like it has been cleaned. It seems that their repair service is actually top notch, its just difficult to gain access to it.

My previous comments about getting through and the attitude of some representatives still stand, but the guy who agreed to have the work carried out for me was a completely different character all togehter. It really seems to depend on who you speak to as to what you can get done. Hats off to Acer for the quality of their repairs, but their call centre and the attitudes of a few of their staff could certainly do with improvement.

[Soby]

Like I said that these companies are big and since they have to take care of the customers as one bad reputation would render 2 or more not purchanse laptops. Glad you got through with them. It mostly depends on the customer service person you're talking to. one person doesn't really setup the complete image of the whole company.

[Atthack]

Well Acer support sounds like any other support i've called, always excusing themselves and pointing in another direction, though the thing is simple.

Too bad anyways. I don't really use much support, as i'm not expecting it. However I certainly would if I bought a laptop (expensive type), then it's more of a must.

[ASR]

I had a similar original issue but I let it go 'cause I didn't have the time to get the repairs done and it kept getting worse(to the point where the right hinge broke along with the top closure clasp). I have an Acer Travelmate 4150LCi and so now I'm trying to get it fixed. But here's the biggest pain. Every time I call into Acer support, they want the serial #. Well that'd be fine and dandy IF the sticker THEY put it on wasn't paper and hadn't rubbed into illegibility. So they tell me it's in the BIOS. But when I got the laptop (brand new and in the case, still sealed directly from Taiwan) it had a BIOS password. So I called in again. This guy tells me it's either six zeros (which it's not, I tried.) or I can get my tech to flash the BIOS to get rid of it. So I flash it and it upgraded my 1.8 version to the new 2.30 version, great, but not what I needed; the password's still there. So I call in, convince them I had a technician do it and this rep says that flashing it won't remove a BIOS password. So she tells me to send it in. I tell her I don't have the serial # and she then tells me to take it to the tech again to get the CMOS battery taken off the motherboard. So I take it in after the shop tells me they won't charge b/c Acer placed the password on. They call me over a week later telling me my computer doesn't have a CMOS battery. Turns out I've bought a computer in one of the series where they decided (for the pure fun of it no doubt) to place all the BIOS info on an EEPOM chip instead which they can't fix for some reason. So I take my laptop home and decide that since I can't get the serial #, I'll get my brother to TIG weld the hinge and we'll place on some Velcro to keep it closed. But when I try to turn it on, it's whines and has a blank screen, it won't even post. So I take it back in to the shop. Apparently the CPU is overheating. They take it apart and say that the heat sync spacers got broken off when I "Dropped it." (which I never have) So they throw the hard drive into an external enclosure and give my laptop back. So I'm like well that sucks, I'll fix it my self. So my two brother's and I take it apart and it's apparent that the heat sync was originally designed to be screwed in with screws twice if not three times the length then the ones they pulled out. Not only that, but I found the Serial # under the battery (D'oh!) Yea it's a Work in progress but I'll let y'all know how it's going.

[Atthack]

ASR, on Sep 18 2007, 01:52 AM, said:

I had a similar original issue but I let it go 'cause I didn't have the time to get the repairs done and it kept getting worse(to the point where the right hinge broke along with the top closure clasp). I have an Acer Travelmate 4150LCi and so now I'm trying to get it fixed. But here's the biggest pain. Every time I call into Acer support, they want the serial #. Well that'd be fine and dandy IF the sticker THEY put it on wasn't paper and hadn't rubbed into illegibility. So they tell me it's in the BIOS. But when I got the laptop (brand new and in the case, still sealed directly from Taiwan) it had a BIOS password. So I called in again. This guy tells me it's either six zeros (which it's not, I tried.) or I can get my tech to flash the BIOS to get rid of it. So I flash it and it upgraded my 1.8 version to the new 2.30 version, great, but not what I needed; the password's still there. So I call in, convince them I had a technician do it and this rep says that flashing it won't remove a BIOS password. So she tells me to send it in. I tell her I don't have the serial # and she then tells me to take it to the tech again to get the CMOS battery taken off the motherboard. So I take it in after the shop tells me they won't charge b/c Acer placed the password on. They call me over a week later telling me my computer doesn't have a CMOS battery. Turns out I've bought a computer in one of the series where they decided (for the pure fun of it no doubt) to place all the BIOS info on an EEPOM chip instead which they can't fix for some reason. So I take my laptop home and decide that since I can't get the serial #, I'll get my brother to TIG weld the hinge and we'll place on some Velcro to keep it closed. But when I try to turn it on, it's whines and has a blank screen, it won't even post. So I take it back in to the shop. Apparently the CPU is overheating. They take it apart and say that the heat sync spacers got broken off when I "Dropped it." (which I never have) So they throw the hard drive into an external enclosure and give my laptop back. So I'm like well that sucks, I'll fix it my self. So my two brother's and I take it apart and it's apparent that the heat sync was originally designed to be screwed in with screws twice if not three times the length then the ones they pulled out. Not only that, but I found the Serial # under the battery (D'oh!) Yea it's a Work in progress but I'll let y'all know how it's going.

Argh, that's SO annoying...
Sometimes I actually wish Support Teams KNEW what they were talking about, wouldn't the world be a better place by then?

[iGuest]

Keyboard operationAcer Customer SupportI have a new Acer Aspire One Netbook. It has a keyboard with up to five (5) characters engaved on the keys, but nowhare can I find an instruction on how to use it! Help pages and - or manuals do not help, and good few necessary characters are inaccessible to a non-tech user like me! Pointers anyoneÉ (the last charater comes with punching a question mark!)-reply by Kris

[chrismiller3404]

Bought an LCD monitor from them not too long ago. It had 7 dead pixels in a small space near the center of the screen. Because it wasn't 8, the wouldn't replace it...

[iGuest]

What is NTLDR?Acer Customer SupportWhen I started my ACER Laptop, It gives message " NTLDR is missing press any key to restart "This message is keep on coming and nothing else after pressing key and I am unable to work on it. Pl tell me what is the problem. Pl note that initially it was working properly.Regards.Aurangzeb