3 months of painful agony with Acer - my story.

Hello everyone,

Let me tell you my Acer story, which as most of them here is not very good one.
I feel the need to tell about it to someone, because my frustration has reached maximum level.

About 3 months ago I bought 8204 TravelMate (what a very impropriate name in this case, should be named Travel to Service Mate), before I read reviews about it on this and other forums. From the first day, I knew I did wrong move.
Anyway, I tried to save the situation. My model has grain/pattern problem on LCD, otherwise it’s ok. I am graphics designer so that quality is absolutely not acceptable.
I have sent it to Esplex (UK) , Acers Service Centre. Explained all to technicians, so they could “see it”. They have changed Motherboard and LCD, and downgraded my bios to 3311. That sorted out grain/pattern problem. Hurray I said. It took even not 30 min to destroy my happiness. New problem aroused. Whenever LCD turned off itself, it would turn on with garbage (horizontal lines in ¼ of the screen or even more). The problem was random.
I sent it again with full description of occurring problem. This time they sent it quite fast, only because they could not see problem. So I made a movie of it and took some pictures. Sent movie in mpg format to acer tech in email. Guess what? They couldn’t open it … how pathetic is that ? I didn’t use any fancy codecs.
After being told they cant see it. I said ok, I will leave it on desktop for you … 3rd time my laptop is with them. After some time they sent it again. Of course not repaired. MB and LCD replaced … bios downgraded. Are they dumb over there or what? This time I wrote complaint letter with full description of the problem, I have requested new laptop as I believe this can not be repaired. They said I should send it again for evaluation/repair … of course repair was chosen yet again.
This time (4th) they got it for 6 weeks already !!!! And I basically go nuts, but they don’t do replacement machines during extended period of repair.
I called them more than 10 times recently to get some info, when I can have it back.
Neither Customer advisers nor Managers could tell me. They would promise to call me back with more info.
What they told me so far is that they are waiting for recovery disc !!! Now that is the most insane lie I have ever heard. 3 times they used it before, now they are waiting for it ?? For the last 3 weeks WTF ? What do they need it for anyway, if the problem is hardware based.
I feel like a hostage here. I cant do anything to have my laptop back now.
In total I have wasted 3 months so far of having or not having faulty laptop.
The only thing I managed to achieve is that I have extended my warranty by 3 months.

I still feel it is not professional way of doing business. Especially for such a big company. Plus I regret this did not happen in Poland where I am from but here in UK. Polish law states that product must be repaired within 3 tries or new one must be provided.

Can anyone advise me on how to have new or repaired laptop back ?
Anyway to seek legal advise from Solicitors. I want to get it back and claim compensation for my wasted time and nerves. 3 months is 1/4 of the year !!

Regards
Peter

 

I am sorry to hear that story. To try and resolve this problem, I would lodge a complete complaint. If that doesn't get you anyehere, then try your credit card company, as i heard they can help there customers quite a lot in service types of incidents. As a last resort, you can try the Fair Trading Authority or take legal action against the company.

Most companies have there own problems with technical services. I own a Fujitsu, and before i bought it, i heard lots of their "rubbish" and "pathetic" service. Like Acer, they are a huge company, and I never though i would hear anything like that. But after some time, I have got used to hearing usch things about companies. I also had to have mine repaired, and i had no trouble with them. Yes, the technical services line was often a little difficult before, bu the people were somehwat helpful, and service was polite. They managed to repair my notebook within 8 business days, and my repair included a complete change of everything (Processor, Motherboard, etc). I am not saying that Fujitsu was the best service ever, but as my first real situation with services, I felt that it was fine.

Hopefully, the siuation will work out fine for you. Hope this helps.

 

Like I mentioned, I wrote a complaint letter, even 2. No point, they have their own idea of what to do. Legal action is my only resort, however their **** small warranty book states, that I have 0 rights, they have all rights to do whatever they want to do and how long they want it to do.

Super clever company hehe. No policies for customers but for themselves.
So that is why I am asking you guys, what to do

 

Really sorry to hear that. Maybe u should concact the Consumer Complaints Authority in UK. Here's what I found in the net - http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
U can at least try it or perhaps contact some other authority.

 

Thief: I have just heard about them on the radio, on the way to work. So thx for reminding me, I will try them and see what can be done.

This week my laptops Case ID does not exist anymore, I got DB error ?? WTF
I called them yesterday and asked what is going on. They stated it is under repair and should be with me this week. Well, they told me the same last week.

Kill me ... kill me ... slowly.

 

Got similar situation here,I bouth my Aspire 5112 WLMi also 3 month ago and it came with broken Motherboard.It started causin problems after 5 days,modem and sound card would just spot funkcioning,reinstalind drivers was not helping.I thouth I messed up OS somehow so I had it reinstalled 5 times (I don't know to do this myself so I payed for it offcours 5x20e=100euro).It would work fine for 5 days after reinstalling OS and then it would start causing problems again.

Then I took it back to the company where I bought it which is 500 km far away,waited 20 days for them to fix it and now after a month it is starting to cause some strange problems again.I have to pay for the trip now again and I realy don't know what to do next how to get a new notebook ,fixing this one is not an option any more.

I completely understand how you feel right now,I think I had a couple of nervous brakedowns because of this f****** notebook.And I don't need it for any kind of job,I bouth it just for pleasure *#$**#*€

 

Lemons happen. More often in electronics than anything else. Acer notebooks are much cheaper for a reason - you are not going to get excellent or speedy customer service, at least here in the USA.

That being said, I really like my Acer aesthetically, feature-wise, price-wise, and performance-wise. You can try again - but there are many other vendors selling notebooks. Remember that notebooks at least have 90-365 days warranty, so you are covered in any case.

 

well that sucks...

my experiance with acer was amazing took they 7 business days to fix my system + they upgraded my bios + it was fast + they support staff were not snobbs lie at Toshiba(long story)

 

Yuoi:
First 2 times they did it withing 7 days, 3rd time took them 9 days. 4rth time ... god knows when they finish ...

I can bet it will come broken like 3 times before. Becuase this is designing issue. If product cant be repaired 3 times, what is the point of trying 4th time ?

Then I will just explode, i guess. Because of wasted time.

 

Update for my 3 months agony story:
Now then, 9 weeks of my laptop being away.
Last Friday, I was sent 3 messages from ACER saying my laptop has been repaired and dispatched. Hurray I thought, it should be with me within 2 days. How wrong I was only God knows.
I called them today as it is Tuesday afternoon, yet still no sign of DHL courier. Asked for DHL ref nr.
Guys says emm there is some problem, it actually has not been repaired and dispatched. It is still being repaired and you were sent these messages by accident. New case has been raised.
WOOOT ? I got 3 messages with the same content. How can you send 3 accidentally ???
No one during 3 days contacted me saying we are sorry but there was an error or something. How on earth can you things like that to customers. Especially when that customer has been waiting 9 weeks already and is so fed up with the case that he bought new laptop.
That’s what I did a week ago. I bought new Dell XPS m1710.
I got enough of Acers way of doing business. No rights to customer, while being above the law itself.

Future ACER customers in UK, be aware. Current ones, pray for your laptop no to break.

EOT.