Acer: the worst company and computer

I had an Acer Aspire 1604 LC during 1 year and a half. Now its mainboard is dead. During the las 6 months it gave me only problems: some metal pieces moving freely inside the computer; then suddenly shutdowns (because of temperature rise); then mainboard dead. I live in Dominican Republic. Acer doesn't have a service office here, only in Haiti and Puerto Rico. I wouldn't send it to those countries, paying my money for something that I don't know how much more will spend. I decided to quit. It cost me 1370 euros (aprox. 1650 USD). If you have Acer I encourage you to sell or not to buy them in the future.

Thanks

Jose Martinez

 

i think its unfair for you to say that acer is the worst company.. just because your unit gave you problems.. that doesnt mean everyone's unit will give them problems.. i personally love acer for their great products and prices.. if you think acer sucks.. i'd advise you to turn to another company because not every company is perfect and not every unit a company sells is going to be problem free..

 

I can vouch for their customer service- EXCELLENT

 

From my past exp the one main problem of acer is motherboard getting dead after warrenty period. Though their customer service is quite good while on warrenty once it expires your in trouble

I would always recommand acer users to get 3 years warrenty , even if it cost exta $ it would be defenitly worth

 

Hi, I'd like to add that also I think you may have needed to look at your own decision making process. You admit that there seemed to some metal pieces moving freely inside. Do you not think that at some point these pieces would have possibly got into a fan thus causing the temperature to rise? If that was the case with my laptop I'd been straight onto Acer, wherever the service office was. No company is perfect but by your own admission you noticed a problem but did nothing about it. I wonder if you drive a car and when you saw the oil light come would you keep driving then blame the manufactures when the engine blew up?
ChrisC

 

Could it be those "metalic pieces" be the hard's disk? Laptop disks sounds like having "metalic pieces" floating around, if you move the disk.

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1.
Gigabyte 7DXR+, Athlon XP 2400+, AMD cooler
512DDR Ram, 200GB + 80GB WD JB + 40GB WD BB + 40GB IBM DeathStar-ready to die (click click clicks).
DVD , CDRW, 350Watt HEC AMD approved PSU, 1000VA Mustek UPS
212G Allied Data wireless PCI adapter
Prolink PixelView PlayTV Pro card (sucks)
Soundblaster live! Value
Running XP Pro & Linux

2. Laptop
Acer Aspire 1501LMi, Athlon 64 3000+ DTR, Ati 9600 (M10), 512 DDR333 (now 2x512MB Kingston), 60GB hard disk (upgraded to 7200rpm), WinXP / WinXP 64 bit beta

 

If I live in Canada, US, or Europe, I surely think different. But living in Dominican Republic make me have this position. Since I heard the metal pieces (they're not hard disk, because sometimes they went out and I saw them), I wrote service. They said that they only have service at PR and Haiti. They even gave a solution, for example: put it in DHL, and we'll pay for it, or let us look for it at your home. Is not good to send a delicate machine like a laptop here in DR via courier to anywhere. Services here in DR are not as good as in development countries (we don't even have a consume and consumers law). I don't have any warranty that it will go and come safe. I wrote to Acer about this, and they say nothing. What decission so stupid from Acer to have a Service in Haiti and not in DR?. Come to Dominican Republic and you will understand it. I'm not looking for solutions here in the forum, I'm only communicating the problem to make me feel better to those people who uses Acer all day. Now I don't have money even to buy a mainboard, or to send it via courier, because this computer was my working tool.

Thanks

 

First off I tried to find out what a 1604LC is but didn't see anything on any Acer website (either here in NA or overseas). I am assuming that this is an older laptop. Did you buy it new or used? Where did you buy it if you mentioned that Acer doesn't have a dealer network or service facility in your country?

I probably think that it would have been better for you to have done some research on the laptop you wanted to buy and to see if there is any sort of support from that particular company in your home country in case there is a problem and can be dealt with properly. Picking up a product that has no support from the manufacturer in your area is usually not a good idea especially with high tech equipment like a laptop. You really can't blame Acer for your decision to buy something from them when they don't have the means to support or service the item in question. Had you done a bit of research you may have found an alternative manufacturer that can provide servicing if and when it is needed in your home country.

You can't say that they didn't try to help you, they offered you the opportunity to send your laptop in for repairs at their service location located elsewhere or even look at it at your home but for your own personal reasons you do not wish to do so. That is something they have no control over and because of your decision you want others to stop buying and/or sell their Acer laptops???? Sorry but I don't buy it.

Usually when you ship something via courier you can purchase insurance, did you look into it? As long as it's insured you shouldn't have any qualms about shipping your laptop to Haiti or PR to get it fixed. I encourage you to rethink your decision and perhaps you will find a solution to get your laptop fixed and you will think of Acer a little differently.

One other thing, someone else here mentioned that mainboards are usually the weakpoint in Acer laptops. While I can't confirm if this is the case or not I have to say that this would be the same with most manufacturers then.

For example a Centrino laptop, it has to have the Intel 855 chipset with the processor whether it's an Acer or a Sony or HP etc. If there's a problem with the mainboard that would be intel's problem and not just Acer's, Intel supplies the chipset and Acer installs it. It wouldn't be strictly Acer's problem if mainboards fail prematurely. There could an installation issue though but I doubt there's any difference whether an Acer tech installs an Intel chipset or a Sony tech or HP tech etc. etc. It comes down to humans doing their jobs which opens up a lot of variables.

Perhaps someone should do a poll to see how long people have had their Acer laptops and whether you've had any problems with it since you owned it, especially after the first year of use.

Tony



T. Chan

Self built PC, P4 3.2Ghz HT

Acer 1681WLMi

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Cman

 

Antioquia,

I must agree with Cman. If you were aware of the lack of service/support in your area, I would have reconsidered this brand as an option. Having proper service availability is one thing that is a deal breaker for me. If I can't get repairs does by dropping it off personally to an Authorized repair facility then I'm not going to buy that brand.

Well, with that said. Since you're notebook is already dead as you indicated with your first post, I don't see a problem in shipping it out for repair. If you're concerned about damage, just make sure you get it packaged properly (with lost of padding) and get insurance for the package. If any damage does occur due to shipping, you will get compensated.

I understand how frustrating it can be to have spent the money for a notebook and have it fail. Saying that Acer is the worst company might make you feel better, but it is an unfair comment for the Acer brand/company in general. I know you're having issues with your notebook, but many other users have had good experiences with Acer. I'd recommend sending the notebook to Acer for repair first and see what happens after you get it back. As you indicated, Acer even offered to pay for shipping of your notebook to the repair facility, I think that was a good gesture on their part. It's just possible that after you get it back, you'll like Acer again.

Good luck!

-vb-

 

Ok, thanks for clarify it up. With electronic items being made all over the place now (due to cheap labour in certain countries) I guess the human element plays a big part of whether you get a dependable and reliable product of not. More chances than not it's usually fine.

In my case since I bought my Acer from ebay instead of actually at a store I have to say that for the 5 months I've had it it has performed without a hitch. I do take REALLY EXTRA CARE of it though and that could play a part in its reliability. My 1681 will be a year old or so after Oct. of this year so we'll see what happens then.......and no I don't have extended warranty.

Tony



T. Chan

Self built PC, P4 3.2Ghz HT

Acer 1681WLMi

 

I bought it in spain. Acer had a service office by the time. But the problem is that if they are not in the country they should do something else. I'm not suppose to loose warranty if I move.

1604 LC is P4, 2,8 GHz, 40 GB hdd, 512 MB Ram.

Sending it now is not a good decision. I will have to pay for something I don't know what will be. I will pay at least USD150 for shipping (sending and receiving). Motherboard will cost a litlle more, and surely their service. I expect it will cost at least USD400.00 (the whole: shipping, fixing, parts, etc.). And I will be again taking lot of care of it, knowing that someday will fail again. I prefer to wait, gather much more money (I know I will need to request money to banks and friend) and buy another mark.

I put this title to the topic because I knew everybody would read it. At least, people knew about my problem, that what my purpose. Frustration is now less for me because of that.

Thanks for writing, I appreciate your time. Now I feel better.

 

Acer is famous for their low quality and high failure rate. I have been doing this for over 20 years. I had a string of computer stores out on the west coast. We loved acer, from a service standpoint as something was always breaking and we made money from fixing them. I did buy the acer 1804 based on the specs and having two other techs buy it first. I will be happy if it last a year (I buy a new laptop every year so its doesnt matter)

however, I already had a major gotcha with it, no QA testing once again...
[:0]
Scott,

1604 LC is P4, 2,8 GHz, 40 GB hdd, 512 MB Ram.

Sending it now is not a good decision. I will have to pay for something I don't know what will be. I will pay at least USD150 for shipping (sending and receiving). Motherboard will cost a litlle more, and surely their service. I expect it will cost at least USD400.00 (the whole: shipping, fixing, parts, etc.). And I will be again taking lot of care of it, knowing that someday will fail again. I prefer to wait, gather much more money (I know I will need to request money to banks and friend) and buy another mark.

I put this title to the topic because I knew everybody would read it. At least, people knew about my problem, that what my purpose. Frustration is now less for me because of that.

Thanks for writing, I appreciate your time. Now I feel better.
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Antioquia,
I'm with you. ACER, maybe not the worst, but it is not a good company.
That's for sure. I read and see alot of problems with theyr notebooks. Of course other brands notebooks give problems too, but acer I think is more failure prone. And the technical asssistance (RMA) is VERY VERY BAD here were I live (Portugal).
There is alot of people complaining about RMA and the quality of theyre notebooks.
But, at least they are cheap. We can't ask much more from a notebook, that comes with everything (harware wise) and cost a lot less than others.
I have learn one thing: if you want good thins, quality wise, and good support, you must pay for it. There is not such thing as free quality.

 

Yesterday I felt better. Today I feel much better. Thanks RJTD and Scott.

Quality is money, I agree with RJTD. When I bought I suppose that paying aprox. USD1650 was a lot. Now I know this is not the whole Quality I want. In the future I will gather much more money and will buy NOT ACER. Nothing will make me change. Maybe Toshiba. Any suggestion?

Thanks to all. Good luck.

 

I have learnt my lesson too.
Two acer, two problematic ones. Maybe i'm just unlucky...
Now I will go for ASUS. More expensive, but I have two of them on my work and not a single problem. They were more expensive than a acer similiar (almoust 30% more), but I think they worth it.
Toshiba, I have one M200, not a single problem beside the annoying noise from the CPU. I think it is normal, can live with it. But will not buy another toshiba too.
You know what: best thing to do is to skip notebooks, and only buy in if it is extremelly necessary.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by antioquia