Beware of Acer Service Dept & Policies

I’ll never buy another Acer product! Their support/tech people and policies are horrible. Bought an Aspire 8730, and found that it had a defective right shift key. Acer makes the customer pay to have it shipped to them for repair, so I paid UPS $50US and sent it to them. They sent it back to me saying that there was nothing wrong with it! I’m not a newbie. I know how a keyboard is supposed to work. Everyone I’ve ever let type on it has said the same thing: “What’s wrong with the shift key?”. The last thing I wanted to do was to pay to ship it right back to them with absolutely no guarantee that they would actually fix it. So I hung on to it and tried to make do by buying an external keyboard. Now, the “x” key is failing too, so I called them. They said that since I didn’t send it back within 60 days (or 90, or 30 depending on which rep I contacted), I would have to pay to ship it to them again. I pointed out that there was no notification of such a time limitation – or that they would pay to ship at all for that matter, and was told that there is no notification because it’s “a courtesy”. I pointed out that first, they sold me a defective laptop, then their service was defective because they failed to detect the problem, and now they want me to pay to ship it again. Why should I do that? They didn’t fix it the first time. Why should I believe that they would fix it this time? It’s their error that they didn’t fix it the first time I shipped it, & it should be their responsibility to pay to ship it this time. So I’ve contacted a local television station’s consumer advocate, and am beginning a search to find others who have had to put up with this type of “service”. When I do, it’ll be time to contact a lawyer about a class action lawsuit.

 

Do you know what is " testing an item " before you actually buy it ?

Or in simple English the word " Inspection ".

First post here , and just a flame ... I believe that you did that all ready in many forums too... your way to revenge .


Any way have fun .

 

It could be worse. My daughter's travelmate went to ACER for service,, came home with 64mb RAM instead of the 512 it went in with. Can't prove it so it's the customers problem.

 

Would be nice if people would group and hire a lawyer together to sue the big companies. A big quality report in big newspapers would surely make them think twice about how to treat customers.

 

Not revenge. Just trying to get the word out. They do not abide by their warranty, and people need to know that. I don't want other people to go through what I've gone through. If folks know how Acer operates, maybe they'll go with a more reliable brand that stands by their products. BTW- Thanks for that list Student@Antwerp2009. It's helpful. Of course, the other reason for getting the word out is that I have come across a number of complaints about Acer's poor service, and pooling those complaints is an essential component for a class action case. As for your remark about testing, I'm not sure what you mean. Every laptop I've seen leave a store or arrive at a home via a shipping company is in a sealed box. The one that arrived at my home was defective, and I had no way of testing it before it arrived. I don't know of anyone who has actually tested the particular machine s/he purchased before they got it home. One must wonder why you would say such a thing.

 

Hardly any company pays for RMA shipping to them, most pay for RMA back (XFX, for example, doesn't if you're in Canada plus you get hit with a $50 brokerage fee). Anyway, Acer does sell cheap crappy stuff with no support, so if you're going to go cheap on purchasing a laptop (desktop, monitor, etc) you're going to get screwed. I know, I did. Try asking them how much a replacement part is when you're warranty runs out. They'll ask for $50 just to answer the question. If you want quality, buy an Apple but be prepared to pay the high price (for the hardware and support).

 

If you want to pool problems people are having with Acer, look at this thread Acer Recalling Some Aspire Notebooks owners posting here are less than impressed with Acer`s support either being ignored, new machines that are defective only being exchanged when forced to by consumer protection bodies quoting legislation, the rest simply have to take or leave Acer`s poor customer support.

Acer do offer a product that initially appears to be value for money, however be warned Acer only want`s to maximize sales and has little interest in customer support. Once the sale is made it is very clear that they will do everything possible minimize their exposure/cost, even a Notebook that is just a matter of days old, has a known design fault/safety issue will not be exchanged unless Acer is forced to comply to consumer legislation, and even then you will need to fight them at every step.

Reliability is another significant issue with the brand; In recent survey of over 30K Notebooks Acer is the third most unreliable here I presently have three Acer`s, two have hardware issues, which speaks volumes...

Personally I will not buy or endorse another Acer product, due to the extremely poor after sales customer support and likelihood of failure. Acer may superficially appear to be good value for money in the long term they are not, Simple answer is vote with your $$$ and buy a brand that offers reasonable after sales support and superior quality/reliability.

Will Acer care? No not one iota as customer satisfaction and brand loyalty is clearly not high on Acer`s list of priorities.

 

It`s good that Acer offers systems for a niche market, for those wanting a Notebook with an upgrade path, unfortunately it still doesn't detract from the fact that almost 15% of Acer Notebooks will fail by the two year point and 23.3% projected by the three year point...

I am also looking a desktop replacement, and I rated Acer highly for this very reason, however after hardware issues with both an Aspire One Netbook, and potentially the 3810T Timeline, combined with poor customer service Acer is simply not a consideration;

1. Far too much hassle dealing with Acer customer support, they only have their own opinion and the customer is simply secondly. The excuses I was given not to replace a machine less than two weeks old, that has a known design/manufacturing "safety issue" were laughable, comparisons to the aircraft industry for recalls, etc. In the EU you have much stronger consumer rights and a replacement would be mandatory, however outside of this protection you have no chance as Acer simply does not care.

2. The risk of failure is simply far too high and is indicative of poor design and or poor quality components, had I been aware of the Square Trade (primary business is selling extended warranties) analysis of Notebook reliability, well I wouldn't have to worry about the reliability of the 3810T, and steered clear of poor performers, such as Acer.


nb Gateway is owned by Acer


The above simply speaks volumes, if you want to buy Acer more power to you, just be aware of the pitfalls. I am sure equally some other vendor`s are not a great deal better, although some PC manufacturers same as Apple still pride themselves in offering reasonable quality & fair customer service.

The only way this trend will change is if people stop buying Acer`s poor quality products. It is very clear across numerous forum`s, threads and posts that Acer is not interested in providing their customers (the end user) with quality or a fair level of support. Acer`s primary concern is to maximize profits and sell as many units as possible to venders, and the end user is simply an inconvenience.

Anyone still think Acer offer good value for money?