Incompetent Acer Technicians (an Acer Horror Story)

On Thursday, March 1, 2007, I sent my Acer Aspire 5002WLMi in for repairs at the Acer Mississauga Repair Depot for the following problems:

1) Randomly: DVD Drive is making grinding noises reading discs.
2) Randomly: When entering BIOS password, some keys are not registering, have to either press hard or wait 5 minutes before keys register properly
3) Cracked hinges
4) LCD bezel is falling off
5) Upper case is being scratched by the LCD bezel
6) Wireless card is causing connection issues with several wireless routers I have used
7) Touchpad issues.

So on Friday, March 9, 2007 I received my laptop back from the repair depot. I checked the repair log they sent back with the laptop detailing the list of repairs that were done. They replaced the following:

1) Touchpad
2) Hinges
3) DVD drive
*) and this ones a surprise.

So not everything was repaired. I still had a damaged case, LCD bezel falling off, keyboard issues, and a malfunctioning wireless card.

Heres the good part:
I turn on the laptop and boot into Windows, I check System Properties and was shocked, I thought maybe System Properties was wrong so I loaded up CPU-Z, and guess what:
They replaced my AMD Turion 64 ML-30 with a Mobile AMD Sempron 3100+!

I couldn't believe this. Nowhere did they mention a replaced processor nor did I even say to the Customer Service Representative that I needed a processor replacement.

So I call Acer, had to wait 30 minutes due to the amount of call volume they have been having the past 3 months. I speak to the CSR and he was as surprised as I was, he had to speak to a higher-level technician, took another 30 minutes while I sit here and wait in a furious mood. The CSR comes back on the line and after speaking with the technician saying that a processor replacement will only result in an EQUIVALENT processor being put into the laptop. I explained to the CSR that the Sempron and Turion are NOT equivalent and he agreed. He also insulted the technicians at the Mississauga depot for not being able to read repair requests even though the problems are in ALL CAPS.

He set up another depot repair, this time, with express shipping and delivery (and I mean express!). He also added a CSL Evaluation note to the repair which means that once the laptop is repaired, a senior technician will evaluate the laptop before sending it back to me. I find it odd that a senior technician would have to do this mainly cause the people who fix the laptops should ALWAYS test machines before sending it back. This just shows that Acer DOES NOT test machines or review repair work once it is complete. It appears that the only way a machine is going to be tested before coming back to you is if the CSR explicitly requests it in the repair request.

The CSR sets up the express shipping. Next thing I know 5 minutes later someone has arrived to pick up the laptop. I am not joking, 5 minutes. I didn't even have time to pack up the laptop. Apparently the CSR accidentally set the pickup for the current day rather than the next. So that was a surprise.

All in all I think this was the worst Acer repair experience I have ever had, the laptop is being shipped back to the Mississauga Repair Depot, back where all this started, I have a feeling that I am going to call Acer again because this time around nothing is going to get fixed. I'd rather have them give me the parts and I'll take my chances repairing it.

On a side note, Acer did restore my Windows XP installation and the username they set up for me was Valued ACER Customer. BS

 

Let us know how the second trip to repair goes.

 

Yea, I find that Acer customer support tends to be pretty nice to the customer 75% of the time. The people repairing the laptop though, they're just retarded. It's the same thing in the US. The people at the repair depot in Texas broke my laptop more than they fixed it. It seems to be one those one step forward, 40,000 steps backwards with Acer repair people. The only thing I do like is that all their support is regionalized, as in I'm not yelling at someone in India . That alone keeps me from marking Acer off as a bad company.

 

My Acer notebook was new from the box Christmas Day 2006 and never worked more than 8-10 hours. It starts spontaneously rebooting and then ultimately dies and won't boot. Gives message… Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\System. It is now supposedly on its way back from its fourth trip to Acer Repair and apparently FedEx has lost it. They tried to deliver Tuesday (03/13/07) and I couldn't be home to sign for it but left a note saying I'd be here Friday. Driver wrote "will hold until Friday" on the door tag, so I stayed home all day Friday and they never showed. Anyway, the first two returns, they just reloaded the software, then they sent me a hard drive to replace myself, then I sent it back a third time and they replaced the hard drive again. It had the same problem after every attempted repair. Now I don't know what they have done because FedEx still has it. I doubt I will ever get it fixed, but I'm at least going to make sure they lose more money on it than I have. I had to buy another notebook (an HP this time) because I needed a computer, not a doorstop.

 

I had this problem too. The keyboard connector is flimsy, and with the amount of heat in this case, it seems that the connection begins to weaken with the constant expansion and contraction of the connector. Just open up the case and re-connect the keyboard connector, and that should fix the problem. For how long, I don't know, since I only did it recently.

 

After waiting a whole week, I finally got my laptop back from the repair depot on Friday.

This time around they did:

1) Replaced the LCD bezel
2) Replaced the LCD
3) Brand new case
4) New touchpad
5) Replaced the processor

I was surprised that I got a new LCD, I didn't specify it in the repairs, but I'm not complaining. This time I got a AUO2174, according to its Hardware ID in Device Manager, no idea if its good or not, can't tell the difference, but after using a CRT for 2 weeks straight I'm glad to be back on an LCD.

They also put back in my original processor. I was afraid they would mess this one up again and put in a Celeron, but they didn't.

The upper case has also been replaced. I noticed that if you close the LCD lid, and travel with this laptop in a bag, it will cause a long scratch mark on the upper case of the laptop, no idea why this happens, it could be a design flaw. Although now my laptop looks brand new again.

However Acer did not replace my wireless card that has been giving me alot of problems lately, every router I used (Netgear MR814v2, Linksys WRT54Gv5. D-Link DI-624, D-Link WBR-1310) has issues with this Broadcom card, always getting disconnected for no reason, I really don't see why they can't just replace this card with a different one that isn't Broadcom.

I also did not get the keyboard replaced, still has that stupid non-responsive keys at the BIOS password screen.

I don't really have the patience to go another week without a laptop, I need this thing for university.

I'm glad that this repair experience is a lot better than last time, but Acer could seriously use improvement when it comes to repairs.

 

Crap.. now you've got me very worried

I sent my TravelMate 8210 in for a broken internal mic and it's scheduled to arrive back here tomorrow via FedEx. I hope there aren't more problems than before I sent it --- like replacing my Core2Duo with a Core Solo or something... I can't afford to send it back again: I'm leaving the country for good Monday, March 26!!!