Acer laptops : Customer experiences 2

If you're thinking of buying an Acer laptop computer, then I advise you to read about these experiences of Acer service and back up before you buy.

 

Read the Introduction to my Acer laptop computer experience where you find out why I went to the bother of creating these pages.

 

Read Customer experiences 1 to see yet more dire stories of how buying an Acer went badly wrong for some customers.

 

If you have been through the mill with Acer, I am happy to publicise your experience, provided it is a fair and honest appraisal of what happened. Email details to keithpollardNOSPAMPLEASE@intuition-comms.co.uk. (Remove NOSPAMPLEASE to use this address).

 

 

It's funny, run a search for Acer and relatively little comes up about poor customer service but if you run a search for Esplex it's a whole different story!

 

I purchased an Acer Travelmate 2001LCE in September 2004, it never ran satisfactorily and would often overheat, performing sluggishly. Despite my purchasing extra RAM and an external cooling tray the problems persisted.

 

Within my first year of owning it I sent it in for repair twice, the first time being before Christmas and because the unit still had the same problems when it returned I sent it in again not long after.

 

The overheating issues continued and my 1 year's warranty was running out so I purchased the Acer Advantage Extended warranty for £130. I sent off the forms but got no reply for ages. I persued them on the telephone and they told me I was not eligible for the warranty, but I sent a letter asserting that I was not willing to pay £130 for a load of useless forms, so three months or so after sending the forms off I finally heard word that I was to be given the warranty.

 

I then sent the notebook in for repairs a 3rd time; the overheating issues still weren't resolved, but I tried to live with it because I didn't think it was worth the hassle.

 

It got much worse recently so I sent the notebook back for the fourth time but I also called the customer services to complain about the repair service and to ask for a replacement due to the issue never being resolved satisfactorily. I received a letter that was very dismissive of my complaint, so I called up customer services, they said to send another letter in (apparently the customer services and the complaints departments are separate) and make an 'escalated complaint'. I tried that, cue dismissive letter #2.

 

On none of the occasions that I've sent the notebook in has it returned with Acer's claimed "five working days", one time they had it for about 6 weeks if I remember correctly!

 

Today was the icing on the cake though; I received the notebook back today (complete with a new motherboard and cooling tray) and it doesn't even work!

 

Well that's a lie, the fan works brilliantly for the first time ever, but the notebook itself doesn't even boot up! No sounds are coming from the hard drive or anything!

 

So I'm having to send it in for repair #5 tomorrow.

 

I would strongly discourage anyone from purchasing Acer products, they may seem cheap but they're not worth the hassle!

 

Liam

 

Just a line to let you know you are not alone in your'e quest for a 'fair deal' from acer. My laptop went up in smoke 6 weeks after purchasing it in May 2006.

 

Since then it has been back ongoing at least 4 times.Each time it came back it would arrive with a new problem.(damaged casing,dirty screen,faulty keyboard which they say they have replaced! even though it is just as bad as before.

 

I have to say like you i have been given a 3 month extention on the warranty and the customer service lady was true to her word in that she kept me informed by phone on a daily basis.However the weak link appears to be the repair workshop.

 

I am now reaching the stage where I DREAD OPENING THE BOX when it is returned from 'them'. As with you, problems are still ongoing and I'm afraid like you it does get me extremely angry & frustrated.

 

I do feel better sharing my experience with someone who knows exactly how it feels.

 

Hope everything works out for you but im sure you know what i mean when i say don't hold your breath!

 

All the best

Andrew

 

 

I bought a new acer 4501. worked okay for about 12 months & 4 days! then one day it simply failed to start,

sent to acer who diagnosed a faulty motherboard.

suitably swapped at a cost of £136 (okay it is out of warranty I guess)

I receive unit back. 1 month later after numerous phone calls, chasing it.

RESULT: out of box failure.

 

 

acer now say fault is on motherboard and DVD drive connection, great motherboard has been swapped recently, but they say its out of warranty by, 2 days. despite me not actually not being able to even turn the unit on since 1st reported fault, they insist that I must pay a further £198 quid for its repair. Despite the last engineer being able to test using the DVD drive they insist its an out of warranty repair! mother boards only warranty for 3 months!

 

I reckon my laptop has done more mileage in the back of a citylink vehicle than in my possession.

 

I take them to the small claims court.

 

They submitted no defence, nor did they turn up for court.

 

 

ACER nil. Average Joe 1

 

they finally paid out 500 quid!

 

any one want a buggered 4501.

--

Derrick

 

I am so glad to read something about this mess, Thank you so much Mr Keith Pollard for writing your experience with Acer.

I don’t want to waste your time more than it has already been wasted by Acer customer service!

 

In my case, I bought my Acer laptop on the 28th of December 2006, I return it back to Acer on the 7th of February 2007 to repair the DVD player, then I get it back on the 17th of March with some scratches on the top corner of the screen, so it will go back to them again tomorrow morning!!

 

Because I suffered from a cancer trauma "and from my Acer laptop too", I don’t have the energy or the ability now a days to fight and get my rights back, but at least I will keep trying and phoning them daily!

 

What can I say!

 

Mohamad

 

I read with interest your horror stories regarding Acer's after sales service and I was sorry to hear just how badly they treated you and the others who have left remarks on your website.

 

I myself am currently experiencing the same torment.

 

I purchased an Acer LCD television last March. It was wonderful until the week before Christmas when the screen decided to turn red (all dark colours appear as red). Fear not I thought, because it has a two year warranty. A quick call to Acer and I was assured that an engineer would call to repair the problem within 48 hours. Too good to be true I thought (and it was).

Having taken the time off work to wait in for the engineer, nobody materialised. I called Acer the following week to ask what was going on.

 

Maybe it was a delay due to Christmas I thought. I was advised that they were 'awaiting parts'. They then fobbed me off to their after sales contractors Lynx who said I may have to wait months for the parts!

 

I complained and Acer offered me £30 as a 'gesture of good will' and undertook to resolve the fault as soon as they could. The £30 they offered never did arrive! In any case it was an insult for the loss of earning's I'd suffered waiting in for the engineer and parts that were never to be!!

 

Last week they called to say the parts would be delivered on Monday morning (today) and an engineeer would arrive between 1300 and 1800 to carry out the repair. They absoultely assured me that this would happen. So another day off work to wait in....

 

By lunchtime...nothing, so I called them. The parts were 'on board the delivery van and on their way to me'. Guess what....no parts and no engineer ever materialised! They now claim that there had been some kind of 'mix-up'..

 

They have lied to me, wasted my time and made numerous false promises. I can honestly say that Acer customer services (do they know what the words mean?) are truely awful and I will NEVER buy Acer again. I would strongly advise anyone to think twice befor ebuying an Acer product.

 

If I had the choice again, I'd have bought another brand or I'd have done some better research on Acer's after sales service before outlaying £700.

 

I've little option but to pursue Acer through the County Court. It'll cost me £80 but it's better than spending the rest of my life being fobbed off by Acer.

 

I would be happy for you to print my comments on your website.

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

Thought you might be interested to read of yet another Acer satisfied customer.

Our 3 month old Acer Monitor failed, and after trying to get Tesco to be reasonable about it, I finally defaulted to ringing the Tesco helpline, that leads you through a painful series of number choices, then onto Acer. Possibly the only good thing I have to say about the Acer service is that their chosen method of having the item collected worked quite well.

 

My monitor disappeared on the 1st October, and two weeks later I phoned the helpline, to be informed that part of the monitor had failed and they would be requiring a new part for it, and they had raised the order with their parts department. Again a few weeks later I called, and was advised that the repair was under way, again following a few weeks I called, and was advised that the Monitor had been lost, the problem being sited to a computer problem at their site!!!!!!

 

Again another phone call just before Christmas, and I was advised that an order had been raised to replace it, and it should be with me within 10 working days. On Monday 8th January I yet again called, and was assured that the monitor would be delivered "soon".

 

Lo and behold it arrived on the following Friday. Hope this one is better!

 

Kim

 

 

My Acer Ferrari 4000 notebook has been in to Acer 4 times for repair. The first time was 18 October 2006 so in reality I have not had the use of a notebook for about 6 weeks now. I am an I.T. manager and desperately need a reliable notebook.

 

My notebook USED to work well BEFORE Acer Africa got their hands on it! The original problem was faulty speakers. I sent the notebook in for repair (what a mistake!) and it was returned about a week later. When we switched it on, it gave one long beep and 2 short beep s- continuously. When we powered it down it then hung on reboot at least twice. It then booted and appeared to work normally. We called Acer Africa who told us that there was no problem. I could just hear them thinking- ‘stupid users!’. Unfortunately for them, I am extremely technical and Compaq notebook certified and my network manager has vast experience as well. So we are well placed to identify problem hardware.

 

A few days later, I could not connect to the network and found that the LAN card in windows was missing. So I rebooted. No LAN card found. I then re-installed the LAN drivers and it seemed to work fine. Then it started to hang. So back to Acer it went.

 

It was returned a few days later and surprise, similar problems!. So, guess what, back to Acer! This is just before I was going on a week long business trip and desperately needed my notebook. I called them and explained my problem. What an attitude they have!! Did Acer Africa care? Did they even give a sh-t? No way! Anyway, while I was in Johannesburg, I got to speak to the managing director of Acer Africa, a Mr. David Drummond. You would think that I would have any luck here? Dream on!! He suggested that he replace my notebook with a demonstration one. I refused. I told them that enough is enough and I want a new notebook. Their service is so poor and their don’t give a sh-t attitude really sucks!

 

They returned my notebook to me, and guess what? Right! It worked great a for about a week, and then 3 beeps on boot, and no LAN card.

 

So. Back to Acer we go. So now I have no notebook and Acer want to return this one to me as no fault found!! They are such idiots! I am an I.T. manager and they treat me this way? So how do they treat the normal person in the street? Oh, they probably treat everyone the same – badly!

 

They claim to have replaced the motherboard twice as well as other components.

 

I have told them that now after 4 repairs, I want my money back! As usual, to get hold of anyone of consequence is impossible. No one in upper management ever returns your calls. Oh, David Drummond did call me while I was in Johannesburg, twice! But since then, I have left numerous messages and e-mails for him, but nothing doing! Is he hiding?

 

I have instructed my company (about 2000 users) to never buy any Acer equipment again as Acer Support is just too poor and I intend setting a letter of demand to them

 

Regards

 

LS

 

National I.T. Manager

 

hi my name is JOHN XXXXXXX

 

read the dittos on acer and guess what ITS HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!

 

£890 FOR LAPTOP broke down after two weeks sent away assured of 5-10 day turn around no joy after 4 weeks arived back after 5 weeks and countless promises of contact from ACER that never happened SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!!!

FINALLY ARRIVED WITH A HUGE GOUGE/SCRATCH ON THE LID

a little scared to return the damn thing as it may not come back

 

regrds -

 

JOHN

 

I wish I'd read this before I bought.  I've just purchased a high-spec notebook from Acer in the UK - along with some software that doesn't work and half a docking station instead of the one I asked for.   They won't (yes - won't!) sell me a spare battery that I need, and won't talk to me at all about anti-virus software problems - so I can't currently risk connecting to the internet.  This is hindering my business!  Acer do not appear to give a damn.  Their customer service line is impossible to get through on, emails are unanswered, and I am frankly appalled at their customer service.  

 

The technical reviews I read were fine, but their customer service experience is simply woeful, and absolutely no-one should be treated with the casual indifference and contempt to which I have been subjected.   Based on my initial experiences, I dread to think what may happen if my new machine actually develops a serious fault and needs to be returned.  The notebook is fine when it runs, but that is only half the story.  I need backup and customer service I can rely upon, and Acer certainly, definitely, without any doubt whatever - DOES NOT HAVE THE FAINTEST HINT OF IT.

 

I wish I had known.  I will never buy Acer ever again, and will ensure I exert every influence on hardware purchasing decisions in my job in the IT industry to avoid anyone, or any company, I work for, or with, making my mistake.

 

I wonder if Ferrari realise the computer company they have aligned their famous name to is so very bad for their brand reputation of excellence?   I would appreciate it if anyone happens to know the MDs of either Acer or Ferrari to complain to directly, or forward this email?  I've tried briefly to find their addresses/emails, but haven't yet. 

 

RL
Programme Manager

 

 

I read the other Acer customers comments on your site and thought I could add mine.

 

I worked in Singapore for the last 3 years.  We used Acer and the support was excellent.  When I moved back to the UK in December and took up my new job naturally I purchased an Acer.  My new job requires huge amounts of data to be stored so I decided to choose a laptop which could burn DVD’s.  I took delivery of the machine in December last year.  It has never burned a DVD!!

 

At first I didn’t care because I was busy setting up my new job.  When I complained eventually I got the answer “return the unit to us”.  I explained that everything is working with the laptop, its just the DVD – can I send that unit to you because I really cannot be without the computer for weeks.  Answer No!

 

I took it to PC world business (where we purchased it).  They confirmed that it is the DVD unit (could be exchanged in less than 1 minute).  “Can you do it for me?”  “Sorry no, you will have to deal with Acer”!!

 

So I am stuck.  Having read the posts from other customers on the internet I cannot risk sending it away.  So I will have to purchase a USB hard drive to archive my data.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T BUY ACER IN THE UK.  THEY COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS.  Next time I will but anything but ACER.

 

If anyone has a DVD drive model TS-L632B which they don’t want anymore (and which is working) maybe I could try to solve my problem. Please let me know.

 

Regards

 

David