Acer Groan.

Danyúl_II

Well - here's a little story about Acer.

Firstly, if you're dumb enough to buy an Acer in the first place - more fool you!

Now onto my story..

2 years ago I purchased a £650 Acer 5672 laptop brand new. After 13 months it broken (didn't extend the warranty - expected a £650 investment to last at least 2/3 years before problems..) and needed a new motherboard. Was quoted £300 for repair and decided to simply buy a new laptop. :mad:

Stupidly, I purchased another Acer after this. If you're one of those people who thinks "yeah but they are such good value for money!" - they're not. Seriously. Shop around, it's worth it to spend a little bit more on a better brand.

So anyway - purchased a 5613. Price to me £500 brand new. This time I took out the extended warranty at about £50/60 or something. 10 months in and it busts. Was unable to perform the usual reinstallation of Vista because the screen wouldn't load up.

Because I am living abroad I wasn't sure what to do, so I phoned up Acer's premium rate technical support in the UK.

me: "Hi, my laptop is broken [description of problem here] - I am living abroad, where do I send it for repair?"

support guy: "Well there's a repair centre in your country there, but are you sure it needs to be sent in?"

me: "yeah, I have tried everything but I think it needs a new mainboard"

support guy: "OK. Can you just read out the serial number for me of your laptop so I can check some details?"

me: "well the laptop is 10 months old and the sticker has rubbed off the bottom so I can't see the number. But I can give you my details because I am registered on the Acer warranty program.."

support guy: "What, you have no serial number? Are you sure it's an Acer laptop?"

me: <hangs up>

-

So decided to ring the support line in Germany where I live. Much friendlier and helpful.

Arranged with them to have it sent in, and all I needed to do was ring UPS and arrange a collection - impressive.

Sent laptop off on the Monday, with a half page of writing explaining as best I could the problem. Also included my proof of purchase and sellotaped a note to the top of the laptop to ask for them to send that back for me. Received laptop back on the following Tuesday 'fixed'. Proof of purchase not there. Went to power up - nothing. Was about to phone them after 10 mins of trying when it booted up after I gave it a whack. Worked fine for 10 minutes then same problem again. Laptop once more unusable. Which made me think "did they test this after repair?!".

Called them back, explained, arranged for it to be sent away. Sent this time on the Tuesday, received back the following Tuesday. This time it was fixed, but my expansion slot thing (you push a button at the side of the laptop and a little thing pops out for you to slot stuff in) was completely missing. Although not too bothered by this, as I don't use it and never will, I can't understand why on Earth it's gone missing. Anyway, laptop finally fixed after sending it back 2 times for repair.

But please be aware of the rude technical support staff, the awful repair team and the all-round shoddy build of Acer products.

AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Thanks for reading :beer:

Marty_J

Wow, sounds like you've had a pretty hard time with them.

Though I know it doesn't help you now, there's no way I'd pay to have a 13 month laptop repaired, whether it was in warranty or not.

Just over a year is not a reasonable amount of time for a laptop to last, and I would have been demanding it was repaired at no cost to myself.

Danyúl_II

Aye the 13 month laptop (1st one) would have cost £300+ for repair (I phoned round other non-Acer places). Because of no warranty there was no option.

Should have just purchased a different brand 2nd time round. I think I will invest in an Apple Mac in a year or so!

You shell out £500 for a laptop you expect at least 3 years usage out of it without problems. Disgraceful build quality.