acer laptop problem

racingbrett

Hi all

I'm in need of some advice and i hope I am posting in the correct forum.

In Jan 2010 my wife purchased a new acer ferrari one from acerdirect, which she uses for her uni work and very limited general stuff at home, due to the fact the laptop was going to be transported around a lot we purchased a decent hard 100% waterproof case for it.

At the start of her summer holidays the laptop was put away in the case and stored in a safe drawer where we keep all our important documents and papers. Now that she is preparing to return to uni the laptop has been taken out to prepare it for the coming year (timetables and to put medical pdf books on the machine). However we noticed that the lcd screen is damaged, it has what looks similar to water damage running around the outer edges of the screen with a 3 inch gap centred top and bottom. When the laptop was stored there was definitely no damage to the lcd and she is always extra careful around laptops as far as liquids are concerned so we are 100% sure there is no way any liquid has spilt on this machine.

Anyway we sent it of to acer under the warranty and sure enough they tell us its water damage and chargeable, after many calls to the offshore call centers, many escalations and many requests for photographic evidence of the water damage i receive 5 emailed pictures showing simply a picture of the damage on the screen and no actual proof that the damage is caused by liquid. The email had a new contact number for a UK based team who i promptly called to explain the situation again, the lady i spoke to was in agreement that it sounded odd and how the pictures only showed the damaged lcd and put it in for reassessment.

I have now just got off the phone from talking with them to see what was going on, they told me its definitely water damage and that it was inspected by a senior engineer and it appears the water has seeped in at the top left and right edges and run down the edges of the screen, i told the person that i asked and want to see photos detailing the ingress points and showing clearly that it is water damage, not just pictures of the damage on the lcd i also explained the whole situation again, his reply was "we have sent you photos showing the water damage" i have tried to argue this telling him that it only shows me the damage to the screen and in no way proves that it is water damage only to be told "we wont go any further on this either you pay or we send it back un-repaired".

Now as far as i can tell from the photos (i am a electronics engineer, have worked on laptops and i am trained in computer electronics) this laptop has not even been opened, when i asked if this was the case my question was ignored and the same you can pay or we send it back was quoted to me.

On top of this when we first contacted acer about the problem we were experiencing some issues with the mouse pad, an engineer ran us through some software settings which didn't fix the problem so the faulty mouse pad was placed on the pre report sheet, after talking to the engineer i went through the software myself to find the engineer had told me to set the slider in the wrong direction and all was now working, There professionals trained engineers reported that the liquid spillage had damaged the mouse pad and that a new board needs fitting, they have given no response to my questions over this.

I have informed them that i will be making a complaint about all this to acer head office only to be told "there's no point because all complaints come to us anyway". How on earth can a complaint be dealt with by the people you are complaining about

Can anyone advise me on where i got from here my belief is this is an excuse so they do not have to cover the warranty

Cheers Brett

Freddie_Snowbits

Welcome, for advise on the fault, try the techie bored.

For advice on the item, as it is more than 6 months old, the onus is on the pruchaser to prove the fault was inhererent under the SOGAs, Though I assume it is still under warranty

BigLee_24

Warrenty wont cover water damage Freddie.....

Freddie_Snowbits

OK you mention the bag it was in, does that have a warranty? Or try the household insurance.

Pop over the techie bored as well