Acer - very poor support

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Another broken LCD, returned unrepaired

Another Espex horror story.

I bought a Ferrari 3400 in mid-February 2005. About ten days later I moved abroad. When I started up the laptop, the LCD was broken but the computer itself was undamaged. The Acer warranty does not cover returns from the Middle East, so I paid DHL to ship my laptop to Esplex in Plymouth. This cost over 80GBP but I was happy to do this in order to get a quick turnaround on my laptop.

About a week after Esplex had received my laptop, they sent me an e-mail saying that it would cost £440 to repair my LCD. I replied to them twice, each e-mail had no reply.

Then at the end of March, I received an e-mail from Esplex saying that the laptop had been repaired and was being returned to a friend's address in the UK (they wouldn't ship it back to the Middle East) via Citylink.

It has now been delivered, completely unrepaired, e-mails never replied to.

Although I do not have the laptop, I now intend to get it refunded via Technoworld using my Mastercard returns policy - I think this will work. And I then see no option but to start all over again, buying a new laptop from someone else (eg. Sony).

If anyone has postal addresses for complaints (Esplex and also Acer itself) I'd very much appreciate it.


B
 
watchdog

I think everyone who suffer from Acer should write a report to "Watchdog" and let them to investigate for us.
I have a problem of my travelmate laptop also. The screen sometimes flashing and the shape of images change for a few sec. Then I send it back to the warehouse to check. It returned the 2 days later and the report said" Restart the bios. No problem found." But this problem keeps appear occasionally. I called them again and they told me to send it back again. I am not sure if I should do that?
 
Do not get me started with acer, i bought the Aspire T140 pc from SHOPACER.CO.UK and i have had a nightmare with them.

Basically set up the pc and used the monitor i use with my old pc which is only 2 years old, i set the new pc up with my old pc and the monitor stayed in standby. The pc sounds like it is booting but the keyboard lights do not come on at all. I phoned them up and explained this and said it sounds like it needs repairing and gave me no suggestions for what i should try other than another monitor which i did try. They picked it up and i contacted them few days later and found out they had tried different monitors on it and they all worked on it. Now they are saying i have to pay £30, £15 for collection and £15 to get it back + about £5 phone bill constantly phoning their 0870 number.

What should i do, should i pay £30 to get it back, because they say there is no fault with it.

My argument is that they told me it needed to be repaired therefore i agreed for it to be picked up not knowing whether there was a fault with it or not, they didnt offer me any reasons why my monitors didnt work on it or suggest i buy a new monitor.

What you think?

Thanks
 
yeah they basically said that have you tried two monitors on the pc? i said yes because i had done and they both were on standby, they said it sounds like it needs to be repaired and i said i want a replacement if it is broken and they said ok when they get it they will test it to see if it has the problem that i said it had. They arrange for it to be picked up and i contacted them the next week and they told me they had tried different monitors on it and they all worked and that i have to pay for the delivery charges as it has no fault and they dont have to pay for it because of this.

thanks, would it be easier to talk on msn if you have it?
 
spoke to them and they offered to only charge me £15 after i gave my case, they have just sent me an email, they basically didnt send me a returns form to fill in or tell me of the potential cost:


Please find the attached returns forms. Our usual policy is to request that these forms be returned, signed, with the faulty machine.

On this occasion it would appear that the collection was agreed over the phone and as such the terms read over the phone to yourself. As a show of good faith in this matter we are willing to return the goods to yourself for a flat fee of £15, disregarding the initial collection fee and testing fee.

Please feel free to call me on my direct line below to discuss further
 
How can I contact a repair center?

Hi folks.
I wonna join you all with the hope that acer people will some time read this stuff and really think through their customer support.
A month ago I've got a new TravelMate 2354LCi but had a deffect with it (it was an AC problem). I made a phone call (after I read all the stuff here I understood that I was a lucky - I waited for only 10 min and got a talk), shared my problem and on this very day (!!!) my laptop was taken via UPC to the repair center in Germany (it was April the 4th, mondey). That moment I though: what a great support service! But now it is my second week without the laptop. I have my study began yesterday and desperatly in need of my laptop. However, reading all these posts I am getting less and less sure that I might see my comp in comming days (naive believe that I used to have).
Hy guys, how did you contacted your repair centers? I have neither an e-mail address nor telephone number of that center (the only thing I have is their address). Ough, I think I need to start calling them or so... Do you know how I can get a contact with my service center?
I would appreciate any ideas.
 
Ough, ya, I live in Belgium, but I've got mine through a dealer. It was Xoldes (www.xoldes.nl). Well ya, I used the phone numbers they provided in order to reach Acer HelpDesk in Brussels. Guys from Brussels forwarded my laptop to the Repair center which is in Germany and which I know nothing about (who knows, maybe such doesn't exist...:)) But anyway, noone provided me with the contact info of that German repair center. I've already written an e-mail to Brussel's support center, but the chances that I won't hear anything might be a way to high. Well, folks, who knows, maybe Acer service here in Belgium/German (or how should I call it...) is better than in the UK?
Does anyone know, however, of where I can find a list of Acer RepairCenters contact info? Still strugling with it...
 
Eugene, have a look at this link here - its a list of Acer Worldwide Service Centres with their phone numbers.
 
Hey, thnx a lot. :) That what I was looking for. I will try to reach them and get to know how things are going there. Hope to hear something more concrete than "we are awaiting for parts." I will definetely post my results then. Man, this thing is getting more and more unpredictably interesting. It is like a cassino, you think you know what you are doing but in fact you never know the result. I will keep my fingers crossed...
 
Acer Support is terrible in the UK. I would not get another acer product after the bad experiences with their (lack of ) customer support.

My Girlfriend bought a Laptop with Acer in January. By February the power spindle on the Laptop had broken though just less than a month of use. This is a common problem i know on some laptops. We checked the warrenty and we where covered. Phoned acer support and they agreed we where covered and the laptop top was taken straight away a few days later. We sent The Laptop and the broken spindle back as requested.

1 week later we get a bill for £350 from the (Evil) Esplex (Acers repairers in the uk) to repair the Laptop. I phoned them and said there had been a Mistake but apperently not???? I pointed out that they where in invalidation of there own warrenty agreement but this got me nowhere with them. Yet again there system was down alot and their Manager always seems to be away on a conferrence, sometimes he is a she sometimes he is a she during many phone calls with them. Sounds familar and very fishy!!!

You get your laptop back unrepaired if you do not pay their repair ransom. Well we got the laptop back but not the power spindle which is a critical part of the laptop. They admitted that they threw away the spindle away but failed to see how important this was to the laptop(and these people are supposed to fix computers). The fact that they have destroyed a part of the laptop without our permission is theft plain and simple and the computer cannot function with it.

The so called engineering report was a laugh, we where told the engineers go through a check list to assess the computer. So we where expecting a detailed report, what we got after requesting it (should have been sent back with the laptop) was basically the same bill we received earlier with the exact words that we told them that was wrong with it orginally. I don't think they have any qualified Engineers. We have gone through the complaints proceedures but this only gets us standard fob off letters. Its now Mid April.

So Esplex appear to be really a front for Acer to avoid fulfilling there warrenty agreement with their customers (victims) in the UK.

Well i now have my solicitor on the case when i pay for a service i expect it. Acer watch out! We could have done it the easy way.

Again i would consider lots of time before buying an Acer product in the UK. The products are good but do you want to take the risk of it breaking down within its warrenty period.

If anyone has the Managing Directors phone number for Acer in the UK i would love it Please.

Good luck to you all

Robbie B
 
Hey Robbie and everyone.
I've just got my TravelMate from the repair center yesterday (it was 8th business day since I sent it to them). Well, it seems that there is something wrong with Acer UK support. Our Benelux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxemburg) service support with a repair center in Germany (sounds a bit weird) is pretty good I would say. Guys changed my main board and it took them only 8 business days!!! Yes, in the begining I was a bit worrying after I read all the posts in here and contacted German repair center. Guys told me that they are awaiting for parts (oh no, I thought, it will take a wile). But miraculausly, parts made it pretty fast. So guys, it seems that your thread is the UK. I also met one folk who had his laptop being repaired in the same repair center and it also was pretty fast. So, good luck to you all. Your Belgian comrade. :)
 
Hi All
I have just been reading through the posts so far and have an address for Beej if you stilll want it Esplex ltd, Unit M, Eagle road, Plympton, plymouth, pl75jy.
I doubt that you will get much satisfaction as Robbie B says Acer Support in the UK is terrible in fact it seems to me more incompetent than any thing else.
I work as an IT support person and I know all company’s have off days but.
I have had three bad times with Acer Repair (Esplex)
September I received a laptop from Acer Repair but it did not belong to us so I contacted them and eventually they admitted they had sent it to the wrong place so they picked it up and two days later they sent the laptop back to me I was able to work out who owned the laptop (great things security markings the organisation initials were stencilled on the bottom) and sent it back to its rightful owners.
November last year sent them a monitor after two weeks contacted them they said they did not have the monitor and the courier company said they did not have it saying that I had been given the wrong consignment number, unfortunately in this case I had left the monitor at a secondary point for pickup and they had lost any documentation as well (Citylink leave no documentation unless you ask for it)
March I sent a laptop that was freezing to them told them we had reinstalled all software and it did not solve the problem. They reinstalled all the software and sent it back (the computer still did not work) I rang and they said they would put it on a priority repair. I know they had there server crash on the 15 of March this year and my case ID was overwritten and then given to a new case. The only reason they admitted that they had the laptop was the fact that the delivery company had a record of it being delivered. After this it took two weeks and two new case ID’s for them to admit they had lost it, they said it would take ten days for them to decide if they will replace it.
During this time two monitors turned up with a note referring to the case id for my lost monitor (recompense for a 4 month delay?) the last thing that has happened is the laptop (that they have just admitted they have lost) has been delivered to us (it still has the original fault but the case id on the report I have not seen before) so I will attempt to get money back or a replacement. Acer stuff is fine unless it needs to be repaired in which case you may not see it again (or if your lucky they will send you two new ones in four months time).
 
Hi all,
I am attaching to this message my own "adventure" with acer support, which is not over yet...
You have to read the e-mails bottom to top, and forgive any spelling mistakes I have done.

> "C.Patras" <[email protected]>[/COLOR]
> 21/04/2005 03:16 ΞΌΞΌ
> Please respond to africa2in
Dear sir,
I guess you mean that the part WILL arrive on the 26th since today is the 22nd. Obviously you have not read my e-mails, if you did you would know that the laptop is in ENGLAND with me and it is not coming back to your service in GREECE.
I will phone alman ltd on the 26th to see if it will actually be there, and if yes, a member of my family will pick it up and mail it to me.
Hopefully I will not need to contact you again...
About the "now the problem with the long respond time is in our supplies warehouse of this spare part.", words are not enough to describe the magnitude of your incompetence and your total lack of professionalism.
Best regards.

--- support greece <[email protected]> έγραψε:
> Dear Sir
>
> we check the order and we see that the spare part
> arrived date 26/4/05 and
> if you send your laptop to our service, we will fix
> the laptop in 2
> working date , now the problem with the long respond
> time is in our
> supplies warehouse of this spare part.
>
> Best Regards
> Acer Greece
>
>
>
Dear sir,
What do you mean you need 2 working days to fix the problem? You can't fix anything since the laptop is in England with me and it is not coming back. You only need to hand it in to a relative of mine and he will mail it to me.
You still have not answered why you need 26 calendar days for a DVD rom?
Do you call that "customer service"?
Is anyone there responsible for what is usually called "after-sales service and support", and if yes, can I have his name and contact details?
As of now, I am forwarding our e-mails to Acer in UK and Italy, and see what is their opinion about all this.
Still waiting for a simple DVD rom,
best regards...


--- support greece <[email protected]> έγραψε:
> Dear Customer
>
> according to your request we inform you that the
> spare part for your
> laptop (dvd rom) will arrived date 25/4/05 after
> that we need an list 2
> working days to fix the problem.
>
> Panagiotis
>
>
>
>
> "C.Patras" <[email protected]>
> 21/04/2005 03:16 ΞΌΞΌ
> Please respond to africa2in
>
>
> To: support greece
> <[email protected]>
> cc:
> Subject: Re: High priority, service
> complaint.
>
>
> In reply to your request:
> - The exact model is allready mentioned - Acer
> 2012WLMi
> - S/N: lxa240502642218127eb00
> - purchase date: 16/06/2004
>
> Looking forward to your reply.
>
> --- support greece <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > According to your request we kindly ask you to
> send
> > us more informationΚΌs
> > in order to help you in the best of the ways. In
> > particular, we need to
> > know:
> >
> > - the exact model
> > - the serial number
> > - date of purchase
> >
> > As soon as we take these informationΚΌs we will
> > answer you back immediately
> > .
> >
> > Acer Greece
> > Best Regards
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "C.Patras" <[email protected]>
> > 18/04/2005 04:00 ΞΌΞΌ
> > Please respond to africa2in
> >
> >
> > To: (e-mail address removed)
> > cc:
> > Subject: High priority, service
> > complaint.
> >
>
> Translated text following:
> Sirs,
I am the owner of an ACER 2012WLMi which, on the 30/03/05
developed a problem with it's DVD+-RW device, while I was
in Greece. After contacting Acer support (and waiting in line
for 45 minutes) I was given a service code and was forwarded
to Alman hellas LTD to replace the mentioned device. I delivered
my laptop to them on the 31/03/05. As I explained to the gentleman
I was talking to at acer, I had a programmed flight to the UK on
the 12/04/05 and I was assured that a replacement takes 3-5 days to
arrive (from where exactly?) so in 1 weeks time I should have my
laptop back.
At this point I want to mention that allthough I have bought the
3 year warranty extension, my laptop is not even 1 years old.
Following that, sometime next week I contacted Alman LTD and
they told me that maybe(!) they will have the part I needed on
the 11/04/05, at which point I explained to them that there is
no chance I would risk it, and that I would pick-up my laptop
on that date, either fixed or not, so I could take it to the UK
with me. Thinking that I am running out of choises, I offered
to send a relative of mine to pick-up the DVD when it arrives
at Alman LTD, so he could send it to me by mail, on my expense
offcourse.
The reply I got was NO, so I had to contact Acer again to find
a logical person to talk to. Again, after the usual 45 minutes
waiting in line, I explained the situation to the gentleman
I was talking to over the phone, and he sent an e-mail to
alman ltd, asking them to release the DVD to a relative of
mine.
Today, 18/04/05, after contacting alman ltd, they told me that
possibly(!!) they will have the DVD on the 21-22/04/05...
Even if that is so, consider another 3-4 days to have it
delivered to me here in the UK...
The purpose of this letter is not to get into a "fight" or
to threaten you that I will take legal measures against you,
but to have a LOGICAL answer why did I have to go through
all this, and WHEN will I receive that DVD so I can continue
with my bussiness?
I will wait for your reply and then I will forward this e-mail
(along with your reply offcourse) to Acer Italy (according to
alman ltd they are causing this problem) and also to most
greek and english PC magazines, and to some certain web
forums worldwide.
The service code you gave me is 665926S and you can use
that to verify everything I told you so far.
Thank you in advance.
 
Hey, Iznogood.
Man, that really sucks. It seems that Acer is not so compitent in what they are doing over Europe. Hope you will get your DVD drive. Man, you should post it then of how things went with you.
Best regards.
 
Acer Poor Support

I agree with everthing that is said in this thread over Acer and its spares As a small company who specialise in laptops and repairs I have now been waiting over 10 weeks for a keyboard for a Aspire 1363. Each week I phone ERS to try and purchase one and get the same answer no stock no idea when and this on a machine that is only 3months old.
 
I still have problem with my Travelmate

Hey guys.
I've already posted that my Travelmate was repaired for two weeks in Germany (I am from Belgium). But I think the problem remains the same.
I bought AcerTravelmate 2354LCi in the begining of March. However, it came with a defect. After I plugged the laptop in a weird and a very high pitch noise would start coming out of it. It would come out regardless of whether the laptop is turned on or turned off. I also figured out that the laptop was completely quite while working on a battery. I think that the source of the pitch waves was the place where the AC cable got into the laptop. After it was picked up for repair and then brought back to me "repaired" I tested it of course. So, after I plugged it in… the same weird noise came out again. BUT, this time it wasn’t as loud as it used to be. The tricky thing also is that now, after I boot it in, this weird noise becames softer after sever minutes of work. My concern though is with the cause of this problem. I mean if it is something serious, my laptop can again deliver the same loud noise very soon. Repair center changed my main board, though I think they didn’t really examine the laptop, because the problem is still here. THEY SIMPLY DECIDED THAT IT WAS A MAIN BOARD PROBLEM and changed it. I am still thinking that the main board wasn’t a problem. Otherwise why do I still have this noise (even though it is a bit softer)? Or maybe all TravelMate 2350 mainboards have this flaw? Several other people suggested that this might be simply an AC adaptor problem. It is possible that the adaptor does not work within the specified voltage/current range which may burn the laptop one day.
Did anyone of you have the same problem? Would you suggest me to send the laptop to the repair center again? Man, I need it right now for my studies... I would rather buy a new adapror (it would be faster), but if I knew the problem is with adaptor... Maybe some of you guys had the same thread? I would appreciate any suggestion.
 
Hey eugene,
from what I know, AC adaptors are not inside the main laptop case, but are on the power cable.
Are you sure that the noise you hear is not coming from the cpu cooling fan?
 
Yeah, I am pretty sure that's not a fan noise. This noise comes out even when the laptop is turned off (you can hear high pitch sound waving from the machine). Moreover, my fan goes not very often and when it goes I can hear it. My pitch noise is of very high frequencies (something like a noise bomb for killing rats :)). I start grawitating towards the wrong AC adaptor current. But with "good" Acer support I am affraid to send it to them :( (that's weird, I presuppose that regular folks knows more then Acer engeneirs...) Anyway, if I was sure this is an AC adaptor problem then I would ask Acer to simply change mine... Keeping in mind what you also said, Iznogood, I think it might be an AC problem (otherwise I would have the same problem while working on the battery). Well, I will probably have to contact support center again... what I don't really want to do... Thanks...
 
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