Letter to Acer 2
Gianfranco Lanci
Acer Europe SA
RE: Extended Warranty not valid outside country of purchase.
Pages: 1 (including this)
Dear Sir,
I faxed your office on the 13th of November, concerning my Acer Ferrari 4005WMLi laptop (with an Acer Advantage Extended Warranty), that my UK employer bought me, out of my salary while I was working there. The laptop’s motherboard has failed, about 14 months after it was purchased. When I tried to get it repaired by Acer South Africa, they said that my extended warranty isn’t valid outside UK. I bought the warranty because I was explicitly told it would be valid Internationally (by the sales staff at Easy Computers).
You can read the rest of my previous fax here
I’ve since heard from Dave Malherbe of Acer South Africa, who told me that your office had authorised reducing the cost of repairs from R6 099 to R4 400. That’s hardly much of a discount, and I could still buy an entire new laptop for less than that. After a few phone-calls back and forth, he even agreed to drop it to R2 250, on condition that Acer SA kept my damaged motherboard. While I appreciate this discount, it’s not what I was looking for. I want the repair done entirely at Acer’s cost, as I purchased an Extended Warranty that (I believed) entitles me to this.
I’ve seen that other people are having major hassles with Acer support, so I weighed in as well, and made my impressions of Acer public, on my blog. It’s not my intention to rage about how terrible Acer’s support is, but rather to warn others away from the nightmares I’ve had to deal with. I’ve highly recommended the Acer Ferrari 4000 to everyone who asked me about it (or high end laptops in general), and I hope that none of them ever have to deal with these kind of support issues.
Please can you organise for my laptop to be repaired at Acer’s expense, under warranty, in South Africa. I’d really like this to end amicably. I’m not enjoying life on my old substitute HP laptop very much, at all, and I’d love to have my Ferrari back in working condition.
Sincerely,
Stefano Rivera
Comments
Acer Notebook/laptop
Hello Stefano
I fully empathise with your situation with the Acer laptop. I have had two failed motherboards in just over one year and never a day's trouble-free working on my Notebook. Acer has stalled with assisting me and take no responsibility for a faulty machine - which it obviously is. Now that the official warranty period is over they can smugly tell me that they are no longer responsible for repairs.
I agree that the after sales service really sucks.
Linda
Acer motherboard failures
I own a acer aspire laptop which motherboard also failed after only 24 months without any warning. At 6 o'clock it was fine and at 10 o'clock it was dead. Being a full time student and relying on my laptop, i was and still is very upset.
At first i was very impressed with acer's support. They collected the machine the same day from me at varsity. The next day i received a sms stating that the machine was booked into their repair centre and that they keep me updated via mail.
1) I never received it. Finally i went on to the website and the repair status was: awaiting customer approval. Next morning just after 8, i gave them a call
2) the lady told me that the job no i gave her was incorrect (the same one that i used to access the status on the net), when she finally found it, i was told repair would be R4500 to replace the motherboard. She did offer to put me through to someone else that could assist, but that person would only be in at 8h30. I told her that i really need my laptop and is willing to miss my morning class(which i wrote a test on later that afternoon) and wait for that call.
3) It never happened, a week later i called them again, wanting some sort of explanation why the motherboard failed. I was told that some components just lasts longer than others. I can understand ports, buttons etc failing due to wear and tear but not actual motherboard components.
4) Of course i declined the repair. I can buy a brand new laptop for that price and have a longer warranty. They told me to respond to the e-mail (which i never received) and decline the repair after which they would return the machine to me. ????
After that i was put through to yet another person. He took my details and said that my machine would be returned to me the next day.
Being holiday i requested that the machine should be send to my home. I also asked what time to expect it, not wanting to sit around the whole day. Unfortunately he couldn't give me a time, understandable.
4) Although there are no classes this week, i still want to go to campus to catch up on some work. i just received a sms from acer stating that the machine has been despatched and delivery can be expected within 2 working days.
If it wasn't enough that i have lost a lot of work being without the laptop for over 3 weeks, running around to get all my work done, i now also have to sit at home for maybe 2 days waiting for delivery.
Until 3 weeks ago i was very happy with my acer product and would have recommended it to anyone wanting to buy their product. Needless to say, my opinion has changed, and reading through all these letters confirms it.
Dissapointed
Youch
Unfortunately, that sounds about right. It was only when I made a stink that anything happened.
Laptop motherboards are rather sensitive to overheating as well as physical damage, but yes in my mind a computer should last for at least 5 years with reasonable levels of abuse.
Acer customer Service
It is evident that the inital build of Acer laptops is substandard, my original 6935G gamers laptop was thrown together, with a bulging keyboard, where it had not been originally installed correctly, mother board eventually fried, and was returned to Acer no less than 4 times, (battery returned dead) at this point I got the big guns out and fired an email to the MD of Acer UK, bizarrely in less than 24 hours I had a complete replacement shipped out to me. thank you, I say my faith in your company is restored, I wish to take out the extended 3 year warranty. there is no need to do that, there is still 12 months of warranty remaining, I will call back then, 2 months remaining of my warranty, I decide it's high time I got the problem fixed with the keyboard (new laptop same initial keyboard seating installation mess) in addition it is overheating, and shutting off, every now and then. It is now back at Acer, they are claiming my warranty has now shrunk from March to November last year. I can not fathom how they have come up with November. now I am at the familiar point of awaiting customer approval .. expecting a call in a few days to tell me how much they want to try and fleece from me. It is refreshing to know that in 4 years, they have not had the decency of quitting infoteam, and giving their customers the customer service they deserve.
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