Don't Buy Acer Products

it takes a lot to get me really upset. it takes a lot to motivate me to ever make public statements like the one i'm about to make. after all, i'm the farthest from perfect. however, in this case, i've fallen victim to far more than a few accidental oversights. in my experience Acer America i poorly organized, does NOT value customer service, and is unwilling to stand behind their products. Below is an email i just sent to one of the few email addresses on their corporate page. it gives more detail about the problems.

here's an overview:
  1. I bought a high-end laptop and had problems out of the box (a clicking sound when playing dvd and the monitor inexplicably shutting off, necessitating a hard restart.)
  2. after sending the laptop in to tech support, they returned it without fixing the problem and without explanation.
  3. during the tech support they reloaded my hard drive but didn't reload the acer erecovery software, rendering my recovery discs useless and preventing me from creating new ones.
  4. when my recent tech support call ascertained that erecovery had not been reinstalled (at the repair depot), they refused to comp me the $40 recovery discs that i now need.
  5. several calls to Marty Lower, who was supposedly helping me get this taken care of, went unreturned
  6. email tech support took at least 4 days to respond.
The point here is to detail my experience in the hope of preventing you from experiencing similar problems. I may be the exception to the rule, but if that were the case i think the few people within Acer who i've shared this story with would have been a little more shocked at my "bad luck."

Do yourself a favor and pay a few extra bucks to get a different brand that will hopefully make a decent product and stand behind its performance.



To Whom it May Concern,

I am the owner of a Travelmate 8200 as well as (2) AL1916W's. I have had more than 3 encounters with Acer customer service and technical support and NONE of them have been helpful. I sent my laptop in for repair once and it came back with the same problems, a form letter, and zero help.

I had a problem with the monitor and the tech support was unable to fix it. I ended up finding the solution on my own while talking with the tech support staff.

My recovery discs for my laptop won't work because when I sent my laptop in for repair, they reloaded my hard drive and somehow didn't reload Acer's eRecovery software, rendering my current discs useless in addition to preventing me from creating new ones. When the tech support people figured out why my recovery discs weren't working they refused to comp me the $40 replacement recovery discs that I was unable to create because Acer didn't reload the software!

Anyway, I couldn't find anyone else to communicate this too. I'm beyond caring about how you deal with me. However, if my business had as many breakdowns as Acer does (in my experience) I would certainly want to know about it. It's possible that the stars aligned and I just happened to fall through every tiny crack, but if that was the case, I feel that once that was noticed I would have been dealt with much differently.

Thanks for your time. Please forward this on to whomever may benefit from the information herein.

justin landis



reply:

Dear Justin Landis,

Thank you for contacting Acer America. I apologize for the delay in
responding to your inquiry. I see in our database where you called in to
our tech support line regarding this issue. This is to acknowledge receipt
of your email.

Respectfully,
Jeff Waits
Acer America Online Technical Support


Name: justin landis
E-Mail: justin@cedarhillschurch.com
System: LCD Monitor
Model: AL1916W
Serial Number: ETL86080587170CC7C4230
Operating System: Windows XP
Date Purchased: 09/20/2007
Subject: native resolution

Question / Problem:

When i set the resolution to the native 1440x900, the picture is squeezed
with lines on the top and bottom of the monitor. i have the same model
monitor for my second and it works just fine.

this monitor is acting like its native resolution is 1024x768, which is the
resolution of the monitor that this new one replaced.

i've tried uninstalling the monitors, uninstalling the video card, changing
the settings through both the windows video configuration as well as the
video card's ati catalyst control center. i also tried to reset the
settings in the monitor but that didn't make difference either.

do i need to do something in my computer itself? do i need to do some sort
of hard reset on the monitor? please help me fix this problem.

thank you.

Comments

  1. hilarious how your google ads are displaying ACER Corporation links...i hope you get paid man, I'll click on that sheet.

    also, if you get a chance check out my blog and let me know how to make it wider like yours?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This came up on a Google search I did on Acer - I was thinking of buying a laptop. Thank you so much for sharing this experience and warning me away!

    This would make a great post on www.measuredup.com - it's a consumer website where people can share experiences with businesses they've dealt with. You might consider posting there - not everybody's going to put a Google alert on Acer. You'd help a lot of people.

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  3. thanks for the comment laura. i hope this serves as a warning to other consumers who appreciate a companies who make a quality product and stand behind it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:14 AM

    similar experience. my new laptop was sent in for reapir then got misplaced for 3months. it was meant to be reapired for a faulty webcam which was supposed to take 2 weeks and after 3months i received a beaten up laptop with 5 missing screws and a broken chassis. they did a real good job.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5:31 AM

    dont buy ACER. worst mistake i ever made. i have owned many brands HP, COMPAQ, TOSHIBA but none ever gave me any trouble. ACER alone crashed more and had more faults than all of the rest combined

    ReplyDelete
  6. Acer support is AS BAD AS IT CAN GET, i also fell fowl of their bothched repairs, loss of recovery partiton, rude staff, screws and feet missing, I would never ever buy Acer again, their products and service are terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,

    I have owned a Acer Aspire m3201 for 10 months.. my first problem ocurred after 3 months the pc just couldn't start.. After a big battle with acer customer service I ending up drive for 3 hours one way so that I could drop off my computer for maintanence.Now I having problems with the computer fan, it's been very loud... Making an annoing buzzing sound. How come an new product can give soo many problems in a short period of time? . I hope Acer will improve their product.. I have never been so disapponted with a product...

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks for the comment. i fully agree. hopefully, they'll clean up their act.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The point here is to detail my experience in the hope of preventing you from experiencing similar problems.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is very important to check any computer thoroughly before buying it as it may lead to problems in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bunny^^8:17 PM

    I'll be honest here, and unbiased. I have stayed away from Acer because I have gave their products numerous chances to impress me, or at least work the way they should but both products I bought from Acer failed on me. I am not extremely technical with computers, however I do know the basics and I treat all my electronics with proper care.

    I bought two Acer laptops. I don't remember the first model, but one was a black and grey one from 2006, and then an Acer Aspire 4720z in 2007. The 2006 model worked fine for the first year, but then it started to have random problems. The first problem was a broken hard drive. I had my uncle replace it for us for free with spare hard drives he had and then it worked fine for a while.

    Then, it started to take a strange turn when something, I assume, the spring on the hinge broke and the monitor can not be moved more than 80 degrees, otherwise it'll fall flat on the surface. I barely moved the screen, and this just so happened to happen. After those two problems, the laptop overheated too often. It was very hot on winter days, and it cannot even turn on or stay on for more than 10 minutes during moderate summer days, although the first year, it was fine during summer, just a little warm. By the way, this was all after the one year warranty, and it all happened one after another.

    For the Aspire 4720z model, it also worked fine for the first few months. My mother and I noticed a random blue screen the first few weeks after it froze once, but it never came to our mind that the laptop was completely malfunctioning, so we did what I regret.. we ignored it.

    And again, AFTER the one year warranty, the laptop started to freeze more often at random times, and no one had solutions to why it did that. You cannot move ANYTHING on the screen, the only thing you can do is hold the power button and shut it off. The laptop also made a very strange ticking noise inside which worried me.

    And after all that, the screen decided to dim and become uneven, so the backlight was horrible. It was very dark on some spots on the screen. The construction was cheap. The cover was made of cheap plastic, and if you press on it gently, you can actually see the pressure through the laptop's LCD screen as it shows a dark spot on the screen too. The only thing I loved about this laptop was that it had a lot of USB ports, a scrolling wheel for volume, and the fact that the material of the inside for the touchpad and keyboard was smooth and did not make fingerprints. Laptops now have touchpads that are more difficult to use.

    Will I ever buy an Acer product again? I might someday, but now I'll stick to other brands. I bought an HP desktop in 2003 and it was working perfectly for years. We recently gave it away and it still works. We replaced it with a newer HP pc and that one had NO problems whatsoever the past two years.

    I now have an HP laptop because I could not stand the Acer Aspire freezing and the awful dark backlight. This laptop has been working great with NO problems at all and is running smoothly.

    I am not advertising, and I am not pushing people to buy HP or stay away from Acer, but this was just my personal experience. It so happens to just be a mere coincidence that all my HP products worked fine and all my Acer ones worked terribly.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous5:01 AM

    Never ever dare to buy it ,,,

    I have expricned 2 times with their shitty Laptop,
    1) has Matherboard issue which they stopped production and they dont have board so should simpany put machine in Dustbin :) 32K Gone :)

    2) LCD back panel plastic broken due to physical damange ,

    They are asking me to wait since 2month , never got resolved till the date :)

    when ever i try to contact service center they Ignore/Excuse / some time hangup call:) wow . wat ha great service,

    Please advice me where to complain , so we all together can banned their prodcut selling in INDIA :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. well people i have a acer desktop pc Aspire m3710 and in the 2year warrenty i got on it i had to return it 13 times beceause it motherboard always burned trough their explanation was that i play to hard games and the only game i play is css and now after the warrenty if i play css longer than 15 minutes he just shuts down withouth warning and with League of legends its the same problem and in normal use its the same 1 time i opened youtube and it just shutted down and i never had this problem with a dell computer acer is just
    ''more trash for less cash''

    ReplyDelete
  14. I was unable to connect to wifi on my wife's new ACER tablet, we contacted ACER support tech and was told they would resolve the problem if we purchase a network access protection plan for $299 of coarse we refuse consequently the tech said she was unable to resolve the problem without the purchase of the plan. My next call was to my internet carrier ATT they resolved the issue in 3 minutes at no charge...ALERT ACER IS A RIP OFF....Never Again ACER Never Again

    ReplyDelete

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