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.