2013 Archives

[richardson45]

Please can someone help.  I purchased the i7 16gb V3, 1.5tb hard drive, windows 8, with pioneer built in blu ray player  version of this laptop for my son.  He got it on the 8th, his birthday, and we have just tried to install MS office (which I have on DVD) on it, and the drive will not recognise the disc.  It whirs a bit, the little disc comes up on the screen and then it says "insert disc into drive e" and throws the disc drive open.

I know this DVD works, as tried it on his old Sony Vaio as a test.  It is an original Microsoft disc.  

So, I then tried to play a blu ray disc in the player and the same thing happened.  This means we can't use the disc drive for anything at the moment.

Does anyone know of a solution?  I have tried everything I can think of, including removing the disc drive in device manager and rebooting, checking for a driver update (it says the one on it is the most up-to-date.)  Running the smart system update found that all things were up-to-date and I updated to all the latest window updates.

Is there some conflict with Windows 8 and the blu ray drive?

At £899 this was not a cheap option, and if it isn't going to work, I am going to have to ring the company and tell them they need to take it back, as it isn't fit for purpose.  I don't really want to do this, as my son likes the machine, except for this rather large problem.

I am currently trying a complete system reset, to see if that does anything to make it work!

If you are able to come up with any ideas on this, gratefully received, as I have been surfing the net for two hours but come up blank on solutions for this.

Thank you in advance.

[finlux]

Hi richardson45

It sounds to me as if the optical drive is faulty (laser?). The only option, as you've already stated, will be to return it for repair.

Depending on where you bought it from, they may accept a return, and replace it will another. It is such a good spec laptop (and as your Son likes the machine), I'm sure it will be worth the wait!

[richardson45]

Finlux, thank you for this.  You confirmed my suspicions that whatever I was doing wasn't going to make a difference as something wasn't right.  I rang the company this morning and I am awaiting a phone call from their collection company to collect the laptop.  They started saying about repair, but I was very clear that as it was only used from 8th October and we are now the 11th, I didn't feel that at £900 paid, I should be having a repair and expected it to be replaced.  The advisor has confirmed it will be replaced, but I will have to wait and see what happens.

Thank you again for taking the time to respond to my plea for help.

Regards,

Richardson45

[finlux]

You're welcome. Lets hope they do replace it!

[richardson45]

Been trying to resolve this with VERY UK since 11.10.13.  Despite two formal complaints, still no further forward.  All they are offering is repair and I am unwilling to accept that on a £899 laptop.  Am I being unreasonable?  They expected me to liaise with ACER direct, which I was unhappy with given that I didn't purchase it direct from ACER,and I know the item is faulty. but I did that and again they offered to repair (ACER.) 

I am thinking of taking matter to trading standards, because I bought this on the internet from what I thought was a reputable retailer, used it for three days and it was not fit for purpose.

Very frustrating, will NEVER EVER buy an ACER product again.  This has been the first and last time.  I know I can't blame them for the company behaving in the way that they are, but when you pay a lot of money for an item, you expect it to last longer than 3 days!

I've even thought about buying a new blu ray optical drive and installing it myself, as this is my son's birthday present and he still can't  use it.  It's making me feel terrible that I bought him something for his A'level course work and basically all he can do on it is surf the net, not actually  have software installed to allow him to do his coursework!

[finlux]

A trip to trading standards will certainly fill you in with how you stand legally, however (and I may be wrong) they can just offer a repair. Those stores with good customer service would offer an exchange or even a refund.

I can understand why you say you'll never buy an Acer again, however Acer products are normally much more reliable than the one you have, and in this case the fault lies with the manufacturer of the optical drive - luck of the draw really!!

It would give you a lot less hassle to buy a new drive & fit it yourself. I don't think it would invalidate your warranty. Any Acer Tech's care to advise on that??

Good luck & keep us informed

[richardson45]

To fill you in, I took the matter to the VERY UK headquarters, as was getting nowhere with the customer advisors, just a generic script with conficting information and to be honest Acer themselves would only offer repair.  I also sought advice from Citizens Advice on my standing on refusing repair.

As soon as I involved their HQ though action happened.  They said i'd been told wrong info and that as a customer I had 28 days to return and refuse a repair (I kept quoting machine wasn't fit for purpose.)  They again tried to direct me to Acer and I said I wouldn't contact them as contract with VERY, and they rang them got the returns number they needed, arranged for faulty laptop to be collected, which is was yesterday, and a new one arrived this morning, and so far, so good, it is working at the current time and long may that continue.

I haven't had a refund for my faulty laptop yet, but if it doesn't happen within the timeframe given, believe me I will make full use of the email address I now have, as they are fantastic at resolution quickly.

They have also given me £10 credit to my account to take into account the amount of phone calls i've made trying to sort this out.  Maybe it was the threatening to leave (I am a good customer,) that did it.  I don't know, but if i'd found this email address before it would have saved no end of stress.  Oh and they refunded my postage and the new one was free delivery.

If anyone else needs this email address, happy to supply, just contact me.  It's worth it, they really are on the ball and want to help customers.  They told me the other customer advisors had given me wrong information (no really, i'd worked that out myself!!!)

[finlux]

Finally some good news!

Just goes to show that perseverance pays off. Very certainly needs to improve its customer service though.