W510 keyboard key broken

arunasad
arunasad Member Posts: 7 New User

F11 key on my W510 dock popped out. They key itself is fine, but the two part plastic hook is broken. 

 

Tried to contact Acer support, but although the tablet is still within warrantly they asked £60 only to ispect it! Then they would charge unspecified amount for a new dock as they can't replace a single key!

 

I looked into olde Acer notebooks with small keyboards, but the keys are still slightly too big. Does anyone knows where I could get a replacement key for W510

Answers

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    You called Acer support (http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/support / 0871 760 1000* ) and they wanted £60 to inspect. Someting does not sound right, that sounds more like a vender than Acer. I'd ask for a supervisor.

  • arunasad
    arunasad Member Posts: 7 New User

    I didn't call. I spoke via chat on official Acer support site, so it was Acer. They said that broken key is not covered via warranlty (which is fair enough).

    I found the chat transcript now, exact amount was £55.15 and this only covers courier and assessment. The repair charge would be on top of this.

    They also kept telling that because of keboard design it is not possible to change a single key and whole keyboard will need to be replaced in Acer repair centre (which is complete nonsense - I removed existing working key and put it back in without any issues).

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    That sounds like a brush off. If you dropped the keyboard, right, that is your issue. However if it was a manufacturing defect (e,g, key not moulded properly) then it is Acer's.

     

    Can you see why the key failed and was it defective ? If so then I would take to a specialist for their opinion (should cost a lot less) and send that with photographs to Acer.

     

    Don't know if this applies but at many companies the first tier of reception is by "script kiddies" whose main function is to read from a script and say "no" to anything not in the script, tier 2 (supervisors) are allowed to think but have to get to tier three for Someone Who  Knows. 

     

    ps can't help furether because I have the stripped down model without the keyboard becaiuse a) I use for development and need the LCD. and b) am cheap. May just need to askyourself how often do you need the F11 key ?

  • arunasad
    arunasad Member Posts: 7 New User

    @padgett Thanks. Your post made me think. I definitely have not dropped or in any way mistreated the keyboard. So this time I rang Acer and said that the key must have had a manufactoring defect and requested a warranty repair. Somewhat surprisingly for me this time they didn’t even argue and agreed to repair it for free. Great result! Thanks again.

  • arunasad
    arunasad Member Posts: 7 New User

    OK, it was too good to be true. After sending the dock to Acer they changed their mind and send me a quote for £65! Their justification was that broken key is a cosmetic issue and not covered by warranty. I obviously refused to pay and after couple of long conversations they agreed to fix it for £13. Still couldn't see why I had to pay anything, but really didn't want to waste more of my time so agreed.

     

    Finally have my dock with all the keys back but left really unimpressed by ACER customer support...

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