Notebooks & Netbooks

[leighann]

This is my Facebook post yesterday. 

I have an Acer laptop. It was sold to me with Windows 8 and I was told I could go back to Windows 7 if I chose. When I tried to do this option back some time ago, Acer told me if I did it they would revoke my warranty. Now a few weeks ago a little plastic piece broke near the charger and I can't easily charge my computer anymore. I chatted with the company and they told me not to worry, it was covered under warranty. I mailed my computer to them (and yes, I had to pay shipping/ins etc.) Now they call me to tell me it will cost me $273.00 to fix my computer. Now why in the world did they tell me that it was covered under warranty??? DO NOT BUY AN ACER COMPUTER! This computer is less than a year old and I don't take it anywhere. It just stays at my house. I am so disgusted!

Acer should not be allowed to be in business!

[Vince53]

Leighann, I'm sorry that you're having these problems. Let me try to help.

Changing the operating system on a laptop is far more difficult than changing it on a desktop, because the hardware and drivers are far more specific. In addition, a computer built for Windows 8 uses some hardware that is not backwards-compatible with Windows 7. When you change your operating system, you lose your drivers, and when you download new drivers, they are not designed to run Windows 7 on a Windows 8 machine.

An easier cure if you don't like Windows 8 is to perform two simple operations:

1) On the Start Page, drag the Desktop tile to the top left corner. Now you only have to press Enter to go to the Desktop.

2) On the Desktop, go online and install the free Classic Shell Start Button. Your machine will now operate like Windows 7, only faster.

Now, for your second problem. Yes, your machine is under warranty and Acer will honor the warranty, BUT if Acer finds other problems with your machine, the warranty requires them to fix those problems as well. If you accidentally damaged your machine, those repairs might not be covered by the warranty.

Your best solution is to contact Acer and ask them for an explanation. If you are not satisfied, politely insist on speaking to a supervisor, and he might be able to offer you a better solution.

[Igetfedup]

To update and conclude my own story of misadventure with Acer support, which differs from leighann's only in that it has a happy ending.

I finally now have a functional Acer again. 

To recap:

1. After two months of ownership, the S3 laptop developed a power problem; battery would not recharge and when battery became depleted, laptop stopped working altogether; plugging it in did nothing.

2. I contacted customer service (chat and phone) and was told to ship it at my expense to Texas repair facility.

3. I sent it in and heard nothing back for weeks so went through customer service contact agony again.

4. Computer then reappeared at my door with note inside saying power cable replace.

5. But computer STILL did not work at all plugged in although somebody obviously recharged the battery; battery started quickly wearing down to zero again so I stopped using computer to avoid being right back where I started.

6. I personally then diagnosed by deduction that problem was probably charger part of power cable (its a two part assembly and if they did replace anything, it was probably only the wall plug half of the assembly)

7. Went through chat session with a support tech again and convinced him to ignore the faulty logic diagnostic flow chart that they use (because they really dont know squat about computers) and to send me a new charger under warranty

8. Two weeks later I received the new charger and my Acer started working off the power input again and recharging the battery in normal manner.

9. In summary, it took almost two months of useless customer support sessions and inaction from the Texas facility just to replace what should have been obvious to any trained technician from the start: the charger was faulty.

So, I'm telling everyone that I know: NEVER BUY AN ACER !

[slamerr]

My tablet was bad from the day I received it. Acer said I had to pay return shipping, took almost 3 weeks to get back, called to complain and was given 1 extra month on my warranty for my trouble. Not even an apology for the trouble. I see quite a few others also think their support "sucks". I will never buy another Acer product. I will also make it my mission to inform as many others that I can about my experience and convince anyone that will listen not to purchase Acer products.

[Igetfedup]

Slamerr's posting brings me back into the forum with my latest "I hate my Acer worse than my mother-in-law" scenario:

Because of fiasco with power supply described in previous posts, I have not used my Acer hardly at all in months. It just sits on a shelf; I went back to using my "old" Toshiba running on skungy but now much-more-appreciated Windows Vista instead of the Acer's problematic Windows 8.

I'm a student at American Military University and just started a class where playing Combat Mission war games scenarios is a requisite. So I bought a game & installed it in my Toshiba & it runs great on Vista. Supposed to run just as well on Windows 8, so I also installed it on my Acer.

Guess what? it wont run on the Acer; when I click on Start Game I get a message that 3D graphics cannot be loaded. Contacted Game supplier & was told my Acer must have a very low level graphics card with no 3D graphics on it. Hello !!! this was supposed to be an upmarket current generation computer ! but I cant play games on it because it has an inadequate graphics card?!

Still fed up - DO NOT BUY AN ACER !!!!!!

[jean2]

Dear Sir?Madam 

                     After saving up for over a 12 months for a decent laptop, I decided on one of your Acer 5253 models which i had heard very good reports on, so in December 2012 I paid approximately £370 for it from Tesco's in Hartlepool.  I have used it every day since then and have not had any problem with it until recently,

It turns itself off for no reason whatsoever and will not reboot for hours, the same thing happens after being closed down over night. Do you have any suggestions as to what may be causing this to happen and if so would there be any possibility of it being repaired by yourselves, I realise that it is just outside of the 12 month warrantee but for this to happen so soon afterwards seems very odd.

£370 is a lot of money and you don't expect a product which cost that much to develope a problem in just over a year!!

Yours hopefully

[edited for privacy]

[Kadlec]

I'm facing a similar problem. I gave my laptop for having a motherboard problem fixed on feb 6 2014. I was told i would be contacted in a day or two. After a week no word. I called acer up and they told 2 more days. After 2 days they told another 2 days as the motherboard which they used to replace the original was also faulty. Today is March 8 and I've been told I would receive my laptop on March 10. Its been more than a month. Whats even more irritating is that they knew the problem was with the motherboard and even after a month they havent rectified it. They dont even notify us if there is going to be a delay. Its so frustrating as customers calling them up and running behind them to ask whether your laptop is fixed or not. 

[Kadlec]

The very same problem occured in my acer aspire e1-570g. But the problem surfaced the very next day after the purchase. It goes off for no apparent reason while in use and wont start up for sometime. I've been told that its because of the motherboard. Seems to be a faulty motherboard. Yours might be too

[sammy7838]

Can you tell me how to apply for extended warranty ?
I bought my new maching on 01/02/2014.

Can anyone also tell me about Accidental Damage coverage application (Warranty)