Warranty damage

Has anybody else had a similar problem to me? I sent my Aspire Laptop in for a warranty repair on the screen - it was a physical problem with the screen, an external monitor worked fine so it was not software related. I sent it off in the original packing which I use all the time as I travel a lot. However, I got it back, a month later, with just a bit of plastic loosely wrapped around part of it & big gouges out of the case. The hard disk had been wiped so I lost all my work & all the programs I had downloaded. I lost over 200Gb of downloads & at $10/Gig (mobile broadband) that is over $2000 it will cost me to download & instal it all again. Some of the stuff I lost was my own intellectual property & is irreplaceable. Also I now have to buy an external DVD drive because the one that was fitted is now locked on region 1 - it was region free. The DVD also appears to be a different one than the one that was originally fitted. Fortunately I am in the entertainment industry so every time I get a microphone in my hand I tell Acer jokes, warn everyone about how bad Acer is & urge everyone not to buy Acer. I've now had 3 people tell me they have taken my advice & bought Toshiba. With a bit of luck I can cost Acer a lot more than they cost me. It would have been cheaper if I had just thrown the Acer away & bought a new Toshiba. I am a very, no, extremely unhappy Acer victim.

Wolf2

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Leho

Wolf

It certainly seems as if you had some questionable service from Acer and I commiserate to a degree with your situation.

However, Acer's warranty is very clear about data and user installed software. They reserve the right to wipe everything and set it back to factory. From the sounds of it, this may be standard procedure before anybody looks at the specific complaint.

I suggest to you that you could have and should have avoided your software and data loss by doing appropriate backups before submitting the computer to Acer Service.

As to the DVD regions - I understand that there are a limited number of changes that can be made to the region before it locks in. I cannot imagine why this would be so. You may have a case here to go back to Acer and complain that they locked you in.

Leho

Wolf2

It might be standard practice - but WHY? As you know, you can only back up data, you lose all your own installed progs so you must download again & re-install. It also takes a long time to fine-tune your comp to your own preferences & it is a hassle to go back to the factory defaults. Here it is, months later, & I still haven't got it back to where it was. If Acer had any consideration for their customers they would wipe the hard disk only when absolutely necessary! If it is a hardware problem then erasing all the software is absolutely pointless, it solves nothing & just causes major hassles for the customer.

Wolf2

Oh yeah, as for the DVD - the very first time I tried to watch a DVD was after I got the comp back from warranty only to find it was set to region 1 so it would not play & wouldn't change regions either. The burner fell apart when I tried to open it too.

Leho

Wolf

It always comes down to minimizing costs.

Iff wiping and reset is standard practice, it is likely because 40% to 60% of the returned computers are cured by the reset. Doing this eliminates all the problems that were caused by the customer. This is a huge saving in warranty costs.

Wiping the hard drive only when absolutely necessary requires a qualified technician to actually analyze your computer. Wiping and reset can be done by anybody after 15 minutes of training. You can do the labour cost math.

Your $2000 investment in software and data could have been saved by a $200 external hard drive with total backup software.

Live and learn, I guess.

On another thread you are recommending Toshiba as the best solution. Their warranty is even more specific regarding backing up software and data before returning for service. I would be surprised if Toshiba or any other manufacturer doesn't automatically wipe and reset. Also, I expect that Toshiba and Acer use many of the same purchased components.

Leho

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