It's true that Acer is no longer the brand I know. Despite all it's claim to provide the best customer service and support for customers, experience with the brand and its products proves it's all plain lipservice. Stan Shih's legacy literally down the drain.
Why?
After graduating from being an IBM-compatible when it first started out to being recognised as a leading PC brand today, Acer's issues with its products are worsened by the people in its customer care. Makes sense now why ASUS is better.
At work I have installed countless Acer PC workstations. All these, plus the ones I used worked fine with only a change when it came to upgrading. Even the Notebooks were fine (except for the excessive generated heat - we even had a joke that Acer Notebooks are the hottest because of the extra processing power!).
Then came Home Use.
An Aspire 4736G bought when it was best in class for Acer Notebooks was faulty. The display had a vertical line down its centre within 6 months of its purchase. Sending it back for warranty repair was problematic too as the Acer dealer left the Notebook unattended for a long tome before sending it back to Acer Malaysia. When the unit was finally returned, it was only after much follow up calls on my part and a month had already passed.
Then the battery failed, which is quite understandable.
But then again, after a lot of fact finding and checking with Acercare Malaysia - a power on failure was finally concluded as having to replace the motherboard. Apparently the Acer Aspire Notebook series have an issue with its motherboard and the on board power supply component is prone to fail.
Still stubborn with support and faith in Acer, I bought an Acer TC603 on November 2 this year. The brochure listed the same as Aspire TC603-5443W8D * 4th Generation Intel Core i5-4330 Processor (3.0GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz) * Windows 8 * etc - keyword here was that it is a 4th and not 3rd Generation chip.
I was informed that delivery would be in a week's time. The lack of a contact number on their official receipt didn't bother me much at that time.
After anticipating delivery for over a week, I called the number for the Acer dealer's Head Office only for it to go unanswered after choosing the various options from its automated system. Then I called one of their outlets, only to be informed that the said model was out of stock and later, discontinued??? All the time wondering why they still sold on empty promises, I called their customer care number (provided by them) only to find out that the number was no longer in service.
At my wit's end now I called Acer Malaysia. I was told that the 3rd Generation model was out of stock and discontinued. Here's how it got more interesting - the model I ordered was never a 3rd Generation which at the time of purchase I was informed was in stock, the brochure proof I had confirms what I ordered was a 4th Generation model although the Acer Malaysia customer service rep said hers differed and the finale - apparently NO STOCK IN MALAYSIA as shipment expected from Taiwan is pending. I then asked her for the Acer Inc (Acer's Head Office in Taiwan) email to escalate my query; instead of an email I've been given a quote for a different model and Acer Inc's telephone and fax!
Just exactly what is Acer? Is it a reputable brand? Is it a problem with the product, people or both?
