Acer Extended Care Packs & Other Online Retailers

Jazzangel

Hi,

I’m here because it seems impossible to get Acer UK on the phone, which I find disturbing. 

Anyway. I’m looking to buy a Swift 3 from online retailer Box.co.uk, but I’ve read on Trustpilot that someone who bought a Mac found that Apple wouldn’t honour the warranty he thought he’d got - apparently, Box aren’t authorised Apple retailers, so the warranty started when Apple delivered Box that product, which meant the warranty time had already passed while his Mac had been in their warehouse.

I’m also confused because the site states that support for their products bought from Curry’s PC World is provided”in store”. What does that mean? Curry’s try to get you to buy an extended warranty on laptops for £8.49 a month, which compared to Acer’s advertised £40 for 3 years Collect and Return package is mad. I’m going to want to get the 3 year’s Next Day On Site package, which is around £100, but all of this will be academic if Acer won’t let me register my planned new laptop with them, if their warranty starts when their stock is delivered to Box, which means it could already be out of the 365 days Acer gives you to get one of their extended packages. Also, does the statement about purchases from Curry’s mean I HAVE to use Curry’s extended warranty, or what? 

I hope one of you can help me! 

Thanks,
Jazzangel

billsey

It doesn't matter which retailer you use, as long as they aren't selling you a refurbished or demo unit. The retailer will likely offer an extended warranty, which may or may not be the one sold by Acer. If theirs is not from Acer you can purchase the extended warranty directly from Acer after the initial purchase from the retailer (@Acer-Manny, please correct me if I'm wrong there). You can register your product with Acer no matter who the retailer is.

billsey

II?RC it was an issue with the keyboard connection. With that model you had to charge the keyboard by plugging it into the back and had to move it around to the front to use it. One or the other wasn't making proper contact and they ended up replacing the motherboard to fix the faulty internal connection.

Acer-Manny

Hi Jazzangel,

Can you please confirm what number or line you're trying to call Acer support in UK?

We won't be able to confirm any warranty information from another company or know how the stores and their warranty (Box.co.uk and Curry’s PC World) operate, we don't know what they offer. Acer warranty is based on the date of purchase of your product (depending on what model and product) usually have 1-year warranty, for more information click here.

Any extended warranty that your purchase directly with Acer will be service at the local Acer service center for your region, the store (Curry’s PC World) may offer a different type of extended warranty or in-store repair services etc. you will need to contact the store directly to ask: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/contact-us-1181-theme.html?ntid=B%7Ed%7EContact%20us

Thanks,
Acer-Manny

PARNABDEBNATH

Totally disappointed with Acer Service. Brought this laptop with serial no. NHQ3FSI0088460F45D3400 and not able to extend warranty.Called and mailed customer care many times but they dont reply to my mails. Its been 5 months now I am mailing them but issue not resolved. Regret buying this laptop.

Jazzangel

Acer-Manny said:

Hi Jazzangel,

Can you please confirm what number or line you're trying to call Acer support in UK?

We won't be able to confirm any warranty information from another company or know how the stores and their warranty (Box.co.uk and Curry’s PC World) operate, we don't know what they offer. Acer warranty is based on the date of purchase of your product (depending on what model and product) usually have 1-year warranty, for more information click here.

Any extended warranty that your purchase directly with Acer will be service at the local Acer service center for your region, the store (Curry’s PC World) may offer a different type of extended warranty or in-store repair services etc. you will need to contact the store directly to ask: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/contact-us-1181-theme.html?ntid=B%7Ed%7EContact%20us

Thanks,
Acer-Manny

You haven’t answered my questions. 

Question 1- Can I still buy an extended warranty from Acer for a new Acer laptop bought from another online retailer that isn’t Acer? I am asking because I want to buy an Acer laptop from Box.co.uk.

Question 2- Will Acer let me register one of their laptops with them if it was not bought directly from Acer.com

I was NOT asking you to explain Curry’s/ anyone else’s warranty plans. 

Also, according to the Acer website, Acer offer an extended warranty with Next Business Day On Site, which I said in my question was the one I would be asking to buy from Acer, so saying that “Any extended warranty that your purchase directly with Acer will be service at the local Acer service center for your region” is not necessarily accurate.

The number I phoned was 0371 760 1005. It’s the number provided on your website under “Contact Us”. I can’t use Acer Support, because I don’t yet have a product name and number to give your automated phone system. 

It’s not like I’m asking you to tell me what your boss had for breakfast three weeks ago! 

JackE

If you buy from these retailers, you'll likely get what you want.   https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/wheretobuy

   Not 100% guaranteed though.   Jack E/NJ

billsey

It doesn't matter which retailer you use, as long as they aren't selling you a refurbished or demo unit. The retailer will likely offer an extended warranty, which may or may not be the one sold by Acer. If theirs is not from Acer you can purchase the extended warranty directly from Acer after the initial purchase from the retailer (@Acer-Manny, please correct me if I'm wrong there). You can register your product with Acer no matter who the retailer is.

Jazzangel

billsey said:

It doesn't matter which retailer you use, as long as they aren't selling you a refurbished or demo unit. The retailer will likely offer an extended warranty, which may or may not be the one sold by Acer. If theirs is not from Acer you can purchase the extended warranty directly from Acer after the initial purchase from the retailer (@Acer-Manny, please correct me if I'm wrong there). You can register your product with Acer no matter who the retailer is.

Thanks, Billsey. That’s all I really wanted to know.

The query only came up because I’d seen a Trustpilot review from a customer who’d bought an Apple PC from Box, then Apple wouldn’t accept his purchase date as the automatic Apple Care warranty start date and said he was out of warranty-buying time, which I thought unfair. The buyer reported that Apple said their warranty started when Box took delivery of that product, and not the customer’s purchase date.

I just wanted to check that that wasn’t the case with Box and Acer, but I’ve spent the best part of 10 days+/ 2 weeks trying to drag the answer out of Acer. They seem impossible to contact, the given phone number seems to be in a different time zone because when it eventually gets answered - I rang at 10.25am on a Monday morning - I got an automated message saying I’d rung out of their opening hours, which were 9am-5am Monday to Friday. I’m in the UK and using the Acer UK site, so frustrating doesn’t cover it.

Thank you for your answer. It agrees with what Box told me, purchase date is on invoice, supply copy invoice to Acer, extended warranty can then be bought. The first year’s warranty comes from Box, but presumably you can always just go straight to one of Acer’s extended packages instead.

I know from reading the info on the Acer site that you have 365 days from purchase to buy one of their extended warranties, which is a lot more time than Apple give you to buy Apple Care - from memory, that had to be bought within 3 weeks (or possibly less) of purchase. 

I’ve now had two incomplete responses from Acer, in poor grammar, and they closed the ticket off and despite the email saying - click here if you have further questions, the link takes me to the closed ticket. Again, frustrating! Another email said their phone lines were down, but gave no indication as to when they might be operational again.

And there I was, thinking Acer had won all sorts of awards for great customer service! Has all this just been a glitch, an aberration, or is this the way it always is? 

Thanks again, Billsey 😊 

billsey

Acer's customer service seems to be different in each different country. I don't know if they contract differently or if they just have their own company culture in each locale. I only get visibility into here in the US and it's been a pleasure (or as much pleasure as you can get with a broken computer) to work with them. At least in the UK they can't play it off as Chinese New Year or that nasty virus...

Jazzangel

@billsey Oh trust me, the UK is freaking out over Corona too! I know that Acer in the UK won Best Customer Service recently, but I’m still wavering over making my purchase because Acer UK seem almost impossible to contact and what scant answers I’ve had to emails have been in broken English. I’m alternating between **** it, I’ll just get it, and Oh....I don’t know. 

I settled on the Swift 3 because it’s the cheapest backlit keyboard with decent SSD storage I can find over here, and even then I’m going to have to spend more on a bigger external drive, plus an optical drive (loads of stuff on CDs and DVDs, including my laser printer drivers), plus the Next Business Day On Site warranty, so it’s already going to run at over £700. 

The customer service number for the UK doesn’t seem to be working. It either doesn’t answer, or it answers during the stated working hours and says they’re closed. 

I totally agree with you about the CS seeming to differ from country to country, and that it could be a contracting thing or a culture issue. I know from this forum (which seems extremely sparse in user numbers) a buyer in India is having massive problems in securing an extended warranty, even though he has emails from them confirming there’s no problem with Acer providing him with one. Go figure. 

What computer have you got, and what went wrong with it? Man, new laptops seem to last for about a tenth of the time they used to! 

billsey

Boy, it's almost easier to list which computers I don't have. I started my Acer odyssey with a W700 tablet back several years ago and have a couple of Android tablets, a Switch 12, a Switch Alpha 12 and the newer Switch 7. I've got a GX-281 desktop that's pretty much maxed out with 32GB of memory and a 2TB NVMe SSD. Three Acer monitors, two connected to the GX. Three Acer Chromebooks, the oldest a C720 and the newest the Spin 15. I've got three Acer notebooks, the newest a Swift 13. Oh, and I have the Acer watch, though they just dropped support for it so I've switched to a generic Chinese smart watch instead.

My two oldest systems here are both Dells, a Power Edge 1950 server and a vintage 2006 laptop running W10 and controlling one of the 3D printers. The W700 is much newer with a late 2012 date. I had to send the Switch 12 in for warranty repair when it was just a few weeks old. It took about two weeks in total IIRC.

Jazzangel

That’s an impressive collection! I meant what went wrong with the computer you had to have fixed 

billsey

II?RC it was an issue with the keyboard connection. With that model you had to charge the keyboard by plugging it into the back and had to move it around to the front to use it. One or the other wasn't making proper contact and they ended up replacing the motherboard to fix the faulty internal connection.