Acer Aspire 3 - hinge snapped after 8 months - design flaw - Acer charging for repair

Bought an Acer Aspire 3 early 2020 to work from home with. Never left my house, always looked after, but one day I opened it and the hinge shattered - broke the plastic surround and the display went black. Clearly a design flaw with the laptop, and there's hundreds of other people reporting similar issues online.

Called to arrange a repair (1 hour on hold to a call centre abroad). Was advised common problem and would be a straight-forward repair under warranty. Shipped it off to the repair centre in the UK.

Got an email a week later quoting over £100 to repair it. Called, on hold for an hour, to be told that they couldn't help, they couldn't speak directly to repair centre, they couldn't do anything but send an email to the repair centre which would only result in further details and would not result in a repair unless I further appealed at that point - they advised a reply would take a few hours and they would then call me back to discuss the appeal.

Never called back. Desperate for my laptop back I called again, waited a further hour on hold, and with no other option paid the bill (which involves them emailing the paymnt dept, and then the payment dept emailing you - which an hour later HAS NOT COME THROUGH!).

Disgusting customer service, the entire set-up is a joke, and it's designed to be as difficult and lengthy as possible so that people pay for something when it should be covered under warranty.

No doubt it will take several days to get the email to make payment, and then a few more weeks before the laptop gets sent back to me.

Avoid Acer. Avoid the Acer Aspire 3 model - it has a design flaw.

Accepted answers

Teksal

I own an Aspire 3 A315-42g, less than 1 year old, and the plastic mounting holes of the right hinge shattered last month. Everything works, except the screen cannot stand up straight anymore with one hinge, falls either back or forward when the lid is opened. I need the laptop for work and could not afford to send it to service for who-knows-how-long, so I found the exact part and ordered it from AliExpress. I hope to replace the lid when (if?) it arrives.

All the major laptop brands are nowadays trying to imitate Macbook using cheap plastic parts. That's a terrible idea. I miss the old laptop designs with external battery cartridge and some thick yet rugged form. I don't need my laptop look like a tablet, I guess nobody does.

All comments

WarrantyIsAJoke

24 hours later, the invoice hasn't arrived.

Has anyone else had this same issue? I can't spend another hour on the phone to them just to be told they will send an email to the payment dept!

WarrantyIsAJoke

It's been over a week since I paid, and then they admitted the parts are out of stock (DESPITE IT BEING A COMMON DESIGN FLAW!) and 5 days later no updates whatsoever.

Laptop failed under warranty, was forced to pay for the repair, and now they've had it for over 3 weeks with no end in site.

Anyone else had awful service when it comes to warranty repairs?

KentS

I had the same problem on a 6 month old Spin 5.. it kept getting more difficult to open.. Never abused or dropped.. ended up with broken screen and top cover. Was under warranty, but they claimed abuse, after several calls I convinced them it was a manufacturing defect and they replaced it. Within 4 months the warranty replacement started having the same problem... but before it got so bad I glued it back together with Qwick-Weld (epoxy will do)- there are YouTube videos on repairing with longer screws and buckle nuts or just regular nuts on the case side- but this requires disassembly. This is a common occurrance.

WarrantyIsAJoke

KentS said:

I had the same problem on a 6 month old Spin 5.. it kept getting more difficult to open.. Never abused or dropped.. ended up with broken screen and top cover. Was under warranty, but they claimed abuse, after several calls I convinced them it was a manufacturing defect and they replaced it. Within 4 months the warranty replacement started having the same problem... but before it got so bad I glued it back together with Qwick-Weld (epoxy will do)- there are YouTube videos on repairing with longer screws and buckle nuts or just regular nuts on the case side- but this requires disassembly. This is a common occurrance.

Yeah my faith in the design is shot, when I eventually get it back I'll be selling it and avoiding Acer - they should have the decency to stand behind their products rather than screwing the customer over.

Spent an hour on hold yesterday chasing an update, and now they're blaming 'brexit' for the delay to the part. Because obviously an international billion pound company simply cannot source a hinge FOR THEIR OWN LAPTOPS in less than 3 weeks.

#joke

Teksal

I own an Aspire 3 A315-42g, less than 1 year old, and the plastic mounting holes of the right hinge shattered last month. Everything works, except the screen cannot stand up straight anymore with one hinge, falls either back or forward when the lid is opened. I need the laptop for work and could not afford to send it to service for who-knows-how-long, so I found the exact part and ordered it from AliExpress. I hope to replace the lid when (if?) it arrives.

All the major laptop brands are nowadays trying to imitate Macbook using cheap plastic parts. That's a terrible idea. I miss the old laptop designs with external battery cartridge and some thick yet rugged form. I don't need my laptop look like a tablet, I guess nobody does.

WarrantyIsAJoke

They've now had my laptop for a month, with zero communications.

Tried calling them and now it cuts off because they are too busy.

Phone calls dont work, emails go unanswered.

The item had a design flaw yet I had to pay for their mistakes, and now radio silence.

Good job I don't NEED MY LAPTOP TO WORK DUE TO A GLOBAL PANDEMIC YOU USELESS COMPANY!

Avoid Acer, they are a liability.

WarrantyIsAJoke

Had a reply to my email today saying parts are still not in stock.

Called them, to be told that it's under repair.

No way to get it back.

I NEED MY LAPTOP AND THE FILES ON IT. WHY ARE ACER SO INCOMPETENT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Theko_Ls

Is there a way to sue , them mine did this after a week of purchasing , mind due it's an arm and a leg especially when you are in Africa and a student. Sent it back for repairs under warranty a year later just after the warranty ended did the same thing, called for repairs they say no parts in stock. This is horrible support from Acer , I had an old travelmate still rocks solid even today this is just cheap plastic 😔.

Erik_Hyrkas

I bought Acer Aspire 7, it was adverticed as a extremely durable model which could withstand almost any kind of use, still it was primarly in home use. After around 3 months of use of this laptop noticed crackling noise after shutting the pc off din't remark anything at the time but this was only the beginning of the issues. After 2 months noticed that the plastic below the laptop begin to crack and flakes of plastic were falling off during this time i was extremely busy with work and had no time to get a repair and i tought this was not a extreme issue.

After that remember being on a Zoom call with my colleques and out of nowhere i noticed that my screen just dropped by it's own weight and then it broke since the wires of the screen was broken by the weight of the monitor since the hinges were not even detached.

If this is something you expect from a 1500 euro "durable laptop" well im going to say that's a joke. The plastic they use in these laptops is fragile, hinges are not quality and the wires just snap straight away when the hinges fail!