Acer service center won't repair my laptop

I have an Acer laptop ASPIRE 4736G. I bought the unit at 2008 in Malaysia. It was always been a reliable laptop, but lately it broke down. Most likely because of virus. Right now i'm in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and i plan on staying here for awhile, so i took my laptop to acer service center in Yogyakarta. But the service center refuse to repair my laptop because i buy the laptop in malaysia, they say it can only be repaired by Acer service center Malaysia, or by the Indonesian Acer service center head branch in Jakarta. Is it really not possible for the service center in Yogyakarta to repair my laptop? Because it's really troublesome if i have to bring my laptop all the way to Jakarta just to repair it. Just for information, my friend got laptop from another brand, but he could still access the corresponding service center even when he was travelling overseas.

I'm sorry if my English was bad. Thank you for your attention

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Leho

Julian

I agree with you. This is rather bureaucratic on the part of Acer. I guess the problem is that the Indonesian service center has no internal Acer accounting method of recovering their costs from the Malaysian service center who has your account. Other companies have set up procedures that cover warranty charge transfers. Pity that Acer has not.

One would think, since this would be a non-warranty repair, Acer would be keen to earn some money.

Leho

julianramli

So it means there is no way i could use Indonesian service center to repair my laptop. What if i offer to cover the cost needed to repair my laptop? Maybe they could at least look for the problem in my laptop and then i would repair my laptop someplace else. I really need to use my laptop now, and i won't be going back to Malaysia for awhile.

Leho

Julian

We need to avoid a misunderstanding here. This is a peer-to-peer advise forum. When you post here, you are NOT communicating with the Acer company.

You need to deal directly with Acer. Presumably with Acer Service in Indonesia to convince them to do what you need.

Good luck with that.

Leho

ScottyC

The reason that Acer does not repair units in other countries is because of licensing issues for operating systems as well as legal obligations with part suppliers. For instance, a unit sold in France cannot be repaired in Quebec, despite the fact that they are both using French language. It's not a matter of Acer is deciding to be mean, they are quite literally bound by laws of the involved countries. Nothing that they can do about it.

Granted it's a bit more complicated than this but it's the easiest way to explain.

Leho

Scotty

I don't really want to hijack this thread but if what you are saying is true then independent local computer repair shops could not function. They do function and will (within their competence) fix any computer brought to them.

Leho

ScottyC

I feel that I should clarify. I know very well that it is possible to repair a unit in another country, and I know that local shops do it all the time. That's because these shops are not multinational corporations bound by laws of multiple countries and legal obligations to software and hardware providers. Granted you could bring a computer from France to a Technician in Honduras and that technician will be more than able to repair the problem. Acer on the other hand is bound by their warranty agreement to return a unit to factory original condition. If that requires replacing a memory module then there is no issue. But if it requires reinstalling an operating system they cannot, as they (like all other manufacturers) are bound by contract with Microsoft to keep the same product key for the unit that was fabricated. Because of this, Acer keeps all units sold worldwide seperate. So assuming you were to buy a unit in Europe, and then call Acer US for repairs, the support team won't even have access to your model information. Their system won't even pull it up. If you are in warranty, you will be covered by Acer's international travellers warranty. This will allow the support team to communicate with Acer Europe and get your model information and arrange a repair. This works because you are still in warranty and would still be on file in the country where the unit was purchased. The one limitation is that they will not be able to install an operating system on the device. This is all explained in the Acer International Travellers Warranty.

So because the unit was bought in 2008 they are not able to pull product information, and therefore not able to repair the unit at another center. Furthermore, Acer is only able to keep recovery media for a three year period after fabrication date. This again is due to legal obligations. Microsofts way of saying "Your computer died? Well there's a new Windows out, you should buy it!". If they are to return the unit to factory original condition it would mean that the only way would be to reinstall the original os. And if there's even a chance of finding the original operating system, it would realistically only be available at the center in the country of fabrication.

Like I said, there's a lot more to it than I had previously explained. In fact, there is actually a lot more to it still. But this is a basic rundown of why Acer would turn down a repair.

Leho

Scotty

Thanks for the lucid explanation. Bottom line seems to be to make it as tough as possible for the customer so that he will buy a new one. If in a non-purchase country the best repair method seems to be a local shop.