Tech: Acer Redux

As I mentioned beforehand, I did get a new laptop earlier from Acer, but it came with something else undesirable: a pixilation issue that caused for discoloration of colors, namely blues. This problem was immediately visible when I pulled the laptop out of the box, and accessed the laptop, so I considered
the laptop to be a DOA. Calling Acer, they immediately agreed to repair the laptop, and after a bit of strong-arming, I convinced them to pay for shipping as well, making me hopeful all my problems were over.

I was wrong, of course.

So, I called up Acer about a month later when the problem started to occur again, and complained, this time I wanted compensation, but they convinced me otherwise, and after a week of waiting I received the laptop back, in the exact same condition it was sent to them as. No replacements, nothing.

Hell had no fury…

So, I call up Acer as soon as I see the colossal failure that they deemed as “repaired” and demanded they fix it immediately, and they apologized. Again. This time I was elevated to Corporate Customer Care, the big CCC: their highest support. I got my account “red flagged” to show that I had been having lots of problems, and they sent my laptop to the deluxe repair shop, with next-day shipping. Another week, another repair. Much to my dismay, I opened the laptop and scrutinized it, the problem was 99% gone, but still present.

 After reformatting my hard drive 3 times, replacing my LCD, updating my drivers countless times, getting a new motherboard, spending countless hours on the phone with representatives, Acer still could not fix a laptop. I needed it though for classes, so I stuck it out until finals were completed, and I thus began my next spar with Acer, which has just finished.

I called Acer a couple days ago, and told them that I wanted a new laptop, and to be given a better one, due to not only my lost time and usage, but overall loss of productivity. I by no means blame the representatives I spoke to, in fact I’ve found that most of them have bent some rules to help me with my horrible pilgrimage to laptop repairdom, but I was tired with the continual repairs. Once again with Acer’s CCC, I got an offer that gave me 2 more gigs of RAM, a 120 gig SSD along with the 750 gig HDD, and a slight change from a 640M to a 650M. It worked, and was nicer, so I’ve accepted.
Now I wait for this new laptop. I have mixed feelings with Acer now, although the bureaucratic running of its help system is horrible beyond belief, I’ve found that its upper levels have people who do care, and will try to help—as much as possible through the convoluted world of company policies. I will give this laptop another chance. There is still hope for Acer, but I will never be able to say that I recommend them. When you look for a laptop, look for a company that gets things right the first time, not after a horrible slew of incidents.

--Santa