ACER SUCKS -- part 8593 in an infinite series of rants against this shitty company.
It's a little astounding just how atrocious Acer's quality and customer service standards are. My current laptop is an Acer, as was my old laptop (which was miraculously problem-free save for the harddrive crash that killed it 4 years in), but... Yeah, I'm never buying an Acer again.
Background: Some time last year (April? May?), my laptop's optical drive started malfunctioning (problem: the drive would get really loud during the last part of DVD-burning, leaving the last quarter or so of data burnt corrupted and unusable). My laptop was still within the 1-year warranty, so I brought the sucker down to Acer's service centre, told them about the problem, got it fixed on the spot. No checks, no testing, nothing at all, the guy just swapped out the optical drive for a new one right away.
With that scare, though, I purchased the 2nd & 3rd year extended warranty for my laptop, since it seemed as though my relative luck with my first Acer had run out.
The present: The replacement optical drive starts malfunctioning AGAIN. (Problem this time: A ticking sound upon the insertion of any CD, and a failure to recognise the insertion of any disc at all. It randomly occurred, then went away, then randomly recurred, then seemed to stick.) I bring the sucker down to Acer's service centre again, and this time the guy starts up my computer to check the optical drive itself. COMPLETELY RANDOMLY, the blasted thing starts working again, or at least is able to recognise and play whatever cheap-ass DVDs they seem to have available for "testing". Then NOW, the guy tells me that since the problem appears to be intermittent, they have to keep my laptop for testing, with NO GUARANTEE that they will be able to find the problem and hence justify changing the optical drive again.
Like, WTF?!?! I explained to the asshole as well that the last time I was there with a problem with the optical drive, that last guy didn't need to "verify" the fault and was able to change the drive on the spot. What do I get from him? Some rote, churned-out crap about how they have to verify the problem before they can replace the part, blah blah blah -- COMPLETELY FAILING TO ADDRESS THE INCONSISTENCY. *HEADDESK* I repeated myself, and he churned out the rote response AGAIN, and basically seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that I was seeking out an answer to WHY there was this HUGE inconsistency between my experience just over a year ago and now. Fucking ridiculous!
So, now, I'm without a (relatively) properly-functioning computer for the next week or so, whilst they hold my laptop hostage for up to 7 business days. (I dug out the old laptop and am using it now, but the programmes on it are ridiculously out of date, and I don't even have updated anti-virus on it. Oh, and the monitor's all screwy now too.) The most annoying part is THERE'S NO FUCKING GUARANTEE THAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY FIND THE PROBLEM AGAIN AND THEREFORE FIX IT BEFORE CALL ME TO COLLECT IT! If they hold my computer hostage for the full 7 business days without finding the problem, and it occurs AGAIN once I get it back, there will be ABSOLUTE HELL to pay.
Oh, and have I mentioned that their service centre is halfway across the fucking island?!
Background: Some time last year (April? May?), my laptop's optical drive started malfunctioning (problem: the drive would get really loud during the last part of DVD-burning, leaving the last quarter or so of data burnt corrupted and unusable). My laptop was still within the 1-year warranty, so I brought the sucker down to Acer's service centre, told them about the problem, got it fixed on the spot. No checks, no testing, nothing at all, the guy just swapped out the optical drive for a new one right away.
With that scare, though, I purchased the 2nd & 3rd year extended warranty for my laptop, since it seemed as though my relative luck with my first Acer had run out.
The present: The replacement optical drive starts malfunctioning AGAIN. (Problem this time: A ticking sound upon the insertion of any CD, and a failure to recognise the insertion of any disc at all. It randomly occurred, then went away, then randomly recurred, then seemed to stick.) I bring the sucker down to Acer's service centre again, and this time the guy starts up my computer to check the optical drive itself. COMPLETELY RANDOMLY, the blasted thing starts working again, or at least is able to recognise and play whatever cheap-ass DVDs they seem to have available for "testing". Then NOW, the guy tells me that since the problem appears to be intermittent, they have to keep my laptop for testing, with NO GUARANTEE that they will be able to find the problem and hence justify changing the optical drive again.
Like, WTF?!?! I explained to the asshole as well that the last time I was there with a problem with the optical drive, that last guy didn't need to "verify" the fault and was able to change the drive on the spot. What do I get from him? Some rote, churned-out crap about how they have to verify the problem before they can replace the part, blah blah blah -- COMPLETELY FAILING TO ADDRESS THE INCONSISTENCY. *HEADDESK* I repeated myself, and he churned out the rote response AGAIN, and basically seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that I was seeking out an answer to WHY there was this HUGE inconsistency between my experience just over a year ago and now. Fucking ridiculous!
So, now, I'm without a (relatively) properly-functioning computer for the next week or so, whilst they hold my laptop hostage for up to 7 business days. (I dug out the old laptop and am using it now, but the programmes on it are ridiculously out of date, and I don't even have updated anti-virus on it. Oh, and the monitor's all screwy now too.) The most annoying part is THERE'S NO FUCKING GUARANTEE THAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY FIND THE PROBLEM AGAIN AND THEREFORE FIX IT BEFORE CALL ME TO COLLECT IT! If they hold my computer hostage for the full 7 business days without finding the problem, and it occurs AGAIN once I get it back, there will be ABSOLUTE HELL to pay.
Oh, and have I mentioned that their service centre is halfway across the fucking island?!