Acer

Acer Australia extremely poor customer service, steer clear. Sydney, Nationwide

14th of Dec, 2010 by User134363

I had an Acer laptop. This was a while ago so I don't remember the exact model number but I don't think it's vitally important to this article. It did look identical to the Aspire 5571, though.

It came with a 12-month warranty, and around the last 2 or 3 months of the warranty period the laptop refused to turn on. It didn't seem to matter what I did, AC/Battery, fully charged, no USB devices, etc... I couldn't get it to come to life.

I lodged a service ticket with Acer Australia and they instructed me to bring it in to their service centre. There, I filled out some forms, the guy tested it quickly and finally told me that a technician would fix it and I will get a call when it is ready, which will be in about 3-5 working days.

I was happy with this estimate, since at the time I was a university student and the laptop was my only computer.

3 weeks later, I called them and asked how the repair was going, and if it was finished. The service representative told me he did not know, nor was he able to find out - but that he would call me back the next day.

A week later I called them again, and asked what was happening. (We are now at 4 weeks by the way). They said the motherboard was faulty and it needed to be replaced. It is on order and they would call me when it arrived and was fitted. He said it shouldn't take more than a week or so.

I was a little unhappy about this, but what could I do? If they needed a part then they needed a part!

2 months later I called them (on a Friday) to ask what's happening, and the service representative said that the motherboard should arrive on Monday, would be installed the same day, and that I could pick the laptop up on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I called them on Wednesday after I still hadn't received a call from them, and the service representative informed me that he has "no idea" why the guy last week told me that the motherboard would arrive on Monday, because his system said no such thing. Not only that, but my dialogue from the previous conversation had apparently been wiped by the previous representative. He told me that the motherboard is out of production and they "can't just order one", they have to wait until there is enough demand to make a bulk order. He said that they would call me when the laptop is finished.

I was a little angry at this. I understand that it's not financially desirable for Acer to order me a motherboard when it is out of production, but they have to do something because in the meantime I am computer-less.

I ended up buying myself a PC to use, since I was sick of borrowing my sister's laptop just to do my assignments.

I waited another 3 months and called them again. He said he had no new information on the progress of my repair, and had no ETA on when it would be finished. I asked to speak to the manager. After being put on hold for about half an hour, I was told the manager was "not in" and that he would call me back the next day.

A week later I called them again and asked to speak to the manager. I got the 30-minute hold treatment before being told that he wasn't in again and that he would call me back.

I tried this a few more times over the next few months. Some reps were more polite/understanding than others, but in generally they were ultimately unhelpful. Whatever promises they made ended up being hollow.

I decided, after about 9 months, (oh yes, you read that right. I was waiting NINE months), that I would call them and give them one last chance. He told me he had nothing to report and there was still no ETA. I told them "that's fine", and that as soon as I get off the phone with them, I would call the department of fair trading and lodge a formal complaint. The representative didn't really seem to care.

I contacted the department of fair trading, gave them the names, dates, employee numbers, and conversation breakdown of each person I spoke to over the last 9 months. The lady at the DFT was shocked, and said she would contact Acer.

Less than 24-hours later she called back and told me she had spoken to a manager. She said he was generally unhelpful and that there was not much she could do. I would have to escalate it to a DFT hearing which is like small court or tribunal. There some judge will hear what each party has to say and make a decision. She told me this would be at no charge to me.

I told her that I would be happy to go ahead with that option. She said she would call Acer one last time and inform them that I am willing to go ahead to the tribunal, and see what they say. The manager told her that they would send me a replacement laptop within 48-hrs, which she relayed to me.

2 or 3 days later, I have a box marked Acer left outside my door. I open it up and it's a laptop. At first I was thrilled, but after opening it up I noticed it was different and smaller then my old one. In fact, there were a number of features the new one was lacking which my old one had, e.g. bluetooth, DVI, digital audio output, etc. Basically I had a mid-upper range laptop originally, and they replaced it for a bottom-range budget laptop.

If that was the only problem, I may have just accepted it. The laptop did not work. It did not turn on.
I flipped it over and noticed a few peculiarities. The modular panels on the bottom were screwed in but not in the correct order - basically there were bits sticking out because they should have been under the adjacent panel. When I removed the panel covering the hard-drive, I noticed the hard-drive was not plugged in properly; the IDE cable was half-hanging!

So I left everything the way it was and gave my friend at the DFT a call back. I explained to her that the laptop was incorrectly assembled, and was in fact a lower-grade model to the one I had previously. She gave Acer a call back and explained what had happened, and rang me back straight away. The manager at Acer told her that they would send me an Aspire 5920G (a new, upper-model laptop at the time), and that he wanted to speak to me to make sure it would be OK and met my expectations. She gave me his direct number to contact him on.

I gave him a ring, and told me that my DFT contact told me that he offered me a 5920G. He abruptly interrupted and said "I never said I would give you a 5920G!".

I was dumbstruck. I had just spent the last half hour looking the model up, comparing it to my previous laptop and convincing myself that this ordeal would finally be over and I would get my computer back after almost a year.

I told him that she would not have made it up, and had to have gotten that model number from someone. I asked if she spoke to him or someone else, and he admitted that it was him that she spoke to. He reluctantly agreed to send me the 5920G, but did not admit that it was his offer in the first place.

A few days later the 5920G arrived. It was correctly assembled, worked, and had all the features my last laptop had. After almost a year, I finally got a laptop back. I called the DFT and thanked them.

I hope this has shed some light onto how Acer, or rather Acer Australia, treats their customers. Maybe you will think twice before picking this brand.

Track this Report 0 Comment | Post a Comment