Computer is an essential tool for kid's education. We bought an Acer laptop last year for children.
Two weeks ago, all the USB ports of the Acer laptop were not functioning. We thought that it was probably caused by software. So, we waited and took our own sweet time to troubleshoot it. Failing to resolve the issue, I called up the service center last week. To my disappointment, I found out that this may be something required sending back for repairs. One possibility is that the faulty part might be the mother board, that needs replacement. To add to the frustration, the warranty just expired 8 days ago!!!!
Acer offered me free labour charges after I explained the situation. I had to pay for the cost of replacement parts. The mother board may cause me $321 inclusive of GST. On top of that, I have to make 2 trips to go over the service center. The offer did not make practical sense to me because a new computer probably cost the same. I asked them to charge me at cost, but they said at best 10% discount. I could not understand why Acer chose not to provide free repair and replacement for reported defects just because it's 8 days after the warranty period. I could not understand why they could not sell me at cost per my request, still trying to make a profit replacing the mother board which should have been designed to last for at least 3 years. Where was the moral duty to provide good quality products to consumers?
What made my decision very clear was that I might not get a brand new mother board for the repair. How did I find out? When I asked about this, the reply was they use certified usable service parts. When I asked further whether the part is new, they repeated the same answer, unwilling to confirm that I would get a new part. So, I checked about warranty. Acer said that the warranty was 180days on similar fault. So, the part I purchased for $321 would have very limited warranty. I was thinking that if I got a refurbish part, and Acer only guaranteed one small portion of the mother board, the risk for me was high.
Unwilling to give up, I tried to reinstall the computer on my own since this was the last resort. First, I followed the instruction to reinstall from the hard disk. It was not successful and the computer coould not boot at all as the installation stuck somewhere. I managed to reinstall using another version of Windows and it worked. I called up Acer again telling them the good news, and asked for an installation disk so that I could reinstall every applications and proper version of operating system.
You know what, the person who claimed that she had the highest level of authority told me that I had to pay SGD60 for reimaging! My blood boiled. Did she not say that workman ship was free? Did she not say that the worst case scenario was that I have to pay for the hardware mother board of $321 few days ago? I told her that calling Acer was a complete waste of my time. Indeed I got nothing solved calling them. If the head of department is like that, what can you expect from Acer, or their after sales service?
Brand name is very important. It's unfortunate enough that the computer broke down just after 1 year warranty. Acer fails not only for not providing a reliable parts, and fails more miserably in their customer service. Instead of goodwill help, they imposed charges instead of providing real help. I will never buy Acer again. .
