The Acer Guy Forum

The Acer Guy Forum » Problem corner

1. 

   Posted by: loopz
   Member

   My year of warranty is now about to end but as i type my 8940g is sitting in Plympton in some engineers office for the 4th or 5th time.

   1 year and so many problems. Makes it worse that i work in IT and have done for nearly 18 years. So glad i had enough knowledge to help educate the support technician(s) who obviously have limited knowledge and probably work with some form of flow chart. My problems so far:-

   1) Right speaker stopped working and
   2) Biometric not working

   Both problems were reported - computer was sent back and within 2 weeks, it was back and blamed on my O/S. Annoying thing is that i explained i had duel O/S and it was agreed that i didnt have to send my H/D back.

   So trip 2 was arranged. I wrote them instructions on how to test the speakers and biometic component. Put the instructions with the laptop. Phoned support and natrually chewed their ears off about the sloppy support i got on Trip 1.

   This time they replaced the component and speaker and my unit was returned. working! That took 2 weeks to complete.

   Then problem 3 and 4 arrived

   3) Occasional flashing power LED which meant the unit was plugged in but not actually charging.

   4) Laptop fan appeared to be on a lot more and was getting very hot. affected performance.

   Phoned support and went through the same old routine. ie: proving date of purchase because by default they set everything to Decemeber. (found that out later). But of course the person i spoke to insisted i bought it in Dec...which i never. Annoying but proved purchase again! They asked me to send the unit away. Trip 3 was arranged and again 2 weeks it lasted. This time i got the machine back and it appeared they had swapped out the motherboard. Over heating appeared to have gone but i still think it gets warm compared to when i first had it but guess what... the LED problem was still there.

   Phoned support and they said that it MUST be the power supply. I wasnt convinced but i was told that they need to send it me but of course...i have to send the old one back first! So Trip 4 is technically for the power supply only. I still couldnt use my laptop so its outage! 4 days and new power supply arrives. It doesnt fix the problem.

   Now at this point i felt like giving up and i thought, i can live with this infrequent problem. It appeared it depeneded on the positioning of the cable in the power hole itself so i could fiddle and get it working. After a while though, things got worse. It was no longer an infrequent problem, it was happening every day and i couldnt stop it anymore.

   SO i rang support again and proved my date of purchase once more (FFS!). Got another case id and this time i asked to speak to someone who i hoped would have more clout! The supervisor in question seemed to a bit more responsive to my pain and even agreed that a replacement laptop should be the way forward. Of course he couldnt guarentee it but did throw a 95 percent chance of a replacement being issued. I questioned how he got 95% and of course he couldnt tell me. He did say that the engineer in question would have to check the fault and if it's present then there is a good chance i will get my wish.

   So trip 5 was planned and the laptop is now in the hands of the Acer engineer. I rang today and no report has been issued. I still dont know what will happen but i decided that i need to highlight all this on here. I have no idea of the replacement policy, no one on the support team would let on any information and i notice others have posted on here have no answers to that question.

   I will post an update to what happens as i'm sure it will interest others. This is a laptop based in the UK for those wondering.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Posted by: mightygaz
   Member

   good luck. see my post about support being idiots. i'm worried reading this that i'm looking at the same hassle you are :-(

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Posted by: robm612
   Member

   Tell me about it my acer went back four times but each time it was the same problem, i would take it out of the box and it still wasnt fixed and yet i still had to fight tooth and nail for a replacement, which i now have sitting in my lap but may still be buggered (see my other posts) i need help sharpish

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   Posted by: Peter
   Moderator

   Always ask to get elevated or to speak to their supervisor if level 1 support can't help you out. That will usually help facilitate things along quite nicely.

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   Posted by: cyberion1985
   Member

   Frustration is natural, but not necessarily nice to vent them on those people who are trying to help you. Why didn't you ask for a replacement unit, until your unit was finally properly fixes ?

   An a side note, the power problem that 'happened to turn up', as desribed seemed to clearly be a physical damage problem ; Either way if the A/C adapter point was shorting OR the physical power Jack on the back of the laptop are both non warranty issues.

   We engineers tend work under a huge time pressure. And Acer engineers work on a even higher scale with a certain quota they have to repair each day. When you backlog a few laptops ,- you're screwed and will have to work your A$$ off to get back on time and on track.

   I, for a great deal, take a clients fault description into consideration, but will not necessarily adhere to it ; As I will troubleshoot the laptop on my behalf and evaluate what is REALLY wrong and how much truth the client descrition actually has. Things like "laptop does not switch on - warranty" where the client poured water or liquid on the unit are unacceptable, but people still blame the engineers and will not admit their fault.

   We troubleshoot for neccessarility. Meaning if I test the laptop and I see that the LCD is faulty, then I will replace it. However, if your expansion slot is faulty is not my concern as the unit 'did not come in for that'. Even if the unit would have a virus on, then that will be non of my concern as my job was done when I replaced the LCD - fixing the issue for what the unit was brought in for. If I would test every single thing on every laptop, then you would..

   A.) Pay a price you can't afford - buy a new laptop.

   B.) Would take me hours to complete and so I will have backlog

   C.) The company and you will loose revenue and money, time and resources.

   MOST of the time, units have ONE primary issue and the unit is repaired once it returns to the customer. Murphy's law dictates that the unit might just brake for no reason when it reaches the customer. Call it bad luck or a real bad batch.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   Posted by: cyberion1985
   Member

   ...Just need to add something here to my previous post. THE BEST would be to buy a Acer at a PC company. If you have issues with it, take it to them so that they can take it to Acer. When it is repaired, Acer will send it back to them so you drive to them and TEST IT FIRST before you take it with. If it doesn't work, just leave it there and request a lone unit on their cost while you wait for the other one to be fixed AGAIN. Repeat this until your laptop is properly fixed.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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