My daughter bought her Acer Laptop just over 2 ½ years ago, hoping that it would last her for the duration of her degree. At just under £800 it was not cheap!
During the 2 years warranty the floppy drive stopped working and was a hassle to get it repaired and returned by Acer, due to them waiting for parts.
Just outside of the guarantee it broke down again. I contacted Acer by email and these were not even acknowledged, despite sending several reminders being sent. I phoned their "escalation" department and left voice mail messages for someone to ring me back, but no one did. In desperation I even wrote to the UK Managing Director twice to try and get a response. I could not address him/her personally, because the switchboard at their head office refused to provide a name! Several weeks later they finally wrote to me and basically they were not prepared to help my daughter out, despite her laptop failing prematurely and them taking so long to respond.
Meanwhile, I had taken the laptop to an independent service company. They tried to get support from Acer and also had problems making contact (e.g. kept waiting in automated queues and being cut off just before they were supposed to be next!). They informed that the problem was that Acer only has one person working in the Spares Department, because the other one left. I confirmed this myself later. This service company also sells computer hardware and they stopped supplying Acer, because of reliability and support issues.
The laptop was finally diagnosed as having a faulty motherboard, but Acer could not quote a price for a new one, because they had no stock. Acer also told them that my daughter's laptop was at the end of its service life, after just two years! It is not surprising that there is a high demand for second hand parts for this model on Ebay. I was advised that if parts could be obtained or the motherboard could be repaired, it was beyond economic repair. So my daughter now has to finance the purchase of a new laptop, which definitely will not be an Acer. So one student just got poorer thanks to Acer supplying goods that are unreliable and only have a short service life (their words not mine). Buyers beware. Go for a reliable brand with good customer service, such as IBM and Toshiba. I have a Toshiba laptop, which is a few years old now and it is still going strong (touch wood) and I have been told that their international support is fantastic, if you ever need it.
More details
Memory / capacity
Satisfactory
Ease of use
Satisfactory
Range of Extra Features
Satisfactory
Instruction manual
Satisfactory
Manufacturer Support
Totally unhelpful
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