Acer and (their lack of) customer service

bonkey

I know this may come across as a rant, but anyway...

Just over a year ago, I purchased an Acer notebook. In general, I've been very happy with it. However, Acer themselves are another story.

In recent times, I've encountered problems with the DVD-writer in the notebook. Given that its a hot-pluggable module, I thought I should be able to replace it easily. I also recall that Acer billed it as an "Acermedia" module, which can be readily swapped with other Acermedia products.

So I checked. There is no such thing, from what I can find. Acer don't seem to sell "Acermedia" modules, nor does anyone else. This struck me as odd. I can't even buy a replacement drive! So I asked in a number of local shops. "No sir...if your DVD-writer fails, you need to return the entire notebook to Acer for repair" was the basic answer from all of them.

This is strange. Acer will sell Hard Drives and memory to plug into machines, but won't sell drive-units which are designed to be hot-pluggable. Nope...to replace those, you need to send it back to the factory so an engineer can do it.

So I contacted Acer asking what my options were,regarding both Acermedia and replacing my DVD-Writer in general. I got back an email with a link to "notebook accessories". A quick perusal revealed the following:

1) with the exception of memory, almost nothing is common across more then 2 or 3 notebooks, despite being billed as "Acermedia" in their advertisements for all of the models.

2) A replacemenet DVD *something* was available for some crazy amount....for a single model of notebook. Not mine.

3) My notebook wasn't even listed on the pricelist, suggesting I can buy nothing for it.

So I mailed them back, asking if there was some mistake, or if there was some reason that my notebook wasn't listed, or if I should take the response as an indication that I cannot buy a replacement drive for my notebook (and will have to send it back for repair should it fail). The response? They sent me back the same mail again, with the same text and the same link to the same useless order-form. Indeed, they didn't even have my second mail quoted in the response....just my original query.

You may have a different experience with Acer, but from my perspective.....I still like my notebook, but will never spend another cent on the company until someone can reasonably convince me that they've overhauled their customer service capability. Even then, they will rank as my option of last resort.

jc

SouperComputer

if its of any consolation, there is a 95% chance that the drive is standard, but is enclosed in a caddy of sorts.

If Acer are being of no use, then grab a new drive off ebay and swop em out.