Complaint Review: Acer Computer Australia Pty

April 2007 and I was lucky enough to receive a brand new Acer laptop, courtesy of my parents due to a large cancer operation I was to have in hospital. My parents spent a large amount of money, which they don't have, on this laptop as they knew it was the one thing I couldn't live without for the 6 week operation.

After approx. 2 months the hard drive failed on the new Travelmate, Acer laptop. Rang up Acer and they fixed it no problem and couriered it home to me safely. After another short space of time, the hard drive once again started acting up and became so unstable...well it was back to Acer.
I phoned Acer on their hotline (for Australia) being, 1300 362 328 where I was informed that I would have to format the hard drive, it was the only way to fix my problem. Ok, I tried that, but the advice I was given didn't work.
I was told that Acer would call me back with further advice.
After waiting for a considerable amount of time, and no call back - I once again rang up Acer on their support line (as above). I was then placed on the end of the queue for approx 20 minutes - all the while I'm paying for the phone call. I then had an Acer call centre person tell me I needed to format my hard drive. I explained - the alt & F10 function, to restore Acer defaults/format the hard drive - for some reason did not work. I was told they would find out and call me back.
No call back.
Once again - waited a couple of days (by now my laptop is completey useless and with a large operation on my foot and needing to keep my foot up at all times, I was getting pretty desperate for help). I once again spent a good 40 minutes on the phone waiting for advice. I was told that I should pack up my laptop and courier it into the service centre in South Melbourne. I was given the address and told it would be fixed within 10 days.
I did so, making sure I sent my laptop via a tracked service and rang up Acer the next day to confirm (after confirmation with the couriers it had been signed for at the other end by Acer) to check that indeed they had received it.
I was told they would check, and call me back (does this sound familiar?).
No call back.
Once again I rang, yet again, and again waited the standard 40-50 minutes on hold to find out if they had my laptop. I waited...and waited....and waited.....and waited.
Finally I got through to a rather unhelpfull staff member who said "I'll call you back". I was now sick of hearing this and enquired as to why I was continuously told this, and nobody ever called me back. The staff member then informed me that "ma'am we aren't paid to call you back" in a rather ignorant and rude tone. I then asked if I could speak to a supervisor as I didn't want to be spoken too in this manner and also wanted to simply know if YES or NO, did they have my laptop. The call centre person informed me at that time that NO, they didn't not in fact have the laptop and it was lost. I asked again for a supervisor and was once again placed on hold.
I then spent another 40 minutes on hold (1/2 my day had now been wasted simply trying to find out if my laptop was received and in the hands of Acer) to then be put through to a Customer Service representative, who informed me that he would find out the situation with my now lost laptop and get back to me. I once again said I had been told this many many times and continued to ask how hard it was to simply phone the service centre (there is no other number to call acer and no direct line to the service centre for me to check myself) and find out if they had my laptop. I then informed the Service center guy that I had the signed slip from the couriers stating exactly what date and time it was received by Acer, so why was it reported as being lost? Could this issue be resolved?
I was once again told I would be called back. I was also informed that I would have to pay for my laptop to be fixed as I mentioned that I wasn't sure what had happened and said it could be a virus, knowing it more-than-likely wasn't as I knew the hard drive had failed previously. The customer service person said he would ensure my laptop was returned to me ASAP and he would waive the courier fee (woop-de-doo). I was also informed by this person that he was on my case, he would resolve it for me and thats what his job was...to ensure customers got the service they required.

I never received any call back. (this was after checking they had my home no. my mobile no. & my e-mail address).
I once again waited a couple of days and called again. Once again I was placed on hold and once again wasted the good part of an hour to be put through to a customer service representative. I asked for the guy I had spoken too last time but was informed I could not speak to him and a new person was now helping me....oh joy, I had to explain the entire story out again. I was told he would call me back and find out (sound familiar?).....I stated again about how many times I had called, all I wanted to know was the one question....Did they receive my laptop - yes or no? Honestly, how hard can it be.
This was now a good 2 - 3 weeks down the track from when I originaly sent in my laptop to be repaired.
I was actually rung back and informed that my laptop had been lost. I gave the name signed on the couriers form and enquired as to why couldn't this person be contacted and asked where the laptop went??? I was given a large amount of excuses which all amounted to nothing more than excuses. I was fuming by this stage as I could not get any information about my laptop and was not wishing to spend my entire day on hold via Acer Computer Australia Pty Ltd. I was told that my case would be followed up on, if the laptop was indeed lost then I would be given a replacement system within 24 hours. I would be called back (ha!).
Do I need to say it?.................... I wasn't called back.
I waited yet another 3 - 4 days, just in case that miracle happened...I was actually contacted and informed about the status of my laptop, but was so angry that I decided to call them ...........again.
Yes, by now my phone bill was getting a little high from constantly ringing (and being placed on hold) to Acer Computers.
Did they care?
I think we all know the answer to that one.
Next I timed how long I was on hold. The first part of the call was 45 minutes, to be then passed onto the Customer service, where I was promptly hung up on....without ever saying a word. I then had to start all over again. I was then on hold for a grand total of 52 minutes.....only to be hung up on YET AGAIN when placed on further hold for Customer service.
Back to the start again........
Called one more time and finally go through to Customer Service. I was yet again not allowed to speak with anyone who was "apparently" handling my case...even though I asked for them by name. I was then passed onto the most rudest staff member I have ever spoken too in my life!!!
He was so rude to me and implied that I was being a harassing customer and should wait for my computer....I tried to explain the situation, that my laptop had been missing for now over 4 weeks and nobody could seem to simply ask the service center (by phoning them..surely it would take less than 10 minutes) to give me a very great amount of relief. By this time my entire family is distressed, I had become extremely ill from stress and my foot was not recovering at all...this really was causing so much trouble but the Customer Service guy was extremely arrogant and continued to say that I should simply wait for my computer and they would call me. I once again tried to state what had happened, no call backs...no help and he cut me off mid sentence and said that he wasn't any of the past people who had spoken to me so he wasn't taking any form of responsibility for anything that had happened. He said I should shut up and wait for my computer and hung up on me.
I cannot tell you how horrible this was and how awful it was for Acer to treat me this way, because THEY had lost MY laptop.
I would also like to point out that at no time had I been rude, angry or abusive in any way, shape or form. I knew if I got angry, I wouldn't get anywhere so I made a concerted effort to be polite and friendly and to give the appearance of being calm, even though I was fuming inside.
I decided at this point I never wanted to speak with anyone from Acer again.
I should also point out that the total amount of time spent on that last call was 4.5 hours...most of the time was spent on hold (or being hung up on). The actual talking time was around 20 minutes.

I then took my case to consumer affairs - who are a government organisation supposed to protect consumers who have suffered unfair and unjust treatment by any company within australia. My case was taken up and now the fun begins. "Jason" who handled my case was very patient, but I could tell - he also nearly gave up on Acer. He informed me that Acer had a lot of complaints against them and that Consumer Affairs had already put out a report on how bad their customer service was.
After no response to any of his contacts, Jason then upped the ante and had to resort to higher forces within the department (most companies usually jump when consumer affairs get on board but Acer yet again showed how arrogant they were by not responding). They eventually replied, after a few more weeks...and things got weird.
I received a message from Jason that they were looking for the laptop and yet to find it. I also received a phone call from my very elderly and very unwell (and slightly absent minded) mother - she said someone from Acer had called her and his name was "Jason" and that they would located my computer......My first reaction was "why on earth are they ringing my parents"...my second reaction was to report back to Jason and ask what the hell was going on.
I was EXTREMELY upset that Acer had somehow managed to track down my parents phone no at home, upset them greatly and give them a load of information, of which they knew nothing about. As I mentioned, my mother was not well and this confused her a great deal, and also upset her a great deal. As she knew I was having problems with the laptop, but we told her everything was fixed as we didn't like to upset her because of her health problems. This certainly upset both myself and my family A GREAT DEAL.
How dare Acer decide to find my parents phone number and contact them - I had never mentioned my parents or their address or phone number, I had never given them anything buy my home number and my mobile number. What would possess a company to do this???????
Weeks dragged on and the fight went backwards and forwards between acer and consumer affairs. It had now been in the vicinity of 3 months since I last saw my very much needed, and much loved laptop. There was still no sign of it ever coming back.
Consumer Affairs got so tired of being purposely given the run around by Acer they stated that I would then take them to the tribunal if the laptop was not returned within 24 hours.
The laptop didn't come back for 3 days.
And guess what.
Very conveniently it was missing the power cord.
I could therefore not use my laptop or check it was working.
My laptop was returned loosely packed (moving around) in a box that was 10 times the size of the laptop - the box was dirty and ripped with big holes in it. It looked like something picked up out of the local tip (yes I have photos). The laptop itself was filthy and covered in greasy fingerprints, and cigarette ash ALL over it.......It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen.
I had to thoroughly disinfect my laptop to be able to merely touch it - god knows what else those people had done to it. But I still haven't been able to remove some of the fingerprints. This was a brand new laptop.
We had another 1 month fight to get a power cord.
Acer finally (after many false promises of giving me a replacement brand new power cord that never happened) sent me out a 2nd hand, scratched, dented and very USED power cord, to replace my now stolen brand new one. Essentially devaluing my brand new, hardly used laptop. Thanks Acer.

Overall what did I get? Besides months of pain and worry, ignorant and rude staff - and Acer stealing my property. I originally shipped my laptop in its nice original box, with the serial number etc printed nicely on the side, professionally packed and including my brand new power cord as asked for by Acer.
They sent back my laptop thrown around, no packing, no power cord and covered in filth. I did not receive anything extra or any apology or ANYTHING from Acer.

In my lifetime I would never deal with these thoroughly unprofessional people EVER AGAIN.
If my laptop fails again, I will now be forced to pay for it as I do not ever wish for Acer to lose it again and be treated this way.
This is Acer's doing.
I believe I did nothing whatsoever to deserve this, this is simply how Acer operates its business.
It was nothing short of WRONG what happened to me and I hope other people choose to go elsewhere so they do not incur the events that happened to me. The ultimate insult was Acer ringing my elderly parents and upsetting them greatly and making my mothers health deteriorate and causing her great confusion. I hope they feel good about what they did. Most of all, I hope I find one of their parents phone number and can ring their mother or father and inform them what they did to me.

Ledastray
Melbourne
Australia