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Acer, Acer Pan-amAcer, Acer Pan-am, Acer America, claims liquid in laptop, renege on promise to fix it San Jose, California
About 2 years ago, I bought a laptop. An Acer Aspire 5100 series laptop. Af first the laptop was fine. It did great, oh, for about two months. The screen went out on it, and I had to send it back for repairs.
I was impressed. They got it, fixed it within 48 hours, and shipped it back. I thought it was a little odd that I had to pay to ship the laptop back in the first place, most companies cover shipping. But it was $25, and I got my laptop back quickly, so I didn't complain.
But after a few months other stuff started going bad. The network card would drop out randomly, the screen would go to white and blue vertical stripes, the touchpad was wonky. I researched my problems and found out that Acer repair, more than not, is pretty touch and go. Most complaints I have read say that the laptop came back to the owner in worse shape than it was sent out.
So, I tried to deal with the problems. Never mind the fact I pair $800 for a laptop that was nothing short of a drama queen. I was able to check my email and use basic programs, so I was Ok.
One day I just got fed up. It's an $800 product, and on top of that I paid an extra $100 for an extended guarantee. I went to the Consumerist to see if there were any other complaints, and my god, there were.
I was looking around on the Consumerist when I found instructions on how to create your own "Executive Email Carpet Bomb" (EECB). You find the PR reps address, and then the list of executives of the company. You look at the format of the email, and try to reconstruct the email addresses of the people you want to contact - namely, the higher ups.
So I did this. I sent out an email explaining how disappointed I was in Acer, etc.,etc. I honestly didn't expect to hear anything from them. But none of the emails bounced, so I knew the emails had to go somewhere.
A week or so later I got a phone call. It was Acer, from their offices in Temple, TX. They offered to ship my laptop back, free of charge, and fix all the problems I had complained about.
I was ecstatic. Insanely happy. They had listened! The consumer would get good customer service! I packed up my laptop and sent it out as soon as I could. My sweet little laptop was going to go straight to a fancy senior tech and all my problems would be fixed!
But today I got a phone call. That they won't be fixing my laptop, and they are shipping it back untouched.
Because of water damage. And the screen problem is caused by said liquid (which, let's say, this problem has been going on for a year now. If it WAS liquid, I would think the problem would either escalate or go away, depending on what type of liquid it was)
Ok, I admit I clicked over into b**ch mode. But I had my reasons.
I don't have liquid around any electronics - including laptops/computers. At all. And when I told her this she said (pretty snotty) that they have pictures and that their employees don't have liquids around the computer, so it wasn't them.
She automatically assumes that I was blaming them, which I have huge troubles with, because at that point I was more than surprised, and blaming them wasn't even in the realm of realistic. This actually offended me, and a lot.
Secondly, they NEVER SAID that this was work had to be covered by the warranty . I assumed that they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, because I had a horrible laptop and they had the resources and ability to right a situation that was wrong, so they were doing this. I guess I was really out of line there.
This angers me off beyond all belief. Water? I have heard this excuse being used on a huge amount of people that send their laptops back into Acer. I almost choked on my drink (but don't worry! I wasn't around the computer) when she said water damage, because 1) there is no liquid in the computer and 2) this line from them is getting very, very old. I've heard it before, and I bet I'll hear it again.
So now, I'm awaiting a call from Travis. I am seriously not going to be quiet on this one - if they right the situation, I will apologize and let people know that Acer actually listens to their customers. But if they try to send that laptop back to me with the line that it was liquid in the laptop, I swear I will be emailing and calling everyone within my power. I was promised that a senior tech would fix my laptop, and now I am being told that they aren't going to touch it. I was told, in the original phone call, that they wanted to make me happy. And accusing me of doing something that I have no clue what actually happened is not scoring too high on the happy factor.
I received a call from Acer yesterday saying they would "agree to fix" my laptop - if I paid them. Really? I include in my first email that I have lost my job, so they offer to pay shipping to the Temple, TX location, and then demand I pay them hundreds? They will be holding it until 1/20. I hope I can get them to fix it!