Scott in Ireland writes in with proof that it’s not just American/Canadian consumers who get screwed by bad customer service. When his new Acer laptop went kaput, it took him over half a year to finally get a working, equivalent replacement—and after all that, Acer told him they wouldn’t extend his warranty for the time he was without a laptop.

I thought I’d let you know about my little adventure with Acer here in Ireland. How these guys stay in business if beyond me. Hopefully it’ll help people to make an informed decision before buying from them.
 
I bought a laptop from them in March of 2007. It worked fine for a while, then started acting weird – starting up really slowly, crashing, etc. I made a series of frustrating phone calls and eventually was told to send it back to them for repair. I put my suspicions that they were a bunch of clown shoes aside, and figured they’d get it sorted out.
 
It was away for a month, and when I got it back it had the exact same problem, and blue screened within 15 seconds of turning on. I told them it was still broken, and sent it back to them again. Almost 20 fruitless international phone calls and four months later they eventually said it was beyond repair. I argued and argued and eventually got a replacement.
 
Six weeks later the replacement arrived, and had about half the spec of my original model. I phoned them another five times until someone agreed it was inferior, and told me to send it in and they’d organise a replacement. The guy I was talking to was laughing and said he wasn’t surprised I called, that the spec of the one they sent me wasn’t even close. Another guy was so rude that I asked to speak to his manager. He told me I’d have to hang up and call back to get someone else, and ask to speak to their manager.
 
I sent the replacement back to them, only to have them courier it back to me. They called me, told me they had made a mistake, and asked that I return it to them again.
 
Eventually, after a total of more than 10 e-mails, 4 faxes, 40 phone calls and 7 months I received an equivalent model. Only, it turns out that it’s also got a fault; the charger makes a loud buzzing noise. I e-mailed them to tell them and they say I have to send it back to them, and pay for shipping and insurance. They said they’ll have a look, but that it may have to go back to Taiwan for a full inspection. I also asked if they were going to entend my warranty to account for the seven months and they replied with an e-mail that simply said “No extension to warranty.”
 
All-in-all, a very slow, rude and ineffective company. Hardly a master class in customer service, doncha think?
 
Cheers,
Scott

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