Reader Dan writes in with the tale of his friend Jack, who he helped with an Acer laptop that broke only two days after its warranty expired. Geek Squad was no help, but launching an email carpet bomb on Acer did the trick.

Dan says:

Thank you very much for your helpful guide to writing EECBs (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) AND for the Acer contact information. To give you backstory, my friend bought a laptop from Best Buy in early 2009. (Mistake 1). The warranty expired about 2 days before the laptop stopped even powering it up. My friend brought it to the Geek Squad. (Mistake 2). They told him it was dead, and the warranty was shot, and that the motherboard wasn’t worth replacing, so its better to buy a new laptop. Being a technician myself, I confirmed what Best Buy told him about the dead laptop, but felt 1 year + 1 week is too short a lifespan for $500-$600 laptop.

Shortly after sending this email, following your guides, I received a call from a man named Wade. He offered a one time out of warranty replacement, and my friend is backing his data now and sending it off for repair. Although I feel Acer has a long way to go for customer service, at least I saved my friend the cost of purchasing a new laptop. (Which would not have been Acer. )

Hey, you’re a good friend! Everyone should have a friend that reads Consumerist!

Kudos to Acer for being cool about the warranty. Got a problem? Ready to launch your own EECB? Give it a shot! (Psssst…remember to try regular customer service first.)

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