Hopeless Acer New Zealand

[scracha]

Customer brought in a 13 month old Acer laptop with a defective DVD drive. "no problem" says I having previously had parts from NEC and HP couriered over within 24 hours.

Over the past 8 days I've made 7 phone calls to Acer New Zealand. To cut a long story short, I've phoned their head office general number, their spares department, their Wellington sales office and I'm just getting nowhere. Their receptionist has taken my details 4 times. I left a message with her manager on his answering phone on Monday. To date I've not heard a thing back.

When I suggested to the receptionist I was considering phoning Acer Australia she asked me why "didn't I do this?". "Why should I have to? It's a New Zealand laptop" was my response.

Some kiwi companies are absolutely fantasic for customer service whilst others are just $hite.

[The Stranger:Me]

Customer brought in a 13 month old Acer laptop with a defective DVD drive. "no problem" says I having previously had parts from NEC and HP couriered over within 24 hours.

Over the past 8 days I've made 7 phone calls to Acer New Zealand. To cut a long story short, I've phoned their head office general number, their spares department, their Wellington sales office and I'm just getting nowhere. Their receptionist has taken my details 4 times. I left a message with her manager on his answering phone on Monday. To date I've not heard a thing back.

When I suggested to the receptionist I was considering phoning Acer Australia she asked me why "didn't I do this?". "Why should I have to? It's a New Zealand laptop" was my response.

Some kiwi companies are absolutely fantasic for customer service whilst others are just $hite.

FFS scracha, they probably couldn't understand a word you were saying. Next time try speaking english man.

[avgas]

yeh well the best response i got was from IBM when their techs fixed my desktop. Parts were free (5 year warrenty) but it cost me $450/hr to fix it.
He did it in 3/4 of an hour........i just about cried when i picked it up. I could have bought a new computer.

[JMemonic]

Shame they used to be so good

[Mom]

Yep yet another example of IDGAS companies, expect us to support them by purchasing thei product, but offer no after sales service, except the kind that gets them bagged on a public forum, personally I would not buy one, I have had experience of the product and its shortcomings.....*sigh*

[Beemer]

Just had to buy a new computer this week as my old crappy PC Company one finally gave up the ghost big time. I asked the guy who was trying to repair it (who also works for a computer retailer) what to go for and he said to steer clear of Acer as one particular model they released in the last year had an 85% recall rate. Pretty bad! He said NEC weren't bad but the support wasn't as good as other companies. Got a Hewlet Packard for a good price (who cares if it hasn't got Vista!) and the difference is amazing - I never knew computers could be so quiet!

[MOTOXXX]

cant beat an hp

keep clear of packard bell, acer, dell

[Deviant Esq]

Hewlett Packard and Compaq are fine - until you have something go wrong with the bastard. Then it's the same rigmorale. I know from having the occasional disgruntled customer come back with an HP / Compaq, and trying to ring HP myself. You'd be talking to a call centre in Kazakuzbekiwallacockistan to a guy who knows English but the accent is so strong it's still impossible to understand him, he'll ask you the same question 6 times etc etc. Usually gets sorted in the end, to be fair, but what a mission.

[Warr]

I upgraded my daughters NEC laptop over the uni hols, larger hard drive and more RAM. The quy who fitted the add-ins had no trouble downloading drivers off the NEC?? site.
Different story when I want drivers for my Compac and Toshiba, nothing to be found.

[xwhatsit]

yeh well the best response i got was from IBM when their techs fixed my desktop. Parts were free (5 year warrenty) but it cost me $450/hr to fix it.
He did it in 3/4 of an hour........i just about cried when i picked it up. I could have bought a new computer.

IBM (well, they're now Lenovo, a Russian company for all desktop/laptop stuff, so who knows) are/used to be fantastic in terms of service. Great for businesses because of what you mentioned -- prompt, efficient service. It comes at a cost though, although for many large companies that kind of thing is a simple equation -- it's cheaper to pay for no fucking around and lost time ($450 an hour might be nothing if you're making a $3.000.000 sale).

I've always found Sammy to be great. They've got a bit of panache, too, unlike good old square-cut IBM. In terms of after-sales support and quality of construction, I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with the Mac zealots and say that Apple has a fantastic reputation for ensuring your laptop carries on running like a watch. Of course they're not known for popularity in vast desktop farms in a business setting (although I don't doubt it could be done), but for consumer stuff they're in another universe for after-sales support compared to my cheap parts-bin-special mail-order no-name laptop (I can't even work out what brand it is -- it has several different names and model numbers on it -- lucky I know how to solder (LCD backlight blew up, I had to build a new one)).

[Lias]

IBM (well, they're now Lenovo, a Russian company for all desktop/laptop stuff, so who knows) are/used to be fantastic in terms of service.

Lenovo is Chinese, not russian.

[Finn]

Lenovo is Chinese, not russian.

Which is worse?

[scracha]

I upgraded my daughters NEC laptop over the uni hols, larger hard drive and more RAM. The quy who fitted the add-ins had no trouble downloading drivers off the NEC?? site.
Different story when I want drivers for my Compac and Toshiba, nothing to be found.

Compac's can be a beyatch to find drivers. NEC, HP ad Toshiba no probs.

WRT hardware replacements, sony & toshiba customer service is second to none and their parts are reasonable.

HP, don't make me laugh. Their spares prices are astronomical and they're a complete bitch to work on.

[xwhatsit]

Lenovo is Chinese, not russian.

Heh, you're right, why on earth did Russian pop into my head? Must've been Art Lebedev and that damn keyboard of his sticking in my mind.

What's worse? Russian or Chinese? Well I'd rather have my laptop built by a bunch of math-genius workaholics than a blind-drunk vodka-toting Mafia syndicate

[pete376403]

Up to the time Lenovo bought the IBM PC line, Acer built the IBM low-end laptops and desktops. Was amusing to hear people state how much better the IBMs were than the "cheap Chinese Acers".