Avoid Acer - the story of my problems with Acer
As soon as I got my Acer Aspire home, the trouble started. The built-in microphone on the monitor didn't work. After spending an hour or so on the phone with an Acer representative convincing them it really was broken and not just assembled wrong, they arranged to replace it. This meant about a month-long wait for the new monitor to arrive, and having to pack up the original monitor and drive it to UPS to return it. Inconvenient, but at least they took care of the problem.
I encountered the next problem when I tried to install a DOS-based game that required a sound card. The PC's default set-up didn't enable the sound card in DOS, so I had to play with the settings and in the process managed to kill the soundcard in both DOS and Windows. I made a call to Acer's tech-support line and got help - one of the things they had me try was changing the sound card from one slot to another. I specifically asked if taking the cover off the PC would void the warranty and was told that it wouldn't. The problem was eventually fixed, but it took a few hours.
The next problem I encountered was that the hard drive kept "locking up". I think this was due to overheating (you can't place the PC's "body" near a wall or the monitor), but I figured since I had specifically been told that removing the casing would not void the warranty, I might as well take a look inside.
Due to the poor design of the Acer Aspire, the only way to remove the outer casing is to pull really, really hard on a cheap plastic handle on the front of the PC. There are no screws you can remove to make the process easier or anything, just this fragile little handle. Of course, the handle snapped.
Here's where my major problem with Acer comes in - I called tech support again, and was told that there was nothing they could do about it. Even though the computer was still well within its original warrenty period, the broken handle was not covered because, get this, I wasn't on the phone with Acer when it broke . I then went and read the fine print on the warranty, which states:
Coverage under this agreement will not include: ... Repair...to the covered equipment required for reasons of accident...by anyone other than an Acer Authorized Service Provider.
In other words, unless Acer breaks it themselves, they're not required to fix it. Or to be blunt about it, their Warranty is pretty much useless, and I'm now stuck with a PC that can't be opened without a crowbar.
Anyway, there's apparently no help for me - I've called Acer a couple times and sent them email to let them know how unhappy I am with the situation, and their response so far has pretty much been "tough luck". But hopefully this web page will prevent other computer buyers from being burned like I was.
Oh, and just recently the cheap plastic wrist guard for the keyboard snapped and fell off. Quality computer, hunh?
Update, August 2000: Over the last couple months, the monitor (the replacment they sent me for the one with the broken microphone) had been blinking off, as if it was losing the signal from the computer (the power was still on, but the green power light on the monitor would turn red every time this happened). At first it would only go out for a couple seconds and then come back on. But the problem kept getting worse, with the outages getting longer and longer. Finally at the beginning of this month, the thing blinked off and refused to come back on. The monitor was only around three years old, and now it's a useless piece of junk.
Update, November 2000: The last original peripheral just died - the keyboard. For a couple days it would suddenly not want to type certain letters, then the whole Q-P row died. Had to replace it with a new keyboard. Once again, don't buy from Acer, their products are pieces of junk that quickly fall apart.
Also, just a couple weeks ago, I got the following email:
Just read you page on your experiences with Acer service techs. Sounds very familiar. I can not get the Sound Recorder to work on my system, and they want $35 to attempt (no guarantee) to fix the problem they caused.
And here's another email I got on Aug 26th, 2001 from a guy named Sam Palermo:
I am an Engineer in the Chicago area. A girl I know who does not have a lot of money had trouble with her 1280 Aspire model so I agreed to take a look at it. I build computers (AMD) for a hobby and have done about 30 or so far. Yes, her unit was full of fuzz and was indicating a lack of any maintenance for the life of the computer-from 8/97. The interesting thing was that the heat sink on here K6-2 233 got hot and was not able to do the job. To add to your findings, I believe that the Acer company clearly uses substandard and clearly too small a fan to accomplish the job. I, of course, will put a good one on the processor. The biggest problem is that even though I downloaded and made the 4 floppies the Acer suggest on their web site, the sound still does not work and they make no mention of the IDE buss master driver that Windows 98 SE does not like. Up until now I have thought Compaq has made the worst computer but I may have been wrong. I think Acer is beating Compaq on making a junk product. I have emailed Acer and shall continue to do so until Kim tells me to build her a good computer. I am glad you are posting this on the web maybe it will do some good. You are welcome to use any part of this on your page!
On Dec 16th, 2001, I got an email from Yap Chun Hui. His English was a little rusty, but basically he told me that his Acer CD-ROM drive died just after the warranty period expired. Also, a sound card driver he downloaded from Acer's web site didn't work. He had to ship his PC back to Acer, and they charged him $85 just to tell him that they couldn't fix it.
Whatever you do folks, don't buy an Acer...