Adventures in Laptop warranty repairs

I have had this laptop about 1.5 years.

It is stock except I added more ram to go from 2 gigs to 4 gigs (it is Vista Ya know).

I called the phone number, and a few phone system numbers later, I was talking with a tech.

We went through a few basic diagnostic steps and he came to the conclusion there was some hardware failure.

I was told a box would be sent to me in 1-2 business days.
It will have a box and packing materials to put my laptop in as well as a "PREPAID" sticker to ship it to their repair facility.

I was told turn-a-round is "USUALLY" 10-12 days

I will say the tech was very professional/polite and kind. He reassured me that the laptop not working is very frustrating and he would do everything he could to quickly resolve the issue(s).

As more information arrives, I will post and allow other to see how professional or not this service will be.

As a former technician at a major defunct electronics retailer (three guesses), I have found that it's about 50/50 as to what kind of service you can expect. As long as you are as nice as you can be to the poor bastards that are charged with dealing with understandably peeved customers, its possible to get pretty good service. But don't expect a turn around of as little as 10 or so days. It gonna be more like 2-3 weeks. It's like this: a coupla days (at least) to get your box with label, 2-3 days to ship it to the depot, a week as it gets received and placed, and then a week or so for it to be looked at, looked at again, diagnosed, repaired or replaced or denied service, repacked, stacked for shipment, then finally shipped back. And that is if everything goes well with no hiccups.

Good luck though! Can't wait to hear how it goes actually.

*edit for missing words lol*

[edit on 22-2-2009 by obilesk]

reply to post by obilesk


You are correct. You get more help when you are nice.

I also have found, by experience, no matter you actual knowledge, allow the tech to take charge and do as he asks.
Even if you have done these things, the tech must do as he is told, working with him only makes it faster and less hassle prone.

It should not matter how you act to get service, but it really does.

BTW, perhaps I did not explain it well.

I was told 10-12 days turn around, meaning about 2 weeks once it's in their hands.

Well, just as I was promised, the shipping materials were delivered within 2 days.

Ok, it was 5:55PM on the second day, but still as they said.

I packed it up along with power cord and restore cd's as per the instructions.

More information as it comes to me.

On 03/08/09 I received an automated phone call from UPS.

It said there was a package to be delivered on 03/10/09 anytime from 10AM to 7PM.

It further stated there must be someone home to sign for the package, if not, a notice will be left with instructions on how to pick up or reschedule a drop off.

I also said that this first attempt to deliver must be made before any arrangements can be made-i.e. setting up a specific time for delivery.

Now how many working people can stay home from 10 AM to 7PM on a weekday????
Seriously!!!!!

This has required me to have someone home all day to sign for my package/laptop.

When I open it, I will post what I find, as well as any written information as to what was done.

Well,

At 9:45 am the UPS man arrived with my laptop.

It is repaired and running fine.

It was reloaded with vista-that will change soon.

The paperwork sent back indicated the service would have cost $280 for the repair plus shipping there and back( $40-$50).

so my $150 warranty paid the estimated $330 repair...NICE!!!

It was back in my hot hands in 12 days, a very good turn around time if you ask me.

I have to say I'm impressed with that too.

It's a total pain especially when you use it for business and you're suddenly without one.

I got one from a large PC store,had it for a matter of hours before the infra red com port messed up,even though it was only bought hours before,they said the only course of action was to send it off to the manufacturer engineers.

I wish that had been clear in the contract in the first place,I'd have bought cheaper,local and taken the chance of it being a duffer.

Agent_T:

I will say I am very happy with this service.

Two times I was given time estimates for things to happen and by god they did happen exactly as given.


That said, I think it is VERY poor that the Acer laptop needed major work after 1.5 years.
This is a business laptop and it is only used when on client sites-lite-use.


That said, I am happy to have my laptop back.



[edit on 3/9/2009 by mrmonsoon]

I think they place mini-thermite charges in crucial areas,set to go off just after the standard warranty runs out..whether you use it or not ..

Hmm.. possible warranty conspiracy there..

Of course, the last repair is going to be...

Yeah, you guessed it, win 7 here it comes...

Ya didn't think I was going to leave it Vista did you???:shk:

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
so my $150 warranty paid the estimated $330 repair...NICE!!!

Did you have to buy an extended warranty?

The standard warranty was just one year and you "upgraded" it?

reply to post by AGENT_T


The store where I bought my new PC (a large supermarket store) gives two weeks to see if everything is going as it should, and if it's not we can get a replacement directly, it has happened before with something my sister bought.

Many large stores do that here in Portugal.

reply to post by ArMaP


You are correct, Armap.

It came with a one year factory warranty.

This was a pay for 3 year extension.

An interesting point, the extended did not start until the factory one went out.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


In Portugal (I think that it's a EU thing) all the consumer electronics warranties are now two years.