Acer Warranty Report Card

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

I give them a C+

If you recall, I had an Acer laptop come in DOA here: http://community.livejournal.com/techsupport/2090100.html

It came back from warranty repairs yesterday.



Acer Warranty Repairs

1. Open a ticket.

I give them a B for the process. It is all automated with a limited number of details to specify the exact problem, especially for people in tech positions. Tough to do Dick & Jane and Einstein all on the same form. Still, it was clear, Service Request Authorization issued with relatively clear instructions.

2. Confirm Receipt

B- here. Tracking the package showed delivery to thier facility Monday morning, but they don't acknowledge receipt until Wednesday. Two days to open a box and update the service request? At least the sent an automated confirmation of receipt.

3. Check Status.

Solid C. They have an easy to use form to check the progress of the repair based on the ticket number. However, the Service Request is not the ticket number, which they do not normally give to the customer. Hmmm, interesting. After a quick email explaining this, i am given the ticket number but the status is "we have received the product and it is under repair." Relatively useless information, especially when you have a nagging user asking every day for a status update.

4. Return of Laptop

B+. Got an automated notification saying the product is fixed and shipped back with carrier and tracking information within the 7-10 day time frame of receipt as stated.

5. Repairs

Give them an A. Replaced motherboard, a ribbon cable and card reader board without so much as a scratch or nick on or near the screw holes.

6. The Monkey Wrench

A big D.

Replacement of the motherboard invalidated the Windows activation. Upon initial boot, was asked to activate the already activated product key, which, naturally, failed. Since this is an OEM copy, called Acer and thier solution was to re-install the OS witht he same key. Um, no. Sorry, I wasn't going to wipe the user data for a futile process. The Product ket is tied to the processor. A new motherboard with new processors will look like a different PC to MS's activation servers. Thanked Acer for thier inability to comprehend and called MS, who gladly reactivated manually.

Too bad, they could have graduated cum laude.

Comments

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

That sounds less painful than I had anticipated. I initially read the brand as "ASUS" and started cringing, since I had an Interesting Experience with them last year, but all in all it could have been much worse.

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, is there anything Acer could have done regarding the Windows activation issue? Seems to me like calling Microsoft would have been the only route to take.

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

That was the first question I asked them. Because it is an OEM version of Windows, support comes from them. Acer support told me they wouldn't be able to help me and that reinstallation was the only ting that would resolve the issue. I have been down this road before with new motherboards and with retail versions of Windows, the activation dialog includes contact information for MS support. In an OEM version, all that is provided is a link to the OEM's support site, in this case, Acer. They could have done one of three things ...

1. Tell me that MS must issue me the new activation number using the current pruduct key and provide me the phone number to call.

2. Issue me a new product key that was as of yet unlinked to any processor.

3. Contact MS at the time of service to inform them of the repair so they could unlink that product key from thier activation servers so that on first boot it would have reactivated (don't think MS does this with any partner, but they should)

What they did do was insist that the only thing that would work was something that would not only have left me in the same situation, but removed all user data, programs and configurations. I would have had one angry user on my hands.

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes I see. I did think of that first point, and the other two seem reasonable to me, as well.

A thing I wonder

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

Sometimes when I do a board swap, I shove in the original processor to test it, and I leave it in if it's still good. And maybe I'm just the exception to the rule here, but when I do it that way, the OS never asks to be reactivated.

I think the Windows activation is linked just to the processor, because when I do a CPU swap it never fails to ask me to reactivate.

Re: A thing I wonder

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

That would figure since the checksum process uses the MAC which IIRC resides on the actual cpu itself. [any MS techies out there care to coment, or would that be saying too much?]

Hmm...I wonder if one could spoof the activation process if you had a duel socket? Swap out one cpu, validate, then replace the old cpu with another new one so you have an activated board with two new cpu's. [although that sounds like way too much work really.]