Acer to dump 3 million laptops onto European market Expect some great deals on Acer laptops in coming weeks. The Taiwanese giant has huge amounts of unsold stock to shift and looks set to flood Europe with more than three million machines. Where will the stock be dumped and at what cost? We will we know only when they turn up in store at prices too true to be good - for rival …
I bought a timeline 12 months ago which has had to go back twice (one failed disk, one failed memory module) but in both cases I got an almost instant acceptance of the case via the on-line system, my system was picked up the next day and returned repaired with a week.
Clearly it would have been better not to have had the failures in the first place but I think some of the criticism of their service department is either out of date or perhaps based on trying to organise a repair over the phone (which I haven't tried)
Travelmate 4100 bought 5 years ago... FAT formatted, preloaded Windows software that can't cope with multiuser yet essential to configure the energy/CPU speed options, hinges bust, overheats, battery died well before time. Now dragged out the cupboard once in a blue moon.
Cheap (its main selling point) Acer GPS thingy preloaded with Destinator bought three years ago, became unusable within two years due to out of date maps and onboard software going slowly mental, no map upgrade options as Acer said it was Destinator's job and Destinator said it was Acer's job.
Wouldn't even consider buying another unless there there were several hundred posts here telling me they'd turned their quality round in the last couple of years and even then I'd be dubious.
Rant over.
My Aspire One is still happily working. It depends entirely on what your expectations were - I wouldn't want to do serious computing on that keyboard and screen, and I acquired a cordless mouse because it was easier than the trackpad, but as a quick way of checking email on the move, it's good. Mine is running Linux (but not the supplied distribution), perhaps it's crap with Windows.
At the moment it's sat on my desk as a basic Linux dev machine, talking to it using Cygwin-X on a windows machine so I get the benefit of a large screen and keyboard.
8 Gb SSD - dumped linpus running full fat openSUSE 11.3 wth Tumbleweed enabled (2.6.39) and KDE 4.6.4
I''d probably be better off with Xfce but it's not struggling (nor sprinting TBH) my moment of joy occurred last week when I switched off one known router and switched on another (don't ask) and my AAO seamless reconnected
battery is only 2.5 hours now - but I'd buy another couple tomorrow
Surprised to read the anti-Acer comments on here as I've generally had good fortune with their products. No, I don't work for them! I had a problem with a flat screen monitor a few years back that was resolved quickly after an under-warranty, Acer-funded return to base. It broke down again a few months later and they swapped it for a new one. My only problem with that episode was CityLink losing the replacement... which Acer re-replaced.
My old Acer laptop purchased in late 2005 travelled with me around 56 countries when I backpacked. Yes, it's bowed in shape and one of the hinges is now held together with a small nut and bolt, but in fairness it was carried around in a barely padded backpack with far too much other stuff that literally bent it into a new shape! The battery now runs for 20 mins rather than the original 5 hours, but I used to run it off the mains all the time with the battery in - I know not to do that any more.
That experience alone made me look to Acer again when I wanted a replacement. I still use the old one as an XP workhorse alongside my shiny new one.
Having said that, it's electronics. I know there's as much chance of getting a duffer as of getting a perfect one :)
"I know there's as much chance of getting a duffer as of getting a perfect one"
Even I wouldn't rate Acer that low! But I'd far rather pay 10% more and get a product made by a company that sorts out its after-sales issues successfully, and without causing me unnecessary inconvenience.
To the person above who says Acer's improved, my comment is ... too late. It takes years to build a reputation, and minutes to destroy one. Plenty of other makes to choose from, why give the ones that screwed you a second chance? Perhaps I'll give Acer another try once all the others have also let me down ... but if they know what's good for business, they won't do that.
Bought this about 2 years ago. Reloaded the OS 3 times. First time was to get rid of the braindead Limpus lite (well at least it proved Linux compatibility with all the hardware) and the other 2 times due to mysterious SSD corruption of the kind which never, ever affects the same rock solid Ubuntu OS running on spinning media. Keep a USB stick to reload the OS with it just in case now when needed. Had to get a travel mouse 3 weeks ago, because the trackpad thingie ceased to function altogether. Not very reliable, considering it gets used about 1 day in 4 on average.
as I doubt the asking prices won't be bargains, not unless Internet only specials.
I've had a few Acer factory refurbs & all been OK.
On the flip side have seen others die prematurely, and in one case, the wireless would not work out of the box even after all Windoze updates applied. Acer denied any problem, then 4 months later a new BIOS release notes had "Fix wireless card" in it!.
I've had an 1810tz for about 18 months at this stage and like it a lot. Build quality is good - it feels solid. It's got the portability of a netbook but a lot more grunt, and is easily capable of running Photoshop, Lightroom, and OpenOffice side by side without breaking into too much of a sweat.
My only bugbear would be the trackpad, which is frankly awful, but I prefer to use a cordless mouse anyway
The last three laptops I've bought have all been Acer and all of them are going strong (all but one given to friends/family). One of them developed various faults (dodgy wifi and a mysterious power switch that went dodgy for a while) but none of them have ever let me down.
My current dual core model is only 18 months old and still plenty powerful enough but if they are going to be selling 'em cheap I'll happily upgrade.
Been repairing them in a lab for a few months. About 1 in 3 parts we were receiving from Acer was DOA. I guess we were testing the dubious parts for them, (well that would cut costs, wouldn't it ?). Had to spend hours on the phone explaining to customers why their 10 days SLA had become 5 weeks nightmare.
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