The Acer Laptop Returns

(To catch up on the Acer saga, please check the Acer Nightmare tag. First post is here, second is here, and third is here. The laptop in question is an Acer Aspire 5100 series, which had a loose screen hinge, faulty touch pad, chronic overheating, whining fan, and would occasionally freeze up with blue and white vertical stripes on the screen, which I was told that was the video card going out.)

So, Acer sent the laptop back to me, completely and utterly untouched and unfixed. Even the problems that would NOT even be close to being caused by this mysterious liquid – loose hinge for the screen, bad touchpad – they didn’t even bother fixing. Thanks, Acer.

They sent it back in a box that I had sent it in, and the box was wearing thin and breaking in spots.

A couple shots of the box.

Same packaging, everything, and no paperwork – so I have no idea if they even opened it, what they *might* have done to it, nothing. If something would have happened to the box since it was so flimsy anyways, there would be no identifiable info about the laptop itself.

Here are a couple of pics of the outside of the laptop – the touchpad, the lose hinge, etc.

This is the back hinge. The white residue you see is from duct tape.. I had to use duct tape to keep it from wobbling. I took it off before I sent it back.

This is the touchpad, and this is the wear from only a year and a half worth of use. The buttons want to fall out, the color is actually wearing down, you can see scratches on the laptop. The laptop has spent most of it’s time on my desk. The touchpad itself was faulty.

It’s just made from cheap plastic, as you can see. Hasn’t held up well.

This is the bottom of the laptop. I have no idea what this white powder is, but it is covering a lot – I just thought it was worth noting.

I have to admit, I am defeated. I think the main thing that broke me was the constant jerking and pulling from the customer service at Acer. Insisting they want to make me happy, paying for FedEx shipping back, offering to correct the wrongs that they made and then deciding against it. Telling me that they wouldn’t touch it, and if they did, it would be $449. Naming a mysterious liquid as the problem, making even outer fixes like the touchpad and hinge un-doable. Assuming that I accused the repair reps of spilling a drink in the laptop when it had never even crossed my mind.

But even though I am defeated when it comes to this laptop, I can honestly say I will do absolutely everything in my power to make sure everyone knows the lack of quality and horrible Acer customer support offers. I will make sure that everyone I know, speak to, pass on the street, run across on blogs, forums, social networks, anyone that is looking for anything computer related will know what hideous treatment they give their customers, and that they have no problems promising something then deciding differently. I would have taken them very little to make me happy, but instead they give excuses and false promises.

I don’t want anything from Acer anymore. But what I do want is for people to know how Acer treats the people that buys their products. I have filed a report at RipoffReport.com, I will be filing with the BBB, and I will be contacting the consumer media watchdogs. Yelp is probably a good idea, too.

If anyone needs the contact info for the top 5 executives at Acer, here you go:

These are the person business emails of some of the Acer Pan America Executive Team

Rudi_Schmidleithner@acer.com, President
Mark_Hill@acer.com, General Manager, Acer America
Mark_Groveunder@acer.com, Vice President, Customer Service
Clarence_Worthington@acer.com, Senior Director, Sales Operations and Fulfillment
Joe_Castillo@acer.com, Director, U.S. Retail Sales

AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline – free meds?

Does anyone have any proof, anywhere, that patients are actually enrolled in the free medication programs from the above mentioned manufacturers?

I am uninsured. I was also on medication that was extremely expensive ($280 and $160 a month). Since I am unemployed and well under the income limit, I decided to enroll in the programs for free medication from AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.

I started enrollment in early December. Both enrollment programs said that I would have my medications in well under two weeks.

It’s January 27th, and I have yet to see any medications from either programs.

Both have told me I am enrolled and I am eligable. But here is where the nightmare begins.

Dealing with GlaxoSmithKline and their Bridges to Access program was a nightmare. The nurse from my doctors office worked very, very closely with me on enrolling and making sure I had extra meds. GlaxoSmithKline, though, does not know what in the hell they are doing.

My application was returned to me numerous times for “corrections”, although I didn’t need to really do anything. They have no records of when the doctors office call, they had trouble with my prescription, and furthermore, if something screwed up *no one knew what to do.* I was told to re-enroll, call back tomorrow, just wait (yes, just wait), and to call my doctors office, and to have my doctors office call them. (Although they had no idea when my doctors office called back.)

I finally gave up. I went off the medication, went through withdrawal for a couple of weeks, and was fine. Well, relatively.

With AstraZeneca and their AZ&Me program, they are having “problems receiving my prescription slips.” What this means, though, is that they are actually sending me the multiple prescription slips that they have “rejected because they were unsigned.” I have a stack of prescriptions here for Nexium. Complete with social security number, date of birth, address, and signed. Not stamped, AstraZeneca, because you keep telling me “Well, if it was signed it must have been stamped, and we can’t accept that.” But when I say “I am holding it IN MY HAND, there is no stamp” you say “Well, it needs to have this info on it..” and I say “Yup, it has that.” And this is the point where the representative starts stuttering around so I just say “Goodbye” and hang up.

The thing is, I can’t just give up on this one. My stomach issues insist that I use something for the GERD, and that happens to be Nexium. So every day I call AstraZeneca, I am told the same thing, and I call the doctors office, and the nurse patiently calls again.

Is anyone actually enrolled in this program? Do they give out free meds, or is this just a PR trip? I have been very, very diligent about this, and my doctors office is great, and they work with me. I would figure that if anyone was able to enroll in the program, it would be me, since I have been playing the medical ropes for a long, long time. But I’m finding it damn near impossible.

C’elle and Cryo-Cell and Cups

So, a few weeks ago a company called C’elle, a company who offers pricey stem cell harvesting and storage from menstrual blood, was offering free menstrual cups to those who signed up.

Today, this email from C’elle starts going around:

We sincerely appreciate your interest in completing the C’elle survey online. Due to overwhelming demand, however, the free “Go Green”gift set supply is no longer available and we apologize for any inconvenience. In appreciation of your interest in C’elle we would like to offer you one complimentary free year of C’elle annual storage valued at $99.

Absolutely everyone I know who signed up to get a free cup is getting this email. Is anyone getting their cups? We are leaning towards “No.”

I think most of us are leaning towards “scam” here, a way to get emails and set us up with a “$99 off” store stem cells. Let’s not even TOUCH on the fact it costs $499 (but that’s $200 off!) to harvest the said stem cells, and from what I heard they don’t even know what to do with them yet – does anyone have any info that says otherwise?

They also seem to be preying on a woman’s possible insecurities to care for herself and her loved ones:
Actually, the healthier you are when your cells are collected and preserved, the more viable the cells may be for future use. One smart move in the right direction is to collect and preserve your C’elle menstrual stem cells now, and on multiple occasions in the future as a potential safeguard for you and those you love.

This is just setting themselves up for awesome reviews. Screw a bunch of women over on menstrual cups, but wait! There’s more! – offer us a “deal” for a mere $99!

Just FYI – here is their facebook page. Feel free to leave them a note.

And edit: It was brought to my attention that this note was actually sent out on the “monthly newsletter” – which most of us explicitly remember NOT SIGNING UP FOR.

Son of edit: Now there is a C’elle Scammed Me group on Facebook!

Grandson of edit: Thank you, Martha, for the info on their BBB page – they have been around since 1989! Makes me wonder how they got their start? I have gotten info that there has been a very select few who have received their cups – but the number is low. Something isn’t meshing here – most sample sites have a program that halts sign ups for free samples when demand is met. You always stand a chance of notgetting the product – but usually most people receive one. Why the dis-proportion?

Acer and Ripoffreport.com

Wow, look what I found concerning Acer at Ripoffreport.com! I’m gonna go through and see how many have the same “liquid” excuse that Acer (their Temple, TX location) gave me!

Wow, they have an F rating with the BBB!

Acer pissed off a crazy bitch

They said that they “agree to fix my laptop”, but I have to pay for the charges.

I need ANY AND ALL OF YOU to send emails for me. I am pulling out all the stops on this one. SEND SEND SEND. Also, Spread this info FAR AND WIDE.

These are the person business emails of the top 5 of Acer Pan-Am.

Rudi_Schmidleithner@acer.com,
Mark_Hill@acer.com,
Mark_Groveunder@acer.com,
Clarence_Worthington@acer.com,
Joe_Castillo@acer.com

Write them, tell them my story is getting out there and how this is effecting their rep. Include my blog link, https://savingincincinnati.wordpress.com/ . Also, include my : Serial Number : LXABH0J0916350A2E61601 and Service Request Number : 1-47QX43 so they know EXACTLY which laptop they are dealing with.

Also, email The Consumerist: tips@consumerist.com, ben@consumerist.com, marco@consumerist.com.

Add my blog link!

Feel free to spread info ABSOLUTELY ANYWHERE

Boooo, Acer!

So here’s the story.

About 2 years ago, I bought a laptop. An Acer Aspire 5100 series laptop.

Af first the laptop was fine. It did great, oh, for about two months. The screen went out on it, and I had to send it back for repairs.

I was impressed. They got it, fixed it within 48 hours, and shipped it back. I thought it was a little odd that I had to pay to ship the laptop back in the first place, most companies cover shipping. But it was $25, and I got my laptop back quickly, so I didn’t complain.

But after a few months other stuff started going bad. The network card would drop out randomly, the screen would go to white and blue vertical stripes, the touchpad was wonky. I researched my problems and found out that Acer repair, more than not, is pretty touch and go. Most complaints I have read say that the laptop came back to the owner in worse shape than it was sent out.

So, I tried to deal with the problems. Never mind the fact I pair $800 for a laptop that was nothing short of a drama queen. I was able to check my email and use basic programs, so I was Ok.

One day I just got fed up. It’s an $800 product, and on top of that I paid an extra $100 for an extended guarantee. I went to the Consumerist to see if there were any other complaints, and my god, there were.

I was looking around on the Consumerist when I found instructions on how to create your own Executive Email Carpet Bomb. You find the PR reps address, and then the list of executives of the company. You look at the format of the email, and try to reconstruct the email addresses of the people you want to contact – namely, the higher ups.

So I did this. I sent out an email explaining how disappointed I was in Acer, etc.,etc. I honestly didn’t expect to hear anything from them. But none of the emails bounced, so I knew the emails had to go somewhere.

A week or so later I got a phone call. It was Acer, from their offices in Temple, TX. They offered to ship my laptop back, free of charge, and fix all the problems I had complained about.

I was ecstatic. Insanely happy. They had listened! The consumer would get good customer service! I packed up my laptop and sent it out as soon as I could. My sweet little laptop was going to go straight to a fancy senior tech and all my problems would be fixed!

But today I got a phone call. That they won’t be fixing my laptop, and they are shipping it back untouched.

Because of “water damage”. And the screen problem is caused by said liquid (which, let’s say, this problem has been going on for a year now. If it WAS liquid, I would think the problem would either escalate or go away, depending on what type of liquid it was)

Ok, I admit I clicked over into bitch mode. But I had my reasons.

I DON’T HAVE LIQUIDS AROUND MY LAPTOP. At all. And when I told her this she said (pretty snotty) that they “have pictures” and that “their employees don’t have liquids around the computer, so it wasn’t them.”

NO SHIT. She automatically assumes that I was blaming them, which I have huge troubles with, because at that point I was more than surprised, and blaming them wasn’t even in the realm of realistic. This actually offended me, and a lot.

Secondly, they NEVER SAID that this was work had to be covered by the warranty . I assumed that they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, because I had a horrible laptop and they had the resources and ability to right a situation that was wrong, so they were doing this. I guess I was really out of line there.

This pisses me off beyond all belief. Water? WTF? I have heard this excuse being used on a huge amount of people that send their laptops back into Acer. I almost choked on my drink (but don’t worry! I wasn’t around the computer) when she said “water damage”, because 1) there is no liquid in the computer and 2) this line from them is getting very, very old. I’ve heard it before, and I bet I’ll hear it again.

So now, I’m awaiting a call from “Travis”. I am seriously not going to be quiet on this one – if they right the situation, I will apologize and let people know that Acer actually listens to their customers. But if they try to send that laptop back to me with the line that it was “liquid” in the laptop, I swear to god I will be emailing and calling everyone within my power. I was promised that a senior tech would fix my laptop, and now I am being told that they aren’t going to touch it. I was told, in the original phone call, that they wanted to make me happy. And accusing me of doing something that I have no clue what actually happened is not scoring too high on the “happy” factor.

Do you know someone who has been treated badly by Acer?