Talkin' to Tech Support...

When my Acer Aspire fell over dead at Denny's, I contacted Acer to confirm my warranty status and arrange for service.

First off, warranty or no warranty, if you want to talk to an Acer service rep online, it costs you.  When you try to reach a rep through their chat line,you get a message: "I can help you!  How much is it worth to you?"  and a clickable list of amounts you might be willing to pay.

So okay, e-mail.  They answer their e-mails.

One line at a time.

Six e-mails followed my original query, each one asking for one more piece of information they hadn't asked for in the previous e-mails.Remember the crazy uncle with his "One MORE thing..." in the Jackie Chan cartoons.  It was that annoying.

Finallly they run out of questions and we send off the  computer. A week later it comes back, complete with a whole brand new mainboard, a letter proudly announcing it has been thoroughly tested and  inspected...

...and the exact same problem. Maybe ten hours use and it drops dead again.

So we call the toll-free hotline their own letter says to use, letter in hand.  Phone tree.The phone tree will be happy to help you: just give it the SNID number off the computer.  Not the serial number, which every previous stage of this transaction has used including their own contact letter,but the SNID number, which can be found... on the computer back at my office.  Oh, and did I mention that if you ask to speak to an operator, it demands the frigging SNID before it will put you through?

Back to e-mail. Tech support will be happy to help me. Just give them EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF INFORMATION 'I'VE ALREADY GIVEN TO THEM, and which they already have because they're referring to it even as they write.

So they send me a FedEx drop-off number,which for some reason I can't use from work but have to use at an authorized FedEx center.  I take it in... and the drop-off number doesn't go to the service center. It took the very diligent FedEx gal to catch this and nearly fifteen minutes to fix the glitch, for which my thanks...

So.  Back squinting at the 7-inch Asus and wondering if Panasonic toughbooks are worth the price. I gotta wonder if ther Acer is really a good work machine at this point.