We bought an Acer projector about 2.5 years ago from Wow Sight and Sound, before it went bankrupt. About six months ago (just as the standard 2 year warranty was expiring) it started getting small white dots on the screen. Now it is unwatchable, with white, black and grey dots everywhere.

Apparently this problem is with the DLP chip. As it turns out, this is a fairly common problem, and the DLP chip has a 5 year manufacturer's warranty. We called Acer, who didn't seem to know anything about the DLP chip or the 5 year warranty. Eventually we managed to convince them that both exist (largely through repetition), so they asked us for $50 so they could enter our details into their system. We declined that and insisted they put us onto their repair people first so we could deal directly with them.

As it turns out, Acer has no repair companies in our city (a state capital). They gave us two a bit further afield. The first company we called didn't do projectors. The second went through the same argument we did with Acer. The only difference being that they went through "the system" (the same one Acer wanted to charge us $50 to get our names on). So it took them about 3 weeks to have the same conversation. We kept calling to find out what was going on. Last I heard they were still trying to figure out the basics, like what the likely problem is, whether a new DLP chip is available, and whether Acer will honour the warranty. They eventually stopped returning our calls.

Any ideas on where to go from here?

They do not appear to have any online form or email type contact options - only by phone, which means the same runaround all over again.

If your state has a 'Dept of Consumer Affairs', they may be able to point you in 'the right direction', if there is a viable option for the complainant/consumer.

My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned.

On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service.

What city do you live in?

greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14^th, 2013 at 8:48pm:

My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in?

My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ...

John Smith wrote on Apr 14^th, 2013 at 9:34pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ...

Strange, isn't it?

My Acer Aspire lasted for years (it's still going) and it never blue-screened once.

The only reason I took it back to the service centre was to get a failed memory strip replaced (literally a 2 minute repair).

Once that was replaced it never missed a beat.

Have you contacted the ACER Highpoint Repair Centre in Sydney?????? 

I've got four of them here, two desktops and two laptops.

The only issue I've ever had was a faulty DVD burner from new in the Aspire T310 desktop.
I took it to their service centre in Can't-berra, and the drive was replaced under warranty, virtually while I waited.
Never had a problem with the SA10 desktop (acquired second-hand) or either of the lappies (both bought new).
I'll buy Acer again, no worries.

John Smith wrote on Apr 14^th, 2013 at 9:34pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ...

Yeah mine did that - i go with toshiba now

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 15^th, 2013 at 4:34am:

John Smith wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 9:34pm: greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ... Yeah mine did that - i go with toshiba now SOB

Off course it did Miss Borg.

KJT1981 wrote on Apr 15^th, 2013 at 7:08am:

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 15th, 2013 at 4:34am: John Smith wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 9:34pm: greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ... Yeah mine did that - i go with toshiba now SOB Off course it did Miss Borg.

WTF? Go away troll.

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 15^th, 2013 at 4:34am:

John Smith wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 9:34pm: greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ... Yeah mine did that - i go with toshiba now SOB

Toshibas seem to be OK, my brother has run Toshibas for a number
of years and is very happy with them. His current one has Harmon-
Kardon sound, it's very good, though not as good as the Dolby 5.1
setup in this Acer (yes, six speakers in a laptop!!!).

I just LOVE this machine!!!

---

Kat wrote on Apr 15^th, 2013 at 11:52am:

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 15th, 2013 at 4:34am: John Smith wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 9:34pm: greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 14th, 2013 at 8:48pm: My Acer laptop was the best computer I've ever owned. On the couple of occasions I needed to take it in for repair, the repair centre gave excellent service. What city do you live in? My Acer laptop was crap .... it had 12 months warranty and died on the 13th month ... Yeah mine did that - i go with toshiba now SOB Toshibas seem to be OK, my brother has run Toshibas for a number of years and is very happy with them. His current one has Harmon- Kardon sound, it's very good, though not as good as the Dolby 5.1 setup in this Acer (yes, six speakers in a laptop!!!). I just LOVE this machine!!!

Yeah. the acers werent built to last but they certainly knew what ppl wanted when they built them. All those usable usb ports too that werent too close together.

SOB

We stopped buying Acer PC's years ago when we had nothing but trouble with the PC's and the company and now we only buy from Dell.

adelcrow wrote on Apr 16^th, 2013 at 3:37pm:

We stopped buying Acer PC's years ago when we had nothing but trouble with the PC's and the company and now we only buy from Dell.

Apparently they were a bit crap years ago, but I bought my first Acer in 2005, I'd just
started an IT course (Certificate II) and about three weeks into it, my computer died.

The local Acer dealer (no, not Harvey Norman) had a good deal going at the time so I
bought an Aspire T310  Pentium 4 desktop machine. I still own it (much-modified) and
apart from the DVD-ROM issue I mentioned above I've never had a problem with it.

I also own an SA10 Pentium 4 with the ring worked out of it (it runs Windows XP and
Vista, and is my main gaming machine), and two laptops, an Aspire AS5735 running
Windows 7 and this AS8951 'mega-laptop' (see the pic in my earlier post) which runs
Windows 8 Pro. It is very powerful and highly-specced, and uses top-end components
throughout.

I work my machines hard, they don't just get used for chatting here by any means, but
have honestly never had a hardware-related issue with any of them, and my admittedly
limited experience with their tech-support/after sales service has been all good.

No, I don't work for Acer, and I'm not 'dissing' other brands (I also own an old Gateway
and a Packard-Bell, both Pentium 3s), but my Acer experiences have all been positive.

Believe me, if I thought they were crap, I'd say so...

We had to get the state Ombudsman involved. Acer is playing ball now. They collected the projector, and even paid for the courier.

It turns out that the only record we have of the warranty is on the box itself. Acer said this was some kind of special promotion that they did not have a record of in their system. This basically means that most people would never even realise they had the warranty, or even if they did they would have no record of it because they threw out the box without checking the warranty info was with on the standard warranty card you get. We had to send in a photo of the box before Acer agreed to anything.

Sometimes it pays to be a hoarder.

Glad to hear that you got it sorted out to your satisfaction.

It is still being assessed. I don't know yet whether it is covered by warranty.

Got the projector back (a while ago now) and it is all working fine. They even replaced the battery in the remote for me.