Dell still remain the overall markets number two player behind HP however their Q2 2008 PC shipments were up an impressive 11.9% and in Q2′08 beat HP.

HP only grew by 5.6% HP however have just refreshed their major product lines so I imagine this will even out in the next couple of quarters.

The new number three player in the PC game in now Apple (See Ya Later, Acer) who managed to ship 38.1% more PC’s in Q2 2008 compared to Q2 2007. So out of the three (HP, Dell and Apple) Apple looks like the rising star.

Ill say it again “If Apple shipped on Windows HP and Dell would have a significant problem on their hands”.

Link: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=724111

Update: 29/10/2007 2pm I see from my Weblogs, Acer have now read this post. Now please do the right thing, as I would love for this to have a happy ending.

Update: 30/10/2007 Acer have now stepped up and offered Leon a brand new machine – See the comments for the  latest…

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Site visitor Leon Robotham contacted me with a terrible story about how Acer has failed to help him resolve an issue with his PC.

I asked Leon to write up all the details so other people considering purchasing Acer products can at least know the facts about Acer’s after care.

If anyone from Acer requires Leon’s Contact details just ask me colindiponio@gmail.com

Over to Leon:-

1. 15th September – I contacted the tech line and was advised that my machine needed to be sent back to be looked at as the ethernet controller, cardbus controller and broadcom adapter were having problems which meant I had no internet connection.

- I was advised that my machine would be returned within 4 – 12 days.

2. 25th September – I received my machine and was elated, great I’m back online! I opened the box and there was a technicians note saying that the main board had been replaced. When I switched the machine on I found that the screen didn’t work.

3. 25th September – I called the tech line to explain that the situation and had the phone put down on me. I called back and asked to speak with a senior manager and was then passed to Angela Foster who advised that she would now be dealing with the matter and that it would be dealt with ASAP. She advised that a courier would be re-sent and that she would do her best to have the machine returned to me quickly.

4.  I called back in a few days later (either the 28th or 29th) once I’d given my case ID the tone of the advisor changed instantly. I asked to speak with Angela again and when I got through to her I asked for a copy of all of my recorded calls so that I could present them to a solicitor only to be told that my calls hadn’t been recorded – I had been warned about this from a friend.

5.  About the 5th October I still haven’t received my machine but received a call from Angela Foster to say that the machine was waiting for parts to be fitted and that she would be getting it signed off herself so it could be sent out.

6. I receive another call from Angela on the 6th being advised that they are unable to fix my machine but would be able to send me a new machine. I asked all about the ‘new machine’ and was told that actually it is a refurbished machine but it is in immaculate condition and that the spec is an upgrade from my own. At this point I’m just happy that I will soon have a machine to work on as I’m losing work for my fitness business as it’s based online.

7. I receive the machine on the 10th October switch it on and it doesn’t work, there’s no Internet connection and the mouse doesn’t work. I call Angela on the 11th and am advised that the machine unfortunately needs to be returned. So off it goes back to Esplex!

8. I’m advised that she will have the machine back to me in the next two days.

9. I call in on the 15th to ask what is happening with my machine and am told that the main board is being replaced and I was told that I had put a screw through a wire and that was why the mouse didn’t work apparently I should look after my machine. Appalled I explained to the girl on the other end of the phone that in fact the machine that she was referring to was actually the same replacement machine that I had been told was in immaculate condition and had been checked by the technicians….. Silence, I again ask for all of my recorded calls to be told once again that they have not been recorded.

10. After sending an email to Angela explaining how I feel and telling her that I’ve never experienced such a poor level of service. I was told that she would do what she could. Well it seems to me that she can’t do anything.

11. Frustrated still I email details of the situation to watchdog.

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Thanks Leon

I agree very frustrating and simply not good enough.

I would say persevere but clearly you already have. 40/50 days waiting on Acer to do the right thing is more than any consumer should have to contend with.

Please let us all know what happens next.

Well after:

4 Phone Calls

3 On-site visits from Acer’s Engineers

2 Boards replaced (main and tuner)

1 Patient customer

Acer have resolved my display problem (see example of the prior problem above).

So thanks to Acer for fixing this issue. My fault turned out to be a problem with the left hand tuner board (the one with 2 x Scart and 1 x RF).

The problems I experienced during this warranty process were staggering really and lots of things went wrong.

I am glad to see the back of the problem.

I am also filing this post under Blog Advocacy as I managed to drag someone over from Acer to check out this site showing their display products in not such a good light, remember this was after they said they would no longer help me.

To be fair Acer outsource their warranty to a 3rd party tech company and each company appears to have a different approach to “responsibility” and “ownership” of problems.

I hit a brick wall with outsourced 3rd party tech support company but appealed directly to Acer Head office thankfully did the right thing.

Case closed.

For Back story see here (in order)

Permanent Link to Acer Customer Support (AT3201W)

Permanent Link to Acer Warranty or how Tech Support abandoned me

Permanent Link to Acer reconsider their stance on my warranty issue

The short version is I have an Acer display product that has developed a fault within the warranty period.

Well here we are again in another episode of my very own mini soap opera that is called  ”Hey Acer fix my product”.

I arranged for a second engineer to come today and a nice chap turned up with a tuner board from a completely different Acer display.

The part number on the box was correct but the board inside the box was wrong.

The saga continues.

Well after hitting the brick wall with Acer’s warranty/tech support department. I re-contacted Tarlock in the Acer UK Head Office.

Tarlock: Has no one from escalation got back to you

Colin: No

Tarlock: OK, ill come back to you.

Shortly after he did. They are sending another engineer out on Monday to replace another board and if that does not cure the problem they are going to take the display away for further investigation.

So that’s a good result at this point. The problem is still not solved but Acer are back taking “responsibility”.

In the meantime I have hooked up a Panasonic display to the same SKY+ box and everything is perfect.

I suppose the lesson to learn is “No” is not necessarily the end of the conversation.

The short version: I have a Acer 32″ LCD Display that has developed a fault within the 2 year warranty period.

So I had a visit from an engineer on behalf of Acer. The screen was displaying the problem when the engineer arrived and I was pleased the engineer had seen this problem before. Sadly that gave me false hope.

The problem is intermittent until the display is warmed up. So with my bad luck about 90mins after the engineer left having replaced one of the main boards The problem reappeared (see below). 

So I called the warranty line (again) and waited a full 20 minutes before my call was handled. When it was I hit a brick wall with Ryan the representative who was helping me. (Case 477-375N).

He said they could not guarantee the display would work with 3rd party hardware (my sky+ box in this case). So I asked for confirmation in writing and received the following.

With regards to your warranty position on adding hardware to your computer. You are able to add hardware yourself, however if by doing so you damage any of the internal components of the machine during the fitting or as a result of the additional hardware your warranty may become void. Also note, that Acer would not support any additional hardware added by yourself, nor would we support any software conflicts arising in this configuration.

So basically I am left with a Acer display product I cannot use with the most popular digital satellite provider (SKY).

An analogy would be if Acer sold cars it appears they are saying they could not guarantee to run on petrol.

I feel very let down by Acer’s lack of ownership of this issue.

I contacted the UK head office of Acer and spoke to a gentleman called Tarlock who took my details.

When I asked Tarlock if someone would contact me he said “hopefully”.

I have a Acer AT3201W LCD Television.

It has recently developed a problem. The screen visibly distorts (like in the above picture).

I have tried both the Scart and S-Video connections and both have the same issues.

I have also tried another Sky box and it does the same.

You can fix it by switching the display off and then on again, however the problem comes back again shortly afterwards.

So lets see if Acer’s 2 Year product warranty is worth it. They eventually agreed to send an engineer.