Acer Aspire 3003WLMi Review

[LaptopFan21]

My story goes as follows:
I purchased an Acer Aspire 3003WLMi (Serial Number: LXA550 56255380 D3A1EMO1) in mid-December of 2005 while I was traveling in Canada. It seemed like a good purchase, and at the time the salesperson assured me that it was both reliable and durable. Furthermore I was thrilled to receive with my purchase a 1-year travellers warranty just in case.

Initially the laptop performed quite well. It seemed to be reliable, and while I had to rebuild the O/S once at about the 6 month mark actual hardware performance was good. Basic applications ran fine. Wireless functioned well. Battery performance detiorated very quickly.

On Saturday (10 February, 2007), a little over a month after my warranty period my laptop computer stopped working. The power light was on but my computer refused to show even the opening Acer screen. I removed power, gave it 2 hours to cool and then tried to boot again. It got as far as the WindowsXP diagnosis screen before rebooting itself and giving me a blank screen. Since then it has refused to even get that far. I've since independently tested the hard drive (which is completely fine and stable) and spoken to a number of computer engineers, including one of your technical staff. They have advised me as follows:
1. I'm suffering from a System Boot Failure. In layman's terms thismeans that my motherboard is competely rubbish.
2. It will cost me £41 to get the machine looked at
3. It will then cost me a further £350-700 to get the motherboard fixed / replaced.
In addition, an Acer technical engineer advised me over the phone that I'd probably be better of just buying another laptop.

= PERSPECTIVE
But wait, let's put this all into perspective -
1. I purchased this laptop just over a year ago. Last time I checked a reasonable laptop life was 2-years minimum.
2. I have used this laptop computer regularly, but have taken good care of it.
3. A little over a month outside the warranty period the laptop breaks down with a problem that will cost what I paid for the computer in the first place. Not happy Jan.

Acer staff informed me that since it is outside of the warranty period it is completely my problem. Furthermore, even if it was still in warranty they would not help me because I purchased the computer in Canada and I could not prove I was going to be in the UK for less than 3-months (I am not a resident here). Finally, the Acer engineer tells me that I'm better off to just purchase a new laptop. THIS IS COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS!

In essence I've been told that the computer I purchased has a 1-year lifetime. 2-years I could maybe understand. But having my computer break down as soon as the warranty period has expired and then having Acer shrug their broad shoulders and tell me to just go an buy another laptop is a ridiculous.

= WHEN I PURCHASE
Purchasing a laptop computer isn't a trivial experience for most people. It is an expensive outlay that they will be using for business as well as entertainment. As such, most people opt for a brand they feel they can trust - names like IBM, Apple, Toshiba and... once upon a time Acer. Products speak for themselves though, and in this case it has disappointed. When that occurs then the business has a number of options - they can either act or reap the rewards of their sloppy quality control. Selling sub-standard products is like theft.

I am not a satisfied Acer customer. I am not going to just let you hit me for $1000 and treat it like some kind of bad joke. So far Acer haven't had anything to say for themselves.

Overall:
3/10 - I've suffered from Dell customer service before, but I've never had a computer commit harakiri straight after it's warranty period. Quality control issues.