Canadutch
Right, so I decided that since I’m a working woman who has a pretty good chance of moving on to a permanent situation (according to my colleagues), I’ve decided to buy myself something shiney and new when I get paid. I can pay bills and all that crap later, I want satisfaction… in the material sense.
So I’ve been looking into new laptops. God love my little Sony Vaio, it’s cute, small, and has served me well over the past 1.5 years but dammit I want something bigger, with a massive screen for my movies and TV shows and all the multimedia doodads known to man.
I found one I like, but it’s very new… and it’s also by a brand I’m not familiar with, Acer. In Canada I’ve never heard of them, they are a European brand I think. Xander says they are every bit as good as the big names like Sony, Dell etc and I really want to believe it because the Acer Aspire 9920 has totally caught my eye.
Here’s the problem though. I’m as impatient as is humanly possible, and this laptop is very new. Which means there aren’t many reviews online for it and the only place I have to go for info is the Acer website. Xander told me to take down the models I like and that we could look them up when we get home. So I tried to go to Acer.nl and got an ERROR! Tried acer.co.uk… ERROR!! Acer.ca … ERROR!!! Omg, are you shitting me?!
I ended up finding their global site but it says for more information to look at your local Acer website. Hello, tried that…
I want a website with extreme closeups, 360 degree photos… I want to be able to see what options are available from the 9920 series… I want more than an error dammit.
So, I went to the source… I went to their ‘contact us’ page and found the address for their webmaster.
Hello Webmaster person,
I’ve recently been doing research into getting a new laptop. At the moment I own a Sony Vaio which I quite like but was interested in something bigger. Yesterday I saw the Acer Aspire 9920 in a local shop and thought it looked fantastic. Although, I wasn’t sure if it was any good since I’m not really familiar with the Acer brand… I’d always assumed it was the Wal-Mart of computers.
My husband assured me that it was a great brand and to go home and look up some info on the laptop on the Acer website. Which I would do … IF THE WEBSITE WAS EVEN WORKING!
ok, so the caps made me sound pretty irate. I’m not really, I’m just wondering how I can trust a company to make a laptop for me when they can’t even keep a website running.
Just something to think about. As I’ve pretty much tried to load the website for every English speaking country as well as acer.nl and get an error on every one… I’m sure I’m not the only one who is wondering just what species of monkey is running the joint.
Thanks for your time,
Tammy Soldaat
Ok, so maybe I could have been a little more friendly about it but hell, this is supposedly a big international company that specializes in computers and technology. It’s ridiculous that they leave their websites completely buggered for days.
If they aren’t going to fix it on their own, maybe I can shame them into it.
So, do you know about Acer? Have you ever owned one of their laptops? Heard anything about them? Should I take their pathetic excuse for a website as a representation of the quality of their product, or lack thereof?
In any case, hopefully this teaches them a lesson. The one about not keeping a woman with PMS and the urge to shop waiting, I mean.
A solar calculator is better as a Acer PC/NB
Acer sucks sucks sucks sucks
Hp sucks sucks sucks
Toshiba sucks sucks
BB sucks sucks sucks
Sony :-/ hmmm yes
Cannon great
Grezz Nate
I got an Acer laptop for my birthday and have had loads of problems over the year where other laptops would be fine! Half the time any website i load takes too long to load makin me stressed out! and than it cant handle most videos or games and just goes like a frame every 4 seconds! i really hate it! The only laptop that i have ever loved was an Asus! it went extremely well!
ACER computers are a CRAP. they freeze up are under powered for the buck and absolute sh-t. Bought mine at future shop in oshawa. warranty is good, like a GM car. Product is not a good deal. Get a top brand name ACER is SH_itter. Scott Garner
Please do not buy any Acer Laptop they are bloody awful. I bought Acer 5720 about a year ago and I have had endless problems. For the price I paid the specs were really good, but as others have said the build quality is very poor. The computer is very slow, powers off for no reason so I would be really pissed off if I had spent ages on a document. The casing is coming undone (and no I haven’t dropped it). The touch pad is way too sensitive and many times you end up retyping a lot. There are other problems. All i say is please look elsewhere I will never buy an acer product again they are really crap. Be warned, stay clear. I am expecting any time soon it will completely pack in, its just a matter of time.
I bought a Travelmate 5720 as my main work computer and it is TOTALLY SHIT.
It’s slow and unresponsive, and while it has not yet crashed on me, it oftern can’t even find the default printer for which it is quite correctly set up.
I HATE IT – if you’re thinking of getting anything Acer – DON’T.
I currently have an Acer 5000 Series, and yes it has a very large screen, however recently the fan has been cranking up super loud and then it just shuts off ALL THE TIME! The computer is about two years old, and I’m thinking it’s starting to want to explode sometime soon. At least that’s what it sounds like when it shuts off at least 6 times per day while I’m in the middle of completing important work. I am not sure about the current Acer models, but if I was you I would definitely get something more quality. Overall, this computer is just cheap and shitty. ; )
I can honestly say that acer laptops and pcs are priced cheap because they are built cheap. About a month or so my laptop ran fine and I was fairly happy but then I got numerous errors to do with graphics cards and drivers etc. Now, I’m looking for an answer as to why a recent windows update suddenly is not allowing my retarded acer piece of crap to start up. My advice, is go for a Toshiba or Sony etc. Japanese is what you should go for.
Please DO NOT invest in an ACER. We bought one for my sis. It stinks. harddrive broke, and broke again. always something wrong with it (paid a lotwarranty. They don’t want to honor warranty.
Trying to talk to a tech is sometimes like trying to get through to the president of USA.
I have had Sony & Dell both have performed fantastic for years.
I have bought Acer laptops on 2 sepatate occasions. In both cases I have had multiple problems including bad hard drives, which has lead to massive data loss. Most of these problems occurred within a relatively short time of purchase (6 – 9 months for both laptops). The malfunctions were annoying, but nowhere near as terrible as Acer customer services. They are quite possibly the most unprofessional bunch of idiots I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. I will never buy Acer again. They are cheap, but I guess the old adage holds true “you get what you pay for”. Anyone know of a good European laptop manufacturer? I would rather pay more and have a quality product.
We have two Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi at home and both are the biggest crap we have ever owned. Slow, don’t shutdown properly, you get black screens sometimes, things just don’t work.
Just today we have both experienced black screens, and one of those two machines is not even used very often.
I will never ever buy any Acer computer again.
Steer clear of Acer,, as on the bigger ones 20.1 screen, i currently have the aspire 9920 costing me a lovely £1799.00,, both the 89 and 99 models have numerous faults,, had 3 of them all had crazy faults with them,,,everytime i sent them back for repair the workmanship was disgraceful,,they couldnt even fit the motherboard cover back on properly,,everytime they come back to me with the exact same faults plus serious cosmetic damage big cracks on top and bottom of the laptop,, parts wernt even fitted back properly…After 4 monthes of this and acer denying there was a fault with them,, which by the way i have video prove of faults and poor workmanship,,, i ended up with a aspire 9920,, which still to this day still has faults,, but i dare not send it to them for repair for fear of them destroying this one.Also i emailed them about all the trouble i had and about poor workmanship,,to this day never got a reply and never expect one…beware of the newer models they are bringing out!!Will never buy again,, granted they may look good but looks can be decieving!!!
Damn Richard, sorry to hear about your bad luck with the Acer. I did end up getting one but have not had much problem with it so far. *Knocks wood*
Hello,
I guess I am a day late and a dollar short on reporting about Acer but for anybody reading this who is thinking about buying an Acer laptop my suggestion is DON’T!!!!! I have an Acer Aspire 5102 that I purchased in August of 2006. I just sent it back to their repair depot for the fourth time (three times in the last two weeks). If you search the net by using Google’s search under “Acer sucks” you’ll see lots people complaining lack of service. If you have to buy an Acer be sure you buy the extended warranty otherwise you will throw the piece of crap out the window.
Good luck!
Your right about their service.I have made at least 20 phone calls to Acer using 6 different numbers I had been given from the Source and Future Shop,and I still haven’t gotten anywhere. (Oh by the way they sold me on this 3 year warranty when I bought the monitor at the Source store in Quispamsis N.B) When I called Acer I typed in my Serial number and my SNID number but they just say they can’t find it then hang up. It tends to piss you off after awhile.Also I have been told that by the time you pay for shipping and handling and wait for a couple of months you might as well give up and go buy one from Costco. Far better service. Thanks
I sent you an email with some links.
Anything I have ever been told about Acer period has not been great. They’re kind of known as the Wal-Mart brand of PC/Laptops. I was told by 2 people never to get one (an ex and the comp guy at Micro-World). The main complaints was hardware dying way too soon and short warranties. I have never owned one though so can’t speak from experience, but wouldn’t have bought one based on a few people telling me to stay clear of them and stick to Dell or HP. All you can do is check it out thoroughly I guess. Ask about warranties and customer service if you have a problem. I always deal with Dell and have 0 complaints about them.
Acer has been around for at least 15 years. I had a friend that had one back in college, he loved it. I bought my wife an Acer notebook for Christmas this year and she loves it. It’s a bottom of the line model I picked up on sale at Walmart.
I have heard that the Acer laptops are fine, I know a lot of people who received/bought them for xmas. I have a PC so I can’t help you there but my monitor is an Acer and I find it to be pretty good.
Good Luck with your decision. Nice that you have the option to buy a new laptop. Way to go, and I would be doing the same thing. Need some fun spending money to remind you of some of the reasons you’re working.
i forgott to mention that one of them was an 9920g…but was faulty…
I have an Acer notebook. It’s bottom of the range, so it’s a little slow sometimes (I also think I screwed it by downloading dodgy software!). It’s in the shop getting fixed at the moment (which wasn’t the easiest thing to organise when their service desk is in another country!), the number 3 key broke right after I got it, and I noticed the pins on the plug for the charger have gotten all damaged. This is because when I plug it into a multi-board there are pops and cracks and even blue sparks sometimes! So I’m getting a new plug and keypad I hope, but the internal stuff seems to be all good after 1 year of solid use. I’ve been thinking about upgrading myself – to a Sony Vaio! Despite the problems above, I certainly wouldn’t discount Acer from any future purchases, they do seem to be reliable computers, and you can get something nice for fairly cheap if you can’t afford/don’t want top of the range. Also, the Acer brand software that comes standard is fairly unobtrusive, which I think is important after owning an HP ;)
Yeah my husband corrected me after he saw my blog. All I knew was that it wasn’t North American hehe I’m glad to hear that it’s a reliable brand though because I REALLY love the Aspire 9920, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get it.
Acer is not a European brand, its an Asian brand (Taiwan), very well known all over and is one of the top 3 computer manufacturers in the world after HP and Dell.
Tammy, I got an Acer for Xmas from my dh. I love it! Our dd has an HP laptop (which is what our desktop system is) and I find my Acer to be every bit as good. Email me and I’ll tell you more, if you’d like.
acer isn’t great as i had problems with 2 laptops i ordered 4 me and my friend..both2 came faulty and the return procedure took a while…and that company that sell laptops have a lot of acer’s repaired 4 selling..as i heard the first generation were great but the last ones sucks
Oh, the link would be nice, wouldn’t it?? ;-P
http://independent.net-genie.co.uk/Gadgets_Tech/8268/the_ten_best_laptops.html
I asked my girlfriend what she recommended because her Dutchie is a major computer geek type. And she said Dell and Acer.
And I saw this in the Independent newspaper a few weeks ago…top ten laptops…You’ll notice that an Acer is in there.
I was also told that you can get an English Windows option…I’m sick and tired of playing the helpless female on our Dutch compie at home and my son is going to be sharing it with me when he arrives from Canada, so this is an important consideration for me…
Honestly, I’ve never heard a bad thing about Acer. I know a lot of people with Acer’s too. I think Xander is just about right that they’re just as good as dell, or sony or whoever. The biggest thing I classify any product with is the support.
Support will tell you quite a bit about any company imho. I’ve never heard anything bad about Acer support, so who knows.
ABSOLUTE GARBAGE i’ll never buy another good for landfill nothing more! bloody thing does not even have light for caps! When typing switches on you driving me nuts I’d like to take it back to where I bought it and jump up and down on it in front of manager!