Acer RMA Packaging FAIL!

Here is a short story about my experience with Acer's RMA and Customer Service departments.


If you have had a similar experience please share it, I hope to expose the inadequacy of Acer's RMA department and the job they did in packing and sending me my working lcd screen.


There is no point in having the RMA department, or anyone sending an lcd screen to them, as there is no way any screen can ever survive the shipping process due to the failure in packing Acer's RMA department does.  What a joke. So here we go...


I purchased an Acer 24" monitor roughly a year ago.  The monitor worked fine for a year but then began having strange power issues.  The monitor would simply shut off.  Turning it off and on would remedy the problem for about 5 minutes, but the screen would shut itself off again.  I went to Acer's website and checked the warranty on the monitor...EUREKA!  The monitor was still under warranty!  Things are really looking up.


I sent the RMA department my monitor in a ton of bubble wrap and packing so that the monitor would be snug inside the box.  Any idiot knows you wouldn't ship a monitor floating around in a box right?


A few weeks later on the day I'm about to leave for vacation in Maine I receive my monitor back from Acer.  Immediately I sense something is going to be terribly wrong.  It was almost comical when I shook the box slightly, it sounded like there were parts just shoved in a box, free to move around inside and collide with one another.  I opened the box and the monitor appeared to be fine, until I powered it on.  


Sadly I was on the way out the door that Friday for a couple weeks of vacation.  I manage the IT department for company with roughly 150 computers and servers so upon my return I was pretty busy.  Finally I found the time to call Acer about voice my complaint. 


Calling Acer to complain which was incredibly difficult to do.  Their automated phone system is not user friendly and insisted on sending me back to their website when I kept trying to punch in numbers that would cause the system to let me speak to a real person. The phone system would promptly hang up on me after.  At this point I'm getting really frustrated.  Finally I was able to speak to someone in general customer support.  Acer denied me any type fix because I waited too long to contact them.  I escalated the call to level 2 customer support with the same result.  Bewildered I escalated the call to the next level of support only to be denied any kind of compensation.  Acer told me that since I had not called them soon enough I could not be reimbursed, and based on the nature of the problem the monitor could not be fixed.  I explained to them that I had received the monitor on the same day that I was leaving for a two week vacation, and that my upon returning to my job I was too busy waste hours trying to navigate their impossible phone system, and I had tried more than once and given up.  


I also explained to Acer that I would walk around the company and compile a list of serial numbers of other Acer monitors I had purchased for the company which I work.  I explained that I would never again purchase one of their monitors but they didn't seem to care.  From Acer's point of view I had somehow damaged the monitor and now was trying to weasle them for a repair or a new lcd screen.  


The fact remains, I turned the monitor on the day I received it back from Acer and the results are displayed below.  If Acer had simply returned the RMA is any suitable manner I would never had called them as the lcd screen would have been safe from harm.  


These were my experiences with Acer and their RMA department/customer service department.  I hope that none of you have to share in my pain, and I don't want the money back, it's just the principle of the matter.   


A company making billions of dollars a year should not be sending back RMA's to loyal customers in cheap manner.  They may as well have just slapped the shipping label right on the back side of the monitor and shipped it that way, I think the damage might have been less.

View 1:  A  400$, 24",  19 lb. monitor was returned  in this box with the base detached.  The monitor was floating around completely unsecured.  Can't the RMA dept return monitors in the same manner as a brand new monitor?
Does Acer really think that a 19 pound monitor with the base detached in the box will survive the trip of regular ground shipping, with no indication on the box that the contents are fragile?

View 2:  lack of packaging Acer RMA sent back with parts bouncing around inside the box.  The few pieces of bubble wrap as seen above are also just floating around.

NEVER FEAR IT WAS WRAPPED IN PLASTIC!

Acer must be kidding, this is fail.

There was nothing wrong with the lcd screen itself when Acer sent it back to me, as seen in the note they packed with the monitor it was in working condition.

Here is what it looked like when I turned it on.  I sent the monitor under warranty to have the power supply repaired, there was no damage to the screen until they shipped it back in the above manner.




I just did some research on Acer and found this information interesting:
 Acer Inc. reported earnings results for the second quarter ended June 2010. For the quarter, the company's profit surged 54% year-on-year to TWD 3.6 billion ($111 million) amid increased demand. Revenue for the quarter rose 26% to TWD 150.2 billion ($4.7 billion).
A company making that kind of money can't afford to return RMA's in a package that will protect the consumer's investment?  


The fact is, I mange a medium size company's IT department and I have purchased roughly 50 Acer monitors.  I have also recommened their laptops in the past.  


NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


If this is how Acer treats its loyal customers then I want no part of it.  I called Acer several times to try and remedy the situation.  The first several times I called I gave up in frustration as I could not actually speak to a person.  Acer's phone system has an automated service that lead me around in circles several times.  All I wanted to do was speak to someone about my issue, but I was unable to figure out a way for the machine on the other end to let me.  If I didn't respond to the phone system in a way it wanted, it referred me back to their website.....and around and around I went.....
1-800-816-2237

 The website was difficult to navigate and find a number to call and speak to somoene:
http://support.acer.com/Default.aspx

Here's a copy of the letter from Acer I received with my RMA'ed lcd screen.
THANKS A LOT ACER!!!!!!!

Above is a copy of my email from the FTC after I filed my complaint.  Hopefully if enough people complain they will be forced to remedy the situation, unless I'm the only person who's ever received an lcd screen RMA from Acer in this fashion.  If I am then they really should be buying me a new monitor.....












My hope in creating this blog is to shed some light on the shortcomings of a multi-billion dollar company, and the way in which they treat their loyal customers.  


I will never buy or recommend Acer to anyone again!