Service and Support - Product Reviews

WheelieUK - (March 11, 2007) Hi have an Acer Aspire 1710SMi. The Motherboard went on me and there were some other difficulties with the system. Contacted Acer, who arranged for collection. Got email when it was on site, then got web site notification that it was under repair. 3 weeks later I rang to see why the delay and was told someone would call me back. This happened 3 times before I got a call back. Then I was told the system would be back with me by the end of the week. This came and went. Laptop still with Acer after 28 days. Deplorable service so far.

rick_oen - (June 22, 2006) Bought my laptop (£1100) in July 2004 and the Advantage Warranty (£100) in July 2004. It was great until about 2 months ago when I started experiencing problems. Acer replaced the HDD and CPU (also they recovered all the data of my old HDD and put it on the new one!) This process took 5 days (inc. delivery). Unfortunately they replaced the CPU with the incorrect one (1MB level 2 cache, instead of 2MB level 2 cache) an easy mistake to make. This was corrected within 3 days. Laptop was fine for 2 weeks then started to fail again, back to Acer.... Turns out the motherboard had some problems... but seen as though it was 2 years old, they don't make that mobo anymore. So a replace

tizla - (April 28, 2006) Overly complicated. Having accepted money Acer have entered into binding contract (The FSA are clear on this). They will attempt to hide behind statements of improper registration. STAY CLEAR of this product.

SRB5814 - (11/07/2009) I was very pleased with this transaction! Huge savings on AppleCare. Registration code sent VERY quickly. NO problems registering this with Apple. Seller is also sending me the hard copy through USPS - free shipping.

macsrwe - (09/19/2009) If you don't work for an Apple Authorized Service Provider, this is the only way you can become an Apple Certified Macintosh (repair) Technician. The major feature of the product is that it contains a registration number giving you access to the online training site at Apple, which you need to study for your certification and recertification exams. You have to renew your certification every year, and your registration number expires after a year -- which means you have to spend about $230 for this package EVERY YEAR, plus another $100 every year to take two exams. You have to decide for yourself whether the "shiny badge" you get adds enough to your bottom line to be worth that investment. You get a set of Apple diagnostic discs with the kit, but new hardware comes out so often that they are practically obsolete the day you get them. (All Macs come with their own diagnostic discs anyway, so these are all you need, as long as the owner hasn't misplaced them.) The major value of this product is a year's access to the online repair manuals for every model of Mac (plus many iPods, iPhones, etc.), including the ones most recently released. This, more than the certification per se, is supremely valuable to the Macintosh repair person who wants to avoid damaging customer hardware. Be warned: your certification as an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician does NOT make you an Apple Authorized Service Provider. That means you cannot order parts from Apple, call Apple for assistance with a problem, or perform warranty work (technically, you CAN perform warranty work, it's just that you won't have any way to get paid for it). Small/independent technicians may simply not be able to fulfill the requirements to make the jump to AASP, so investigate those before making ambitious plans. Also, be aware that Apple changes its courses and exams every October 15, and the information you will need to pass an exam after October 15 won't be available at the training site before October 15, so you may want to time your product purchase accordingly.

brawleyella - (01/02/2009) I am an Apple fan, but my experience with AppleCare support has been nothing but a time-consuming runaround. As I mentioned above, it is probably great if you have providers near by, and if you don't have a desktop system. But I am guessing we are all paying the same $ amount, I would think that a company like Apple would have equal access to service, or at least reasonable options. Probably not a good deal for people in rural areas or that buy desktop systems.