Don't Buy Anything ACER

To some, this might be obvious, since ACER is generally a lower-end computer manufacturer, whereas if you want something reliable from a company with good customer service, you'll probably buy from Dell or another, more reputable manufacturer. But if you don't have the extra money, ACERs are cheap and even they will have to honor the 1-year warranty.

That's sort of true. With two big caveats:
1) Expect it to break early.
2) Expect ACER to pretend it's your fault and refuse to pay anything they can get away with.

I base this on a sample size of one event, but talking to them on the phone for my non-tech-savvy cousin basically has me thoroughly pissed off and fervently hoping they go bankrupt tomorrow.

Why? Well, she bought a computer from them less than two months ago. Yesterday it started displaying arcane error messages on startup, and auto-shutting down a few minutes later. Calls to tech support only made things infinitely worse: now it won't start up at all. ACER says they'll fix it, but refuses to even attempt to pull the files off the hard drive without a $100 fee.

Now, clearly it is good practice to back up your computer periodically, but come on...no one backs up their personal computer on say, a weekly basis. My cousin had recently dumped the entire contents of her camera onto her computer to make room for more pictures, and had not yet backed it up to a CD. The computer is less than two months old -- it's covered by a 90-day software warranty and 1-year parts warranty -- no reason to expect imminent and total system failure.

ACER's warranty, like most warranties, specifically excludes loss of data from coverage, so legally they are in the clear. Their 90-day software warranty, I was told by phone "only applies to up and running software," to which I asked "What good is a software warranty that only applies when the software works?" The reply, and I'm not making this up, was "Basically, it has to work when you turn the computer on the first time, beyond that the software is not covered." I doubt this is actually the policy, but it is the policy as ACER's support staff understand it.

So in conclusion, ACER is at the top of my shit-list for terrible customer service and warranty policy. Avoid them like the plague. If you have the plague, drive to ACER headquarters and cough on someone, preferably someone in Quality Control or Warranty Services, or anyone in a really nice suit. And don't buy their stuff, ever.