After almost a year of dicking me around

I found an Acer email contact, and I laid out the whole almost one year sordid saga of Non-Tech support. The wrong machine shipped, then excuses made about it for 8 weeks. Finally the right one purchased in January 2010. Then the constant Grey Screen of Death, and the trading of support tickets, their (lack of) responses, my borderline begging them for help, then their grudgingly giving help. Then finding out that the problem wasn't with me, but with the machine itself, and then again empty air when informing them it was ready for pick up.

Now, I know I am not the only customer they have. Nor am I the center of their or even my universe. But if one customer is having the same problem with a machine for almost 10 months, someone there should have pulled their thumb out of their collective orifices long ago to resolve this, and not hold back that it's a known issue, in hopes I would just go away.

So, I sent the email to J at Acer. She replied, and said she is no longer with Sales but marked it priority and sent it to the appropriate department. Imagine my eye roll when I read this, as I had heard it all before.

I get a phone call. I almost fainted. A customer service rep, W, called. After introductions, I reiterated the whole story and told him that it's to the point that the next time I need a high end machine, I would go to HP, or Sony. He couldn't apologise enough. He agreed the entire situation was mishandled by Acer Tech support, and they were logging all of the rigmarole as a "Wrong method of customer service". For my aggravation, my warranty will be extended another 12 months, the work order will be marked URGENT to be fast tracked, and maybe might have faulty unit replaced with the i7 quad core.

So, if you do squawk loud enough, often enough, and long enough, and if you're in the right, sometimes corporations listen and do right by you.