My Acer Aspire 3100 bought on 9/26/2007 with an extended warranty, for an additional year, died. As I was writing a letter on my laptop on or about 4/37/09 the power cord fell out. I tried inserting the power cord back when I smelled something "transistor burning" and the screen went black. I contacted Acer America support and I was instructed to fax the proof of purchase and extended warranty. I faxed all info then I was emailed a response that the warranty for my laptop had expired! It did not matter that the extended warranty would not expire until 9/26/09. I was told via phone call that the warranty was not Acer's therefore it would not be honored. I would have to purchase a warranty from Acer for $199. This is totally unacceptable since I was not told when I purchased the computer and 1 year extended warranty that it was with a third party! What a total SCAM!

Today, I decided that trying to get this desktop fixed by Acer is a lost cause. I've had a problem with this computer since purchasing it a year ago from Best Buy.

This is my history with this product and I hope it is helpful to others. This computer was purchased on 6/29/07.

1) Within two months after purchase, the computer would power down and turn off and restart on its own. Then one day it powered down and would not come back on so I took it back to Best Buy on 8/24/07 for repair. After 15 days of purchase the computer cannot be exchanged at Best Buy so they sent it out to be fixed. The Motherboard and Power Supply were replaced.

2) After this last repair the computer began to freeze up, sounded very noisy and error messages began to appear. The computer was taken back to Best Buy on 9/15/07. Best Buy disassembled the unit and inspected it and "reloaded, restored, repaired" the software for the unit.

3) The computer then began to freeze up not too long after it came back. Sometimes it would freeze up immediately when turned on after getting to the welcome screen and other times I would be working on the computer and it would freeze up. On 11/2/07 I took the computer back to Best Buy. The hard drive was replaced.

4) A few weeks later the computer began to freeze up again and I lost internet connection. I decided to deal directly with Acer and contacted them by phone to relay this lengthy history. I sent the computer out via FedEx on my own dime because they wouldn't pay for it. They received the unit on 11/28/07. The computer came back two days later and the defective modem was replaced. Wasn't long after that I realized that the computer had the same problems. The holidays, life, work and everything else happened. I secured a laptop from work to use and pretty much gave up on it.

5) At the start of June 2008 I thought I would give it one last try before the warranty from Acer expired. The computer went out to Acer and came back on 7/3/08. The computer was turned on and immediately froze up. I contacted Acer immediately and they said that Best Buy needed to repair the hard drive and the problem was not with them. The customer service agent also said some pretty ridiculous and contradictory things.

In summary, Best Buy has less than mediocre customer service but I expected much more out of Acer. Besides the obvious of having a broken computer, there is a very long wait time to get through to customer service via telephone...in some cases 20-30 minutes. I requested to speak to a manager and the last representative I spoke to said that there are no managers available and just customer service reps available. A lot of personal time has been wasted trying to get a product working that was never really used. Imagine having to take my computer to Best Buy each time, wait in line and describe the problem over and over again. Imagine having to tell the same story to Acer, over and over again, after being on hold for a long time. Imagine the frustration of just giving up after repeatedly expecting that the unit would be repaired. I've decided to copy this complaint to any and every consumer blog that I can find. If Best Buy or Acer would like to resolve this problem they know how to find me just use your technology. Resolve at this point means a brand new computer which is nothing compared to my frustration. After I finish blogging ll send a letter to both companies with all of the sites in which Ive posted my complaints.