Pohjoista valoa etsimässä

I found Rasmus Bear from the forest few weeks ago! After serious examination and consulting with Karwin, Müller and Räppänä, I’m pretty sure this is a young Rasmus Bear:

This is what can happen to us when dealing with global companies. Read my reclamation. Sorry, in finnish only!

Mood: Fed up

Keep your eye on this thread, I’m updating this in the future!

Update 22nd October:
I’m doing some more testing with the Acer to locate the error. External display should help to determine if it is the screen which is broken or the graphics adapter.
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13:34 Boot with external display, Open Acer Presentation manager, clone the laptop screen into the external
13:38 Insert Kingston Data Traveler 2 512MB USB-memory
13:39 Install AVG-AntiVirus
13:41 Shutdown ok
——–
13:42 Boot with external display
13:46 Shutdown ok
——–
15:47 Boot with external display, Open Acer Presentation manager *TILT*

15:51 Forced shutdown by pressing the power button 4-5s.
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15:52 Boot with external display, Log on normally *TILT*

15:53 Forced shutdown by pressing the power button 4-5s.
——–
15:54 Boot with external display
15:55 Minor adjustments with Presentation manager
15:56 Shutdown ok
——–
15:56 Boot
15:59 Uninstal AVG
16:01 AC-adapter in
16:02 USB-stick in
16:03 AVG re-installation
16:04 USB off with safe removal tool
16:05 Shutdown ok
——–
Seven more boots and shutdowns went normally. Cannot reproduce the error with external display, but surely I have enough evidence to sue Acer if needed!
——–
18:24 Boot with AC on doesn’t succeed first. I remove the adapter and put it back on, boot begins with an error message:

-The BIOS has once again restored to the factory state! I do press F1 and machine boots normally.
18:29 Shutdown ok
——–
We have owned this laptop for about two weeks and been able to use it for zero days. Sometimes things can be a bit hard. Next step happens tomorrow, when I’m going to call to the Acer Helpdesk. Hope I can find a person who has enough skills to handle this accurately. I do want a new, working laptop and little compensation for their ridiculous “service”.

I still have to admit, that these intermitted errors are the pain in the butt for technicians to find them out. In this case, it is a matter of evidence I can offer: Several pictures, very detailed problem description and last but surely not least: the growd of witnesses! My wife, three neighbours, third party technician and Elisa salesman are more than willing to testify the error actually happening! Acer can save its face by providing me a fast and good solution next week. Their Helpdesk has been very co-operative, no bad words about them.
——–

Update 23rd October:

Made a call to Acer Helpdesk and luckily got the same agent on the line as in the first time. I described the problem and we agreed to launch a high priority service. I also got instructions how to make the reclamation (which I already did). Tomorrow, the DHL will pick up the laptop.

Mood: Hopeful, bit relaxed

Update 26th October:

DHL picked up the laptop on 24th. Head of the Pori’s consumer supervisors sent me an email on 25th and has named a person to take care of this case if needed. Today the package arrived to Acer Finland’s service and is hopefully being changed VERY soon. I have to admit that I’m a bit sceptic regarding this case :-/ Today I also called to Acer customer service to find out the status of my reclamation. After the call and two email requests, I finally got an email where they said they were sorry and asked me to send the “thing” in for a quick service… I politely replied and mentioned the launched service and asked after some sort of a compensation AND a new, working laptop. If they send the same machine back unrepaired, I’ll gladly hand this over to the lawyers! Next time I’ll save and buy a Mac.

Update 30th October:

My laptop’s service status altered in a quick pace today:

8:28

10:21

And finally 11:33

And guess what…I called Acer Helpdesk. My favourite agent was on the line again and he magically found the service ticket where they stated that the mainboard and both memories have been changed! God be praised! Hope that he read the correct ticket :-P and this nightmare is finally over.

Update 31st October:

Guess who’s laptop is sent to Vaasa… DHL did it again :-D This cannot be true and still it is! *grin*

Update 1st November:

DHL brought the prodigal laptop back today and in the service ticket it says: Motherboard and both memories changed. Tested, everything ok. So, they finally found something to fix! Very good.
I arrived home and decided to make a full system recovery to the unit to get a clean machine. Guess what ;-) One pic says more than…

Btw, that’s me in the reflection :-P I’m quite happy despite of this unfortunate event. I called to local Micro Magic -firm and they witnessed the fault after I took the laptop there. This will cost me about 30 to 60 €, but I’ll demand it back from the Acer later. I chose this way for the cause of the credibility. God help me.

Update 3rd November:

Hello my faithful readers!

Yesterday I got my laptop back from the Micro Magic and the dudes there had reproduced the fault with every single boot! I do have this on black&white :-) Then I have been emailing back and forth with local consumer supervisor and she said that I should demand a cancel for this bargain or a faultless laptop.

And now, pay attention, comes the triggy part: Elisa Oyj has sold this laptop and clearly stated that all and only warranty is provided by Acer. How in earth can I cancel the bargain with Acer ’cause Elisa has taken my money? For me this sounds like a conspiracy :-D One company takes the money and the other gives the warranty and there’s no way to get your money back. But, thanks for the consumer supervisor who very kindly helped me and provided correct information, Elisa is still the one who has the final responsibility in this case.

I decided to give Elisa a try with this and called to local Elisa Shopit -store. The owner and I agreed that I take the laptop to the store and explain the things to the clerks etc. So mote it be: Did it and left Acer there. No update for this today, perhaps next week I’ll get some info from Elisa.

Acer Finland got my second reclamation two days ago and they answered to it yesterday. They said they were sorry for this unfortunate event and asked me to send it in for third repair. This time they will make a unit exchange for me. I mailed back and asked if it is going to be new, refurbished or repaired item. They said it’ll be new, but the UE will be done in one condition: They must reproduce the fault in their lab. *At this point I almost yelled.* I replied and asked politely how are they going to reproduce the fault this time, when it doesn’t succeed with the first two repairs… I stated that I have ten witnesses, dozen pictures and a repair ticket from Micro Magic, so they don’t have a real need for this crap. Argh!

The story goes like this from now on:

1. I’ll have my chances with Elisa first. If they take care of this, the sad story ends. If they do nothing, I’ll demand it in paper.
2. Then I’ll send the machine to Acer for third service. If they can reproduce the fault, I’ll get a new laptop and I’m probably happy with it. If they can’t, they will ship it back to me and say there’s nothing wrong with it.
3. At this point the consumer supervisor tries to negotiate. If no success, then:
4. I’ll take this in front of the consumer reclamation board with a little help from consumer supervisor. In this state I need the third party repair ticket and pictures and witnesses. Then the CRB will give a suggestion for a solution and Acer or Elisa can wipe their rectum with it or pay for me. If they choose the wiping:
5. I’ll take this to the courtroom.

I really do hope this nightmare ends at the first point :-/

Thou shalt not buy Acer.

Update 8th November:

Happily ever after with HP?

Until now, even the slightest possibility of having a relationship with an HP laptop has been sole utopia for me. But guess how this is gonna end up… I made this proposal to Elisa Oyj: “Take back this faulty Acer and give me an HP laptop instead, because you have them on your list. I’ll be happy having a better (and more expensive) laptop and I’ll drop all other demands against you.” This was agreed and I’m gonna get a new, home delivered HP machine by the end of this week. I can’t believe it is me saying this, but I’m happy with this solution :-D
Elisa took the points here and Acer lost them. I think I’m not going to buy another Acer.

I, hereby want to thank Elisa Oyj for the good service I finally got.

Case closed, God be praised.

The Whooper Swan almost extincted from Finland in the beginning of the 19th century. Strong protection and new information with never seen pictures quickly changed our attitude and this magnificent creature is now common and also enjoys the status of our national bird. Picture shot at park in very nice evening light.

Passer domesticus, i.e. the House Sparrow, is still very common bird in the neighbourhood, despite of the fact that its little cousin P. montanus, Tree Sparrow, has spread forcefully in the past decade. I have to say that these birds are very, very cute!

In this picture you can witness the coming of the autumn. Last Sunday was very beautiful day indeed! I love sunny autumn days :-)

The last picture is probably the best of the day’s loot, but you have a right to disagree with me, as always. Bokeh seems to be excellent with this lens!

Today the sun shined and it was almost calm, which is very rare for Pori. Temperature was around 10°C. I went to Kirjurinluoto to make some test shots with my recently traded lens. Because the weather hasn’t been so nice for about three weeks, it was about time to get some action!