Disappointing, Very Disappointing (Acer AL1721ms)

Member Name: ABZ2002

Product:	Acer AL1721ms
Date:	04/11/04 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Design, Bright, Fairly sharp

Disadvantages: Unreliable, Unacceptable support, No monitor for months!

I purchased one of these back in March this year (2004), under light daily use, the internal power board failed in Sept. A friend of mine owns 5 of these for use in his company and he has complained of similar failure one by one. I would guess that there has either been a faulty batch or the model itself is naff! The monitor itself when working was pretty good, bright picture and crystal clear at the highest resolutions. It tended to show signs of blurring at lo res though. Design is very nice and probably swayed my initial decision to purchase it. Anyway, the fault crept in gradually, it started with the odd flicker once a day to total failure in the space of about 2 weeks. Fair enough, equipment can break down. Sent it off to Acer under the 3 yr warranty which is when my nightmare began. I sent it back on 2/9/04 and have made about 7 phone calls to track its progress. Each time I have to wait around 20 mins before I Get someone on the line. The first 5 calls response was "were waiting on a new power board sir but I can't tell from my screen when this will arrive!" eh, but, wot, err can I speak to someone who knows??!! "Sorry Sir but thats all the information I am able to give you and there is no one I can transfer you to"! 6th phonecall about 2 weeks ago - "you are on our list for one of those to receive a replacement but we dont know when this is likely to be"! 7th phone call - "were too busy at present please try again later!". At this stage I was not impressed so an 'annoyed customer' email was sent to Acer support yesterday with threat of report to Watchdog. Yet to hear back from them. Acer? Never again! I'll stick to Sony or something of the sort even if it means an extra tenner (this monitor was not cheap at £289.99+VAT! at the time!).

Summary: