[Acer Iconia A500] zetheroo:
Ok, I am trying to keep you and others up-to-date on my dealings with Acer regarding my tablet ... This was the update I wrote out yesterday on another forum...

QUOTE:

I have been on the phone with Acer 7 times since around 12:30pm today and am currently on the phone with them ... again ... Each time the line either dies (are they hanging up on people!?) or I am promised a callback which never comes...!?

Supposedly there is a motley crew of a handful of reps stationed in the Philippians who have a single manager, Anna, who has gone for lunch and is still not back (It's past 3:30pm !!!!) and I was told she would be back by 3:00pm to call me back! WTH!?

So yesterday an onsite was booked for 3pm but never showed, never called, never emailed ... etc ... and 3 reps confirm this is the case (Denise, John and another fellow) ... but Louie, well he seems to be on another space voyage altogether because according to him (and this is what he told me yesterday afternoon as well) there was NO onsite booking made yesterday, instead a manager noted on the case that there was no onsite tech available for the day ... and that today at around 11:30am the onsite visit had just been approved and a technician assigned. Still no word from said technician ...

Acer support ... what a sick joke!

I ended up bringing my tablet straight into Acer HQ in Homebush! Daniel took it from me personally and I left.

Daniel called me about 20 min later and told me that he is putting my tablet forward as "DOA" and that I can go into HN and get my refund ... hang on ... what was that!? I never asked for a refund ... up until now all we had talked about was a replacement, no mention of a refund was ever made by any party involved. He then told me that he was not sure a replacement was possible ... but said that I when he spoke with me before of a replacement that what he meant was a replacement through me being refunded and then buying another one if I so wished ...

I explained to him that that was not at all fair as I bought the tablet during a sale for $386 and that now they are selling for more ... so I cannot replace it with the refund!

He then told me that the manager of the Repair center could not fault the tablet but had told Daniel that he could go ahead and "DOA" it if he wanted to ... I asked what tests the repair center performed and finally came to understand that they never performed a Skype test call!!! – Reason given? ... the manager told Daniel that they cannot do outgoing calls over the 3G sim they use to access the Internet --- I told Daniel that I thought someone needed to investigate this "manager" a bit further as I smelled some pretty heavy-duty BS!

So typically these repair center people do the absolute minimum and completely negate the actual issue. Then they report to their superiors that there is no fault. What an utter mess!

So Daniel will follow it up tomorrow with the repair team and will get back to me once the issue has been successfully displayed. I told him he should have let me show him the issue right then and there when i brought it to him... I really wish I had insisted on that now!

END OF QUOTE

And today ...

I got a call in the morning from Daniel stating that the repair team got back to him after having successfully witnessed the issue, BUT they deny it has anything to do with the hardware or with any Acer-released software, instead they are blaming "the third-party application - Skype"!!! WHAT!?!?!?

I asked Daniel a slew of pertinent questions which point to Skype not being the issue ... and all Daniel could reply is "I don't know" - as he is not tech-savvy by his own admission. I asked if I could then speak to their repair manager or someone in the repair team, to which he replied "sorry but we don't have the facilities for that" ... of course you don't - HA! (It's NOT funny really)

So he said that regardless of the report from the repair team he was going to arrange the replacement of my unit at Harvey Norman. I told him that I would formulate my questions regarding the diagnosis from the repair team into an email (pasted below) and send it to him to forward to the team manager who should then get in touch with me to clarify their position. He said he would pass it on and ask that someone from the repair team call me back. We'll see ...

Well I called Harvey Norman at around 4pm and they had received an email from Daniel regarding the replacement ... however he did not mention that Acer have my tablet ... so the chap at HN was expecting I bring my tablet in to get the replacement. I also found out then that that HN branch is out of stock and has been for some time ... all the while waiting on an ETA from Acer for their order of 7 of these tablets ... go figure ...

So I call up Acer to get them to notify HN that Acer are in possession of the tablet ... ok savvy ...

What a blazing nightmare ... I am seriously thinking of going in tomorrow to HN and just opting for a full refund ... I have not dealt with Acer for over 10 years ... and there is a damn good reason why!

EMAIL TO DANIEL REGARDING REPAIR TEAM's DIAGNOSIS OF THE ISSUE BEING SKYPE:

Hi Daniel,

As per our last call I'll write out my queries here for you to forward to the repair team who handled my tablet.

The issue: When making Skype calls (including a Skype Test Call) the receiving end (or playback of the STC) emits loud, repetitive and continuous, sound artifacts.

According to the repair team the issue is caused by the Skype software, not the Acer-released software and neither is it a fault with the Hardware.

Now if we were to take this diagnosis and look out to the A500 users community the following is what we should see ...

If Skype software is at fault ALL users using this version of Skype would be affected on the Iconia A500.

If Skype software is at fault why is it that Gtalk does the same thing?

Instead what we witness is ...

- Some users experiencing NO issues with making Skype and Gtalk calls

- Some users experiencing other minor issues with making Skype and Gtalk calls (ie. muffled or distorted voice transmission)

- Some users experiencing this major issue while making Skype and Gtalk calls.

Why is it that when changing the physical route that the sound output takes, by plugging in a pair of headphones into the audio jack, that the sound artifacts cease?

Why is it that this issue is non-existant while using the same version of Skype on other Android tablets running Android Honeycomb 3.0+ such as the Medion LifeTab, Samsung Tab, and Motorola ZOOM? - All three of which I have had the opportunity to test.

The notion that Skype is at fault in this case needs some more evidence to back it up!

Another question ... why is it that on the second visit to the repair center my tablet received a new Mic? If there was no hardware problem suspected why replace a piece of hardware!?

According to the repair team they deduced that the issue was with Skype because they recorded sound with another application and it played back without the sound artifacts. Tell me, what other application was it that was used to record sound? Was it the Recorder application? If so is it the repair team's position that both Skype and Recorder use the same sound features? Is it the repair teams position that the Recorder application utilizes the noise cancellation feature, or perhaps that Skype does not use this feature?

It may be in the interest of the repair team to know that both Skype and Gtalk are applications which are made for what is commonly referred to as "conference calling" which makes use of noise cancellation.

If other tablets and phones running Android Honeycomb 3.0+ do not experience this issue (of sound artifacts) with this version of Skype, how can anyone assume that Skype is the cause of the problem?

I put it to the repair team to have the decency to address the above with me personally via Email or Phone, since their diagnosis is the very thing which has been the direct cause of months of grief on my part, and possibly many others are being dished out this exact same material!

Kind Regards

END OF EMAIL