degoba,
Sorry to hear you've had bad luck with newegg. I've used them a couple of times in the past with good results, but unfortunately, there are those occasions when policy and satisfaction collide. If you paid for the order with a credit card, call your credit card company, and file a chargeback with them. The chances are very good that they will return your money. Yes, newegg's policy states the no refund approach, but ultimately, it's up to the credit card company (if used) to decide if you as a consumer deserve the reimbursement. If you really want the money back, and you used a credit card, I'd pursue that avenue first. If you didn't use a credit card, then you're unfortunately at their mercy. If nothing else, just remember to spend your future consumer dollars elsewhere.
Since I happen to know where newegg actually gets their laptops from, I can shed a little light on the turn around time. Newegg is a 'drop ship' retailer, meaning they don't actually stock any product. They setup accounts with various distributors, or even manufacturers themselves, to have the product drop-shipped to you upon order. This is the main reason online stores can beat the crap out of a brick-and-mortar business; they don't have to have anything on hand. No investment in stock.
Anyway, I used to buy Acer laptops from the same distributor that Newegg uses, and that distributor gets them from Acer. So, you're dealing with 2 middlemen in this whole situation. So, you send your laptop back...it goes to Newegg for inspection...then if they find it defective, they send it back to the distributor...who also then inspects it, and if they find it defective, it goes back to Acer for a possible third inspection, and replacement. That's why it takes so long. Yes, you get the superior price of the online vendors, but you take the beating in service turn-around times due to this business model.
When using a local vendor, yes, you're again dealing with another middleman, but with an important difference; they usually stock the item on-hand, and will usually have technical support staff in place to quickly evaluate your problem, and give you a replacement right away if there's a defect found. You probably know all of this, but I thought I would just illustrate the differences for those that didn't.
Now, as an aside, if you had directly contacted Acer technical support, you may have actually gotten faster service regading repairs. I know for a fact that Acer does a lot of 'hot swap' replacements on defective units. This means that they will advance-ship you a replacment unit, if phone-based troubleshooting determines that there is a defect with the product. When you get the replacement unit from them, you simply ship back your defective one in the box the replacement arrived in. I've done this many times myself with them, but I don't know what their current policy is with newegg purchases.
Anyway, it sucks when this happens, and I hope you get this sorted out to your satisfaction soon! Hopefully all my blathering may have given you some assistance.
