After reading Dr M Nadarajah's experience with a rotten Apple , I would like to share mine. I had bought a notebook from the Acer HighPoint centre in Kuching in the early 2002. It ran smoothly for the first few weeks.

Then soon after, it started to give me a problem. The LCD screen on the notebook would go blank whenever I used it. Since it came with a one-year warranty, I had to send it back to Acer HighPoint for repair.

Every time I took it back, their technicians told me that the problem was caused by my corrupted Window XP file or that I had installed corrupted files. Being an IT specialist myself for the past 16 years, it was easy for me to locate my notebook's problem but my advice fell on deaf ears.

So, I remained as their very patient customer who was willing to swallow their same old excuses about my software. In fact, I had a feeling that they were trying to buy time until I signed up for their extended warranty package.

Anyway, their marketing strategy didn't work on me. At the end of my standard warranty period, it only took me half an hour to dissect my notebook and discover that the connected LCD power cable was being squashed by the attached handles.

Once loosened up, the LCD display remained stable. In fact, I am still using the notebook now without any problem.