Well here's an update for those interested in Acer and their warranty system.
I received my repaired laptop yesterday, in full working order, so I can't really give a less than average review of them despite wanting to. I informed Acer of the broken screen on the 1/12/2009 over the phone. The person on the phone was very blunt and foreign and seemed very ****ed off during the whole phone call. I sent the parcel out with DHL, which Acer paid for.
I received some post from Acer billing me for a new screen and and extortionate postage charges a few days later. This worried me as I thought they must have investigated the laptop and found that I had tampered with it. Which in all fairness I had, I had completely dismantled the laptop including the screen casing so that I could get at the inverter to test it.
On calling the billing department as informed by Acer on the letter, I found that they just hadn't kept up with their paper work and not noticed my proof of purchase. A key piece of information is that should you need to contact Acer, do so through the billing department, they have most of the information that will be allowed to be given to you, are English, has a far shorter waiting time, and can forward you to the correct departments with a shorter waiting time also.
So the whole repair took more than a month most of which was waiting for spare parts, and the repair was successful, with no charges incurred, thus I'm relatively happy.