Don't buy Acer OR Gatway!!! You've been warned!!!

I bought the Gateway 7805u 3 months ago and already it's crashed.. And that's when things went from bad to worse..

Acer bought out Gateway and moved all customer support to India, which is complete BS.. And the customer support there, as you can imagine, is horrible... They won't listen to anything you say, they have a set of steps I think they probably use no matter what problem you're having... And by the way step 5 is reinstall windows, which is the stupidest thing i've ever heard... Especially when you're telling them you work on computers for a living and it's hardware related.. But they will only move you on to repair by following their list. And it will completely give you a migraine trying to figure out what they're saying...

i see why gateway's and acer's prices are so cheap now.. It's true you get what you pay for.. Mine's going on ebay as soon as it gets back...

 

How did it crash? What's the problem? If you want help, you'll have to tell us what's happening. Are you running Vista SP2, XP SP3, or Win 7? What BIOS version is installed? What error messages are you seeing (or not seeing?)

 

Customer Support's outsourced(BPO) to India. Thats pure business reason to make profits or to cut down on losses. Believe me its the same everywhere. Even Dell does the same(Customer Support in India). Poor customer support doesn't mean the product is bad.

 

There are brand that give as much problems as you paid for it...
There is no such thing as you pay what you get because you are essentially getting the same hardware.
However Acer Support do suck big time.

 

The customer support is terrible, but i can honestly say that the 7805u that i bought 6 months ago has work flawlessly and is the best budget laptop i have ever bought!

 

I'm moving this topic to the Gateway forum - even though Acer owns Gateway, they do have their own dedicated forum here on NBR.
Hopefully, they can give you a hand.

 

well, most people at some point are going to have to deal with customer support and to me that's a BIG selling point..

From here on out I will only buy HP, and if they outsource their CS to india, then I guess I'll buy whatever doesn't at that point..

Yeah for a budget Laptop it has awesome specs and I haven't had 1 complaint up until now.. But just pray that nothing happens that will make you have to call CS. Then you will look at this laptop in a whole new light. I would gladly pay a few $100 more dollars for HP's CS now....

 

This thread of urs is not gonna stop ppl from buying Gateway or Acer laptops. Like many have said in so many other threads we all know the quality of Gateway CS and thats exactly why these forums are for. Its a DIY kinda free Support which covers so many topics that most CS will never have come across. So why not use it to get your problem solved than start a thread to complain about things that people like us already know.

 

is this forum going to replace my System Board? because i'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen at the repair center?

I actually came on here for help when i wasn't sure it was a hardware issue. But after i saw that it was i knew i had to send it in for repair. But to send it in for repair they made me go through all these stupid steps that had nothing to do with the problem.

That's why i'm trying to let people know about the horrible CS. I would have NEVER bought a Gateway if i had known it was THIS bad...

 

HP might have better CS and Gateway bad.

But posts like this looks ridiculous.
Don't buy Acer OR Gatway!!! You've been warned!!!

Well tell the CS you've tried everything and you want to send it to get it fixed.

 

I sent it in for repair... I'm just trying to warn everyone else considering one of these.

This is the worst CS i've ever dealt with.. if i had known CS was THIS bad i would have spent $200 more dollars and gotten an HP with as good or better specs...
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...hhoslp/psg/notebooks/Over_16.9"/dv7tqe_series

 

I love it, another thread like this haha.

 

yeah, it's always funny until it's your turn... Then it's not so funny anymore

 

Buy an Asus next time if you don't want stupid cs problems.

 

where is their CS located? What's crazy is that after Gateway's warranty is expired THEN you deal with CS in TX...

 

Haha. They told me to reinstall windows when my key fell off my keyboard. Like it would jump back on after a reinstall. I assured them that a reinstall would not fix the problem, so they sent me a new keyboard.

 

That was funny.

 

before I actually dealt with them that would have surprised me, but not now... It's seriously ridiculous..

It's like they have a step by step that's the same for any and every problem you call them with..

And re-install windows is like step 3, which is beyond stupid..

 

Not India, but they are outsourcing to Costa Rica. Simultaneously they are screwing their stateside support staff. A friend of mine who's been with HP for 19 years has had his pay cut by 35% over the past three years, and that's after almost six years with no raises (not even COLA). They're also cutting benefits for stateside personnel. Roll over vacation is being restricted more and 20 year + employees are losing a week. Telecommuting has been reduced or eliminated.

Its the nature of the computer/IT business. I saw the writing on the wall in '03 and got out of the IT field. Its too easy to globalize, and that equals wage parity with 3rd worlders.

 

Head on over to the HP forum if you think buying an HP will fix the CS problem.

 

well, i work in IT and I support roughly 120 pc's/laptops all are HP, and everytime i've called HP CS i get an American or atleast VERY american sounding Perfect English speaking person that is very Helpful and intelligent and listens to MY problem.

In fact i've had the exact same issue before with one of our HP laptops, and i told them it was something to do with the power. I simply took out the hard drive, they over nighted me a pre paid box, i got the laptop back in about 3 or 4 days... It doesn't get any better than that..

 

Not sure if you realize this, but HP business support != HP consumer support. I can assure you that the business side support of both Dell and HP are substantially better than their consumer offerings. In addition, for Dell Home, you can pay extra to speak only with American based call centers.

Welcome to the ugly side of things.

And if you think American call centers are better, try this for size.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5620336&postcount=83

 

yeah i wasn't sure if HP business/goverment is where i actually work... and the consumer support was the same or not, but I guess i was hoping for the best.. So basically EVERY computer has moved there CS over seas EXCEPT Apple.. Maybe I need to start hating them a little less...

 

i wish they would pass a Law that Computer Manufacturers had to Place a Label in HUGE BOLD telling where their In and Out of Warranty CS was located..

 

You can find out in most cases.

And again, American CS does not mean it's good CS.

I've had waits of up to 3 hours dealing with HP business outlet. I hung up without reaching anyone.

 

It's the luck of the draw. It depends on the CS rep as they're only following a script. I once had an HP problem and after following the reps recommendations he escalated it to tech support and had a replacement sent. I actually bought two Gateways before Xmas and they're both working perfectly.

 

the only good cs ive had no matter what i have purchased as far as laptops go is the extended warranty from best buy. i had purchased one from them and it stopped working because the gpu started to die. this was about a yr and a half after the purchase so no replacement could be made as the model i had was no longer in circulation. the offered to give me a newer model laptop which i happily took (of course it had to be around the initial purchase price) i also had to buy a new warranty for the newer laptop but that sure as hell beat getting screwed over with a refurb hp or gateway would have given me.

 

I agree with the OP. I can sympathize with getting angry over a product and then trying to encourage other potential buyers to boycott a particular company. Also, it's a pet peeve of mine of all these companies outsourcing everything including CS.

I've dealt with that in large ISP companies who outsource tech support to India. They instantly blame the customer and all they do is follow a list. They aren't necessarily knowledgeable.

Alas, there isn't really a company or manufacturer nowadays that you can choose who doesn't outsource (CS, for e.g.). You can only choose features/specs/quality that you perceive as good or desired and hope for the best. In every companies' pursuit of profit, greed conquers over quality and customer service.

P.S. I originally sought this thread when I was reading about a Gateway P-7803H-CA. It was originally $200 off but not on sale any more. I was wondering if it would have been a good buy. I also was interested after reading about processor upgrades. I want a cpu that has VT support.

 

I think I might want to work in CS for a while someday

 

Most computer manufacturer have CS outsourced. It's a fact off life. deal with it. It has nothing to do with a greedy "company" but the shareholders who vote on what the "publicly owned" company does.
Having been in the IT industry since 1980 and everything from mainframes down to laptops I have no issue with the CS being anywhere.
My concern is making sure that the CS rep is knowledgeable. I have found that CS overseas is more willing to help than most CS here in the states where I have found the worst cases time and time again.
What I find hilarious are the following:
1. People saying that US CS is best, not even being aware that these "Americans" they are speaking to are people overseas that have gone to class to attain regional accents and use an American sounding name,
2. People screaming about the CS rep following a checklist which ALL CS centers do. The art is not making it seem like there IS a checklist... being amiable,.. throwing in some "inside" info or Friendly remarks every now and then,.. the person calling develops an affinity towards the CS Rep and tends to calm down a bit and not realize they are being led through that checklist (It's actually a training course).
3. People screaming about the quality of an entire company, based on the experience they had with ONE person, when they could have just hung up and gotten someone else.

I own a firm where I get called in to manufacturers to upgrade their networks. I've been to some of the call centers overseas and have been amazed at the level of knowledge of some of the people there.. and have also been amazed at some of the companies I have seen represented there that were supposedly in the U.S.... even support for certain laptops that are not PCs.

The only way to guarantee support in the US is usually being in the Gov't or Gov't contractor business where contracts stipulate that becuase of certain info that may be needed during a support call,.. the person must be a US citizen and have had a background investigation etc. Microsoft has support like this,.. as does HP,.. DELL, IBM/Lenovo etc... as their #1 customers are the gov't/military.

Just my 14 cents on this issue.

Bill

 

Thanks for your input, that last part about gov't was interesting...

 

Good info Bill. Missed my opportunity to work in one Tech CS when i was down in India. We all got to accept one thing for sure. PC related problems no matter same or different can be solved in so many different ways. So even the best in this field might at times be out of idea's. What companies(CS) should realize is to ask the customer his level of knowledge before walking him through the steps. Whether the CS is overseas or local they just follow the guidelines which irks knowledgeable customers. Do you think companies are gonna tell their CS '' Do it your way'' ? They just lay the guidelines and the staffs follow it. Its foolish to think outsourcing CS to other countries is gonna affect the quality of support everytime.

 

Hey Bill, to your idea of hang up and call back and you might get someone better... Each time they told me one of their stupid steps they would say that should work and let me go, so i ended up speaking to 5 of those morons and each one was just as stupid as the last... I started off saying that I thought it was either the power cord, adapter, or power supply on the MB on the very first call and kept saying each call and they simply ignored me each time making me re install windows TWICE, before they would let me send it in for repair..

 

This is why I have the 2 year best buy replacement warranty. It makes all this simple.

 

I also got the bestbuy replacement. Hope to never use it but I got it because I travel all over the place and tossing laptop bags into overhead compartments or rental cars,. no matter how good the bag,. is just hard on these things. And since Panasonic toughbooks don't really meet gaming requirements yet... .

I always tell CS (If I ever need them) my level of knowledge and sometimes it confuses them and I will then gently talk them down and ask for someone else. A couple of times, I've had the CS guy laugh and actually say "So we're not going to have to go through this list then? Great!"

One thing I have found travelling to about 45 countries so far is that people are people.. you will have the ones that try,.. and you will have the ones that just want to coast. Shouldn't take too long finding out which you have.

Oh! and saying you're Gov't won't work.. they ask for your contract vehicle.

Have a great day, a fabulous New Years and take care!

-Bill

P.S., just upgraded my 7805u's CPU to an Apple laptop's E8235 (9600?). 5 minutes worth of work and raised my "Windows experience from the 5.9, due to the cpu to 6.8. I'm happy. Love that 2.8 Ghz!

 

yeah, i know next time i will be buying from best buy and getting the 2 year warranty...

As of right now my plans are to get the laptop back from repair, (probably will have a new system board).. I'll put Adobe Master Collection 4 back on it, Office 2007 and sell it for $1,500.. Then take the money and go to Bestbuy and buy me a comparable HP...

 

That price wont attract many when you compare it to the latest releases.

 

Too bad there isn't any comparable HP. GPU-wise, none of the HP offerings get close, unless you go with the Elitebooks, which start at 2k and above.

If you're willing to take the hit to the GPU, plenty of options available.

And as mentioned, $1500 is going to be tough, even with Adobe Master Collection 4. Including the disks may help.

 

really? I thought it would be easy to sell at that price, it's only 3 months old. I paid $1000.00 for it

Adobe Master Collection CS4 = $2500
Office 07 = $200

it i can't get $1500 for $3700 worth of stuff then ??? lol we must be in a recession

 

Are you including the discs with it?

Pre-installed software doesn't always help very much with prices.

 

what about this one? http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...hhoslp/psg/notebooks/Over_16.9"/dv8tqe_series

 

Looks tempting for sure. But read the reviews. The ones that didn't give good ratings all complained of display driver crashes. Looks like graphic card issues.

 

The GT230M is quite a downgrade from the 9800M GTS. I forgot the Envy 15, which was refreshed today, however, there has been no news about the performance of the new ATI 5830 card. In addition, the Envy 15 was also reduced in price.

 

OT - Weinter, where did you get your avatar? Can you gimme a link,pm, something?

TIA

 

well, i got my Gateway back:

With a new motherboard and Fan.. GEEZ exactly what i told the stupid tech was wrong with it.. BEFORE he MADE me format it..

i really don't know what to do at this point.. sell it or keep it and PRAY that it doesn't mess up again

 

Give it a chance Elijahblake, its a great laptop let down by rubbish customer support!

 

I have purchased both for myself, my company and for clients GW computers/laptops since around 2000 off and on. My personal experience is that the machines are generally sturdy. When there is a problem, the CS has gone downhill. Even BEFORE they outsourced.

One problem I have had is that after 6 mos or so, parts through GW are high, if you can find them. I had a machine that when it died from power surge, the PSU could not be found through GW support. Finally got one from aftermarket that let the machine come back to me for a few months before I upgraded to a new box.

Bottom line is this. Rarely do we mention the CS side of a company until we have a bad experience. I have been on both sides of the CS fence. I have been at the top and bottom as well.

The idiot books that are forced upon you (ie format is step 5) are generally forced upon them.

Okay, stepping down off the box and waiting to see what comes next.

Good day

PS: Would you like fries with that? Or would you like to upgrade to our latests movie package or increase your speed?

 

i know man I LOVE this laptop it's everything I wanted, minus backlit keyboard and built in bluetooth... but I mean the system board going out in 3 months just scares the hell out of me.. I know these things happen and it seem like the ALWAYS happen to me..

This is a rant about what happened to me yesterday!! Kind of long so you've been warned...

Here's the worst part i get the laptop yesterday about 1:00pm and start setting it back up (updates and putting chrome on loading drivers) And my updates wouldn't go through, so i noticed the system clock was set wrong, so i fixed that and the updates still wouldn't go through... so i checked my linksys router and this bullcrap parental controls that got put on there though an update was all on after I had disabled it all... it wouldn't let me take it off so I made the huge mistake of calling Linksys support (Costa Rica or Peuro Rico) can't remember but the tech told me to push the reset button and then before the lights had stopped flashing she told me to unplug the power, i said are you sure, "Yes sir"... After that it's a paper weight.. I can hear her talking in the background to someone and i heard her saying "What am I supposed to do?" Then all of the sudden she transfers my call to an automated answering machine asking for my credit card?

Steam begins to BOIL!!

I call back and get another tech and explain i had got hung up or transferred on purpose, he says there's no record of my case, even though she took all my information and said she was opening a case. (covered her tracks nicely). So after explaining my situation to him/his supervisor they tell me i'm going to have to send it in. (uh NO SHT!)

The thing that pi$$es me off though is that to get them to send it first they have to put a hold on my credit card and then I have to pay to ship there's back to them. Which under MOST warranty claims, that's more than fair, but giving the circumstances that someone that didn't know what they were doing broke my router it seems like there would be an exception...

I'm so sick of Customer Service in other countries.. And not only that I call the IRS to speak with them about my taxes and i get a guy that can speak about 20% English, I mean he was a nice guy but I had to repeatedly ask him what he was saying.

I am SO SICK of this!!

Is there a way we can contact our lawmakers to try to do something about this?

Like maybe Require that items made or sold in the US are required to have US customer service by Knowledgeable English speaking people?
Or if they don't, then require them to put a huge WARNING or somekind of acknoledgment to where exactly their customer service is located...
The past week has actually caused me to start smoking again..

Guys let's please try to do something about the quality of Customer Service.. I'm sure someone can come up with a plan. A website with a petition or even a website that rates Customer Service to give people an idea of what they are getting themselves into.

Sorry for the long rant, but it's just a bit overwhelming

 

No worries

/snipped some/

Problem is that generally, yes generally, speaking doing a reset will not brick your router. Should they have waited till the lights waited, yes, does that guarantee it will brick it if you dont? no. How many times have you done a hard power off on your machine cause it locked?

It is a common practice not only for modems but for routers and combos to do a reset to factory restore it from flash to get it running. So therefore saying that someone who didnt know what they were doing broke your router really doesnt apply. See my previous post on the "idiot book" and your comment on step 5 formatting.

So them asking for a CC to hold the replacement unit does apply. Could they have waived it? yes. Did they? no.

CS in this country is not always the greatest. For one call center I worked out the ONLY requirement was to be able to read and follow instructions from the idiot book. You did not need to know ANYTHING about computers. As long as you could follow the on screen trouble shooting process you were golden.

Why? see above. It is not just an outside of US problem. The language difference does sometimes add to the frustration. I would suggest you look at why the companies are outsourcing. It is not just to annoy the customer, it is because the tax benefits (or lack thereof here), payroll, compensation requirements, etc. Sometimes Government is a good thing to have on your side, sometimes they need to keep their nose out of your business.

See above. If you are concerned about the support you will receive, research the company or product before you buy. How many people do you know who have never had to call upon tech support? There are some out there. Those same people will swear by a product until a mishap, then they find out OMG They put me on the phone with a foreigner!

Put the cigs down. If you want to improve customer service, voice it to the company. If you don't think your voice is loud enough, find like minded individuals, not the Government, and express it. If it still doesn't work. STOP BUYING THE PRODUCT. Send letters as to why you stopped and tell everyone you know. But please, don't involve the Government into every aspect of your life.

Have a nice day,
stepping off the box again,
tipping the hat.

 

believe me, i called their Customer Service 2 different times, but they just said that's their policy... That's the only answer they would give.

I then called Cisco Business Sales because i knew I would get an American and he was very sympathetic to the problem and he in fact told me that unplugging the power before it was through resetting could very well brick the router..

He said unfortunately eventhough Cisco did buy out Linksys they keep themselves VERY seperate and he hates when things like this happen because it puts a bad name on Cisco. He even contacted or tried to contact a Supervisor at Linksys CS, but the lady told him that her supervisor was on a phone call and (yeah right).. But the lady said she would talk to me until her supervisor got off the phone, so the Cisco guy asked if that was ok with me and i said sure..

So then I have to tell this lady the whole story for the 6th time and after 20 mins her supervisor is still on the phone. so i hold for another 10-15 mins she comes back and said her supervisor is still on the phone. I said can you just please have her call me back? She said yes She will return your call within 24 hrs. That was about 48 hrs ago..

I think the next place i'm going to call is Linksys Sales.. I'm sure that's in America, and I will let them know that I will no longer be buying their products.

The sad thing is if i keep not using companies I have bad customer service with then I'm not going to have any electronics left...