Gateway : CAVEAT EMPTOR (buyers beware)

Hi
I thought I would share my experience with GATEWAY support with you Forum members here.

In June of 2009 I purchased a Gateway Series T laptop. By October it had developed booting problems and by November it was just not booting beyond an error screen repeated ad infinitum , accompanied by shrill beeping sounds.

I dutifully spent a day or two chatting with Gateway support. I came away from this so called support very dissatisfied and with a strange feeling that the guys on the other side knew less than an average Joe about laptops. Eventually they gave me their HIGHER level support number and asked me to call there for assistance.

After a terrible 30 minute struggle with the robot that answers the phone there I finally got it to recognize my serial number and not drop the call telling me it did not understand what I said or punched in! I felt elated as if I had just passed a terribly hard entrance exam. Then a chap who spoke a strange dialect of English took the call and though dryly polite, did not convey much confidence or knowledge. His main task was to play a recording for me as to how to pack the laptop to send it in to the repair center. The FEDEX number I was given to send in the box was later rejected by FEDEX and in the interest of not loosing another 30 minutes, I paid the shipping out of my own pocket.

a few weeks later the lap top came back, and right out of the box it had the very same symptoms for which I had sent it in! Obviously the boys at the repair center had nether repaired it nor did supervisor review and double check their accomplishment.

Suppressing my anger, I figured the chat guys, at the very least, would have a sympathetic ear and help me get expedited assistance. Wrong! They could not care less and asked me to do the very same thing I had done the last time. In other words, to call the same number and get tortured and rejected for an hour by the very same incompetent robot and later the customer service rep. Which I dutifully did, all the while hiding my anger at the meager and mediocre post sales support GATEWAY offers us saps who fall for their products.

As the repair guys celebrated, Christmas, Hanukah, New years etc, a whole month went by and I continued to not have my lap top. Finally sometime after Valentine's day I got my laptop back.

excited at the thought of actually getting some postponed work done - it had been 3 months plus, since I first started to have troubles- I rushed to turn it on. The machine beeped for about a minute but eventually booted. It updated some windows files and then asked for a reboot. It never recovered from the reboot as it went back to displaying the very same symptoms for which I had sent it in! The repair guys had struck again. By now I figured Gateway did not have a very high standard for hiring service techs!

Now 3months plus had gone by, two attempts had been made, so again suppressing my extreme frustration I went back to the chat, when it was suggested I do the same cycle again I gave up and wrote an email to support in hopes of getting someone who might actually help. As 15 emails later all they do is give me a canned answer which in generic terms reads as follows:

The line that catches my attention is: Since we do not sell directly we can not give refunds [and by extension Exchanges - as I have asked them to at least exchange it]. Obviously I am not keen on sending this back again for another 40 day stint at their lab, only to get it back a third time as it went in: UN-REPAIRED!!

I have asked them to exchange it since they are incapable of repairing it. yet they dodge the issue, and a few times they have promised a higher level support contact which they later negate! basically they are playing with me, neither able to repair my laptop in two tries spanning 3 months, nor letting me talk to anyone with any type of authority. Just chatting or corresponding with guys in a far away land, or battling it out with their robots!

I feel I was swindled by GATEWAY and now I am being stonewalled by them with no recourse or access of any kind to anyone who can actually give me a satisfactory settlement for my $700 wasted dollars.

Caveat Emptor!

 

Gateway support sucks. Isn't it like common knowledge by now?

 

I feel for you, Gateway support sucks.
Just a few quick questions though. Did you happen to pay for it with American Express? If you did, you have an out and bring it back to the store for return within 90 days. If they don't take it back or exchange it, AMEX will go to battle for you and get the matter straightened out. I think certain Visa Cards will also do the same. Check there first. Also check the policy of the store where you bought it.

I know this late and hindsight 20/20 and all, but years ago I realized computer support was lacking. So I buy with AMEX and I also tend to buy at Best Buy and get their extended warranty. The studies done have indicated that if something is to go wrong with a laptop/computer, it will happen within the first year of ownership. So if this is the case I can bring back to BB and exchange it for whatever reason.

I hope you find a pot o gold at the end of this mess. Good luck.