Gateway Customer Service on 01/30/07

All, I hope this helps and sets some minds at ease regarding Gateway.

Let me start at the beginning. I was looking for a nice new laptop. I wanted something that I could play games on, BF2, HL2 (CS, CZ, etc). But I also needed a laptop for heavy photoshop and web development use. I prices them all, Dell, HP, Gateway, ASUS, Averatec, all of em. What I found was that for the specs and the vid card I wanted, I was bettter off going with a 17inch. So then the battle started, Dell e1705 vs Gateway NX860XL vs the HP 9000, etc. However, I came to the conclusion that if you read enough reviews of these laptops, they will all be great and they will all suck. All in all I went with the gateway. My previous laptop was a gateway and it has been rock solid. The specs compared to cost is just too good to pass up and I have had good luck in the past. SO, I ordered the laptop on 01/20....

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200
2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
80GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive
17.1" WUXGA TFT Active Matrix (1920x 1200 res)
nVidia 7900 GS 256MB Graphics Card
etc.

I received the offer of $250 plus the rep gave me an additional $175 off to cover the tax. All told, $1600 to my house. (dell e1705 with same specs to my house was just over $2k and they wouldn't budge)

I received this laptop yesterday on 01/30. Box and packaging are flawless, turned it on, no dead pixels, no outside scratches. It was in perfect condition. Except... the bevel above the left side of the keyboard was bowed. A simple push and a snap and it went back in. However, I noticed that the left side of the keyboard was awfully "bouncy". In fact, if I pressed hard enough, I could get it to rub against the video card fan. I think this is a problem. This is the first reason I was going to call customer server....

Second, I noticed that the screen I received isn't what I initially ordered. I ordered the 17" Ultrabright WSXGA+ TFT Active Matrix (1680 x 1050 max. resolution). I was going to give the WUXGA a try because it does have smaller resolution/more screen space to multitask. It is a beautiful screen and crystal clear and bright. However, for my taste, it is still a bit too small for the applications/games I want to use it for. Yes I know I can fiddle with the screen res, dpi, font size, etc, but I didnt want to mess with this. And why get more resolution if you aren't going to use it. And I prefer the glossy screen which the WUXGA is not. SO I decided this was the second reason I needed to call customer service.

I basically decided I was going to replace or return the laptop. I was not happy. And just as if you buy something in a store and you are not happy and return, the same option applies to ordering these laptops online. Lesson: when ordering your laptop from whoever, make sure of the return policy before you give them your card. bottom line, if you are not happy return it! OK that said, I called em up, ready with my "insert foreign language accent" to english dictionary and ready to fight! I was shocked!

Called at 1pm, spoke to a man who spoke perfect english from customer service. Gave me some information and told me I would be best off speaking with my original sales rep. Transferred me to her.

She stated that replacing the laptop shouldn't be a problem. Except that if I wanted it quickly, I would need to talk to the tech group since they were the only ones that could authorize putting XP MCE onto a laptop. With the release of Vista, they are running about 2 months behind. I could have waited, didn't want to so I her transfer me to the tech group.

Spoke to a man who essentially told me he would order my new laptop to be built, with the monitor I wanted, with XP MCE and over night it to me. This didn't cost me a dime. The way Gateway does it is they use your new order # for the replacement as payment for the new build.

This was awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. No hassles, no fuss, no miscommunication. Everyone was helpful, professional, understanding and I genuinely felt they wanted to help me. They understood that I wasn't happy and that I wasn't trying to get one over on them. It truly was a pleasure doing business with them.

I hope this quells any fears some may have with customer service. Remember, there are always azzholes and people having bad days. But I spoke to 4 different departments today, all were friendly, fixed my problem and I was off the phone in 40 minutes. No WAY Dell can compare to that.

Oh yea, first impressions of this beast. it's BIG, it's HOT, it's HEAVY! And you know what, I asked for all of it. Listen, people complain about these laptops, but they are friggin 17in behemoths. If you get one, enjoy it, don't complain about it for being what it is. You knew it before you bought it. And if anyone is debating betwene and 17in and a 15.4in and cant decide, imagine carrying your desktop around or putting it on your lap. That's about as close as an analogy as i can give.

Gaming, I don't know or care about benchmarking, 3dmarks, etc. But I ran BF2, HL2, Condition Zero all at 1600x1200 with 4x AntiAliasing. FEAR at 1600x1200. No issues, no framerate problems, nothing with the video performance or speed. The only issue I had was with BF2 and the sound, but that could be anything considering it's BF2. Still looking into that.

I hope this helps, I know it's long, but I wish there was a post like this out here when I was shopping. I am open to any questions....

g

 

Wow. This is one of the things preventing my cousin from purchasing a Gateway. May need to show him this thread. Thanks for the help.

 

thanks for the post and feedback on Gateway, refreshing to hear something positive. Sounds like you got treated really well. And hey, if you're interested in reviewing the NX860 in a formal manner checkout the review guidelines http://www.notebookreview.com/writeReview/ and shoot me a message if you're interested!

 

Hey, yea, tell your cousin to go ahead and look into this more. If he has any questions feel free to shoot em my way. Once I receive my replacement, I will be giving a full review. I will have had the advantage of actually seeing TWO of these laptops first hand.

Also, for an updated, I called the Gateway customer server back today because, well, I'm paranoid. I wanted to check on everything that was promised to me yesterday to make sure I was still good to go. I spoke with ANOTHER english speaking, very nice and helpful representative. I was on the phone for 30 minutes total today. I am glad I called because the good news is that it looks like my laptop will be built by tomorrow. The bad news, they did not enter it in as receiving overnight shipping. After putting me on hold for 2 minutes, the rep came back and said that the only way to set it up for overnight is to recall the order and replace it. This might have been nonsense, but I certainly didn't want to take the risk. So I was a little disappointed about not getting it shipped over night...BUT, check this.... Yesterday, they gave me a fedex # and a week to return the first laptop. All I have to do it drop it off at a fedex location and they send it back. This means that I would have had to return this laptop by next Tuesday. I will probably be lucky to get the replacement by then so they extended my week (by another week) to return the first laptop! This way, I wont have to send the old one back until I get the new one! Does any other company do this?!? I doubt it. AND because I was charged $50 for shipping the first time and it was supposed to be free, they are refunding me $30 of it ($20 for handling they keep) I am amazed again! To recap,

1. I received a laptop
2. returning the laptop for a replacement
3. making $30 off the deal

simply fantastic!

I plan on writing a full review when I get the replacement. I should be able to do pics of them side by side to maybe help people decide on the screens. Hopefully next week!

g

 

I just bought a similar notebook, MX8711, and it too has that spongy keyboard and slight hump on the left side? I bought it for a great price, $725 after rebate and price match. The screen is fantastic, but I'm not sure if that keyboard is a design flaw or if that's the way all the 17" models are?

T

 

Oh please god review this laptop i want to see it reviewed so badly
(i've been recommending it because of the specs for the great price and platinum finish looked cool)
prove me right!

 

I'll throw my 2 cents in on Gateway support.

I have a Gateway desktop (an amazing machine for what I paid for it). Gateway support has been great the couple of times I had to call and use them.

When I was having a bizarre problem, tech support walked me completely through a tear down of my machine to replace the CMOS battery. Excellent attitude, excellent instructions, and they stayed on the phone with me until it was all back together and working.

Gateway's customer support is located in California (not a "dummy" number that gets answered in another country).

I'd considered getting a Gateway laptop based on customer service alone, but the specs didn't work for me. Compared to my experience with HP customer service, I would definitely go with Gateway. I've had nothing major with the A8Jp yet, but the couple of times I emailed customer service with Asus, their responses were prompt and clear.

 

Yea thats awesome. There is never a language barrier at all. for americans you get american service and up here in canada they have a canadian customer service branch as well.
Not a customer service branch placed in india/pakistan or wherever like others do.
(so they can pay people with IT degrees $2 a day)

 

I just ordered an MX8711 at OfficeDepot and have to pick it up today. I'll report back this weekend if they actually have it in stock. Hehe.

 

I bought a refurbished Gateway M685. When I received it the CD/RW drive was defective. I called them up not really expecting much out of them. I had already bought a DVD/RW to replace it so it wasn't really a big deal. Well I have to say I too was shocked at the quality and level of service I received! They sent me a replacement no questions asked. While I was on the phone we determined my battery was defective also and they sent me a new one. I was so impressed I ordered the 3 yr warranty for this thing. I'm planning to keep this for a good long time. If their was any down side, I did have to take the parts to a UPS drop off point or pay $10.38 per package for them to come to the house and pick them up. All in all I must say I was very favorably impressed.

 

Fantastic! I am happy to start hearing positive information about gateway. When I was looking up lappys, it was hard to come by since there are so many Dell fanboys out there. Anyway, quick update on my, um project/progress.

I called customer service on Friday, they said that the build was delayed due to a part shortage. OK, I'm thinking harddrive, cd rom, etc... Nope, the friggin motherboard! SO I asked the rep if they didn't plan on selling any laptops or if the ordering guy was just a retard. Was a joke, she took it as such. So now my replacement laptop looks like it will be delayed past the 16th (on paper). But I am holding out that it will come in next week, get built, and shipped. Either way essentially it does not matter because I am happily chugging along on the first one they sent me. Hasn't quite been a week and I am still very happy with the performance. Still a great purchase. Add the Customer Service and you cant lose. Oh yea, someone from Gateway called me yesterday to take a quick survey on my happiness regarding the whole process. Was impressed by that.

I'll keep everyone up to date.

g

 

so wheres the review

 

I just ordered my NX860XL on monday and it's coming next week. Whats weird is they also gave me the matte screen even though I gave them my quote# with the glossy screen. I changed it so hopefully it'll come glossed up

 

I just recieved my NX860XL!! It came really fast. But it came with the matte screen even though they said they changed it. I think i'll just stick with matte. Everything else is fine. Its really not as heavy as some said it would be. Just getting ready to get rid of Vista and put in some good ol' XP right now ^^