Gateway's customer service...what customer service?

I recently contacted Gateway's customer service in regards to the problem I'm having on the P-7811FX. I've never seen any customer service worse than it. My P-7811FX has given me nothing but headache since my purchase in the summer of '08. It had multiple installation issues with a lot of the popular games out there, such as Battlefield 2 and Oblivion. Aside from that, when I attempted to fresh install the Vista, the serial key from the bottom of the notebook came up "invalid".

Puzzled, I turn to Gateway's customer service. I have to admit, this was my first time dealing with Gateway's customer service, so I thought I was dealing with a mediocre customer service.

I was wrong.

When I described my problem to the first agent, she immediately blew me off, and shrugged off the responsibility by saying "we do not ensure the compatibility of every game out there". That's true, but Battlefield 2 is a pretty popular title. Its also not like Battlefield 2 has been known to have numerous installation issues. Same thing can be said about Oblivion. She futher suggested to install games under administrator privilege, or install the game under safe mode. Before I can even reply to her ridiculous suggestions, she immediately flagged the incident as "solved", and terminated the session.

After being left out in the code for a couple hours, I believed the problem was due to a corrupted factory Vista installation. Therefore I wanted to perform a fresh install of the Vista on the laptop, but the serial number from the bottom of the notebook didn't work. I first thought the serial number was only compatible with OEM version of Vista, but a new serial key from a HP notebook indeed worked with the CD. Puzzled again, I turned to Gateway's award winning customer service.

Now this time, I asked them why did the serial number issued with the notebook does not work with Vista installation. After dealing with an unhelpful lady, I was transferred to the supervisor. Just when I thought I was talking to the right person, I was indeed proven wrong again. The supervisor, with her infinite wisdom, actually claimed that Microsoft gave Gateway a set of unique serial keys (right so far), in which other OEMs do not receive the same treatment.

Let me repeat this: this supervisor claimed that Microsoft gave Gateway a preferred treatment that any other OEMs, even HP or Dell, do not get And in order to utilize the serial key under the notebook, I have to purchase a recovery disk from Gateway, which was $20 + tax, not including shipping. Even HP doesn't charge their recovery disk that much, and I need to pay them for a disk they should've supplied along with the notebook? (like ASUS's)

I strongly recommend those who's thinking about purchasing a Gateway to think twice before they make the purchase. Its one thing to have faulty hardwares (known to numerous P-7811FXs), but having extremely poor customer service is simply unacceptable.

 

Just call the 1-800 number...Go through the options to technical support...And when the person answers say the following:

"I was on the line with Level 2 Technical Support and my phone got disconnected. Can you please transfer me?"

You'll then be put on hold for the best technical support I have ever experienced.