My repair experience, so far, with Gateway

Ok, I have 2 new laptops from Gateway. Mine, the M-150XL I've had since December 28th, I've had basically zero problems out of.
My girlfriend's laptop, bought in late February, is the Gateway M-150 model.
It's pretty much did ok, it's slower than mine but it was cheaper and has a slower processor and no dedicated video.

For her, it's a major upgrade over her POS Toshiba. A few weeks ago, it took a nasty fall off of a stand. I made a thread about it I believe in the OS section, but it's changed completely now.

It was giving errors, and I did some research, I thought the harddrive was dead. I called tech support, and the guy told me that wasn't covered under the 1 year warranty, to try to reinstall windows. So I did, and it wasn't working properly.

So I called them back, and we went through various steps, determining that it was the HD that was dead, it did eventually let us begin installing Vista, but was taking forever.

This agent said they would send me a new HD for FREE, I couldn't turn that down. So a week later, it came in and I changed it out. I tried to install windows on it for her, and the metal lining on the keyboard was shocking the crap out of me (loose wire?). I told my gf, she said it had shocked her the day of the accident.

I vaguely remember that lol, but didn't really believe her I guess. Now I believed it, so I called them back and they said I would need to send it in for repairs. But the shipping to them wasn't covered.

Ok, I footed the $42 to ship it to them, since technically it was my fault. I was told it would be back to me in 7 days, so 7 days later I called them for an update and got transferred around, finally talking to an agent that works in Houston where I sent the laptop. She said she would send a request for status, that it would take 48 hours

I got her direct contact info, and 2 days later I wasn't able to get in contact with her. The next day the laptop was delivered, and she complained that it was running slow.
On top of that, she was complaining of not being able to use her mouse. I saw that the USB port it was plugged into, was broken. The piece was still stuck in the mouse. I pulled it out and she used another USB port.

HOW DID THEY NOT SEE THAT?

Remember what I said about mine being faster? Well shes' been using it, so I thought maybe she was just use to that. This morning, her laptop's screen won't come on. It's shocking the crap out of her again, ( I believed her this time )

and when I tried using an external monitor, it said no signal. So great, the video card/motherboard is messed up.

So once again I'm calling Gateway, this time I told them about the USB port, and went back over what was wrong. They gave me a new ticket # and are sending a box to ship it to them in for free.

This is turning into a freaking hassle. I don't want to jump the gun here, and I have until Feb 27th 2009 until the warranty runs out, but at what point would I be justified in asking for a replacement?

It already seems like they may just junk this one all together if the motherboard is damaged, I don't want to keep sending it back every week when we need more than just my laptop for everyone.


Honestly, it seems like someone just reinstalled windows on it :/

 

Wait, your girlfriend dropped the laptop hard, and you expect Gateway to warranty it?

 

don't they consider it an accidental damage? i remember a guy saying that his cat broke his laptop (poured water on it or something) and gateway warrantied it

 

I thought that was a Bestbuy warranty, I don't know I never buy extended warranties.

 

oh yeah, btw, 3 year warranty on gateway website is 150$ but it becomes 350$ for BB lol i think that's weird

 

My warranty though Best Buy does cover accidental things like dropping it.

 

I don't believe I ever said that.


It fell off of the desk, they sent a part, that wasn't all that was wrong, I sent it in, they didn't fix it, sent it back to me. I am now sending it back to them. The parts and labor (according to them) is covered under my one-year warranty.

Cliff notes, just for you

 

Well if you told Gateway that it was dropped, they probably would have adjusted the repair strategy. If you are relying on the basic manufacturers warranty, dropping it isn't covered. Dropping it could damage a ton of parts.

 

I bought a 3yr warrenty and 3yr accidental warrenty from gateway when I bought the laptop for a total of 150. So, if you drop it it will be covered or anything else that happens.

 

But I did tell them it was dropped, the first time I called I said it was dropped. I was told it was not covered, so I tried fixing it myself.
Every agent after that I've told it was dropped, but since the 2nd person they've all said everything was covered.

I'm going to look and see what extra warranty I can add, I mean I'm willing to pay for I just didn't think I needed it initially. Hindsight 20/20 etc etc etc.

 

If they are like Hp, you have one year to purchase an extended warranty from Gateway.

 

so where and how exactly do i buy the extended warranty?

 

Call gateway

 

oh, i guess that's not too hard, thx