Thanks for nothing Gateway

I had my Gateway notebook for 4 months before I started having problems with it. I talked to at least 20 people on chat support and not one of them had a brain. I had to factory restore twice using the system partition. It didn't help at all and was told by several support people I had to purchase the recovery cd's, (which should have come with the computer in the first place.) My computer wouldn't start windows for a month until I got the discs. I did a factory recovery using the discs like I was told and waited for an hour while it rebuilt itself only to have a restore failed error message pop up. I contacted support again and they made me do it 2 more times with the same result. I was transferred to a supervisor due to nobody knowing what to do and he told me to do a GWscan, which obviously didnt work because my computer wouldn't even start, and said he wouldnt do anything till I did that. For the millionth time I contacted support and was told I had to send it in for repair, and pay for shipping!!! So, I buy a computer, it breaks, I have to buy the recovery discs, deal with several dozen support agents that dont know anything, and now pay to have my computer sent away for who knows how long to get it repaired?! Thanks Gateway, if this is how you do business how long do you expect to be in business??

 

What is up with people signing up just to rant in the Gateway forum? We are here to help not to hear you rant. I expect them to stay in business for a loooooooooooong time cause Acer owns them.

 

Honestly... Sounds like you went into these chats with a bit of anger. I have a feeling that you may have given them as much information as you've given us, which is next to nothing outside of the complaint. As far as your tech support complaints... Sounds like typical multi-level tech support to me. You complained to a bunch of level 1 techs and didn't escalate to level 2 or above. We have no idea what system you even have or what the initial problems that precipitated this all even were.

Your first mistake... The system should have prompted you once you had Windows set up fully (your network settings, logins, etc.) to burn yourself some recovery disks. Sounds like you ignored that prompt which should have popped up by the right of the taskbar. My P-7915u burned three DVDs.

Second, GWSCAN should run since you're supposed to burn it to a bootable CD. I understand that you may not have a second system with which to do this, but GWSCAN doesn't require a working OS for it to function. I downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD, which happens to include GWSCAN. They're trying to get you to run GWSCAN to see if it is indeed your hard drive that's borked. You seem to be on a working computer to post this, so I would imagine that you can burn yourself the UBCD or GWSCAN.

Thirdly... You have to guide the techs a bit... I'm currently getting a replacement hard drive since the Hitachi TravelStar 320 gig drive in my P-7915u bit the dust, which may (or may not) be the same problem you're having. Fortunately, I purchased a 500 gig WD Scorpio Blue as a secondary drive for the system which I'm now running as the primary. They tried to get me to send in my entire system and I was like, "Oh, heck no!" Once I had the problem fully diagnosed, I convinced them that I was more than capable of replacing a hard drive (OMG!!! EIGHT SCREWS!!!) so they're sending me a new drive and I have to send the old one back in that box, which will include a UPS prepaid sticker.

 

at the very least you should pop in a linux distro and get your data from the hard drive.

As far as the problem you're having... You didn't provide enough info for us to help you. Were here to help, and we're pretty good at it too. So why don't you chillax, and start from the beginning.

 

These people disappear once they rant.

 

more than likely because their issues stem from their own ignorance. After all Computers don't make mistakes, yet they all want to blame the machine.

 

I was just gonna say that you're wrong, then I realized who make the computers

 

hahaha mmmhmmm

 

I am very computer literate and have worked extensively with computers since I was a kid. Ive never had problems like Ive had with Gateway. I talked to supervisors and managers, and they didnt know anything either. My dad worked for IBM since I was born and knows more about computers than anybody Ive ever met. You can tell me I dont know what Im doing or I just want to complain and be ignorant all you want, the fact is that my computer broke, and Gateway is nearly impossible to deal with.

Oh, and I have more than one computer, I still want the one I spent a lot of money on to work. Also, the GWscan didnt work, the HDD is trashed.

Before you start accusing people of being ignorant and illiterate, take your "professional help" somewhere somebody really needs it. The reason for my post was to inform people of the terrible service and experience Ive had with Gateway, if I wanted help I wouldve asked.

 

Awww... want a cookie?

 

Dude this is a hardware support forum for helping you resolve your issues! It is not meant as a RANT forum. You don't give us a model, original issue or anything that would yeild us to believe you are right and they are wrong. I mean this in the way that I could say I've gone to the hospital to do open heart surgery but the patients keep croaking, so it must be the patients fault........

Also I would never have gone through 20 reps. the first one gets a chance because they don't know me, after that I dictate period. If you are good enough, and I'll assume you are, talk enough techies to just confuse the H out of them. FYI I love to do that to computer salesman when they are persistant

These 1st level, and to a point even the 2nd level, are just putting you through a script. All companies do this today. Once the "script" doesn't fix it you then you need someone with a real brain and is a true troubleshooter. Either go through corporate and the hastle of finding someone or come here and politely ask for help. There will always be someone out there either brighter than yourself (or even your dad) or they may just look at it differently enough to find the solution.........

 

Wow... If that's how you talked to the Gateway techs... No wonder you didn't get much help. LOL

Why is it that you and I have a similar background yet I haven't had a whole lot of trouble with their tech support and you have? I mean, if you really want me to pull the whole "I've been taking computers apart since I'm 8 and I'm 30, now" card. LOL Oh, yeah... I've spent ten years as a PC tech that actually got to be paid for such work. So... Uh... Yeah, I don't know if I could help you very much either based upon the information you've given. That could change if you decide to fill us in on the actual problem.

So... GWSCAN "didn't work" or returned errors? I'm not sure if you actually got errors which led you to the eventuality of the hard drive being "trashed" or if you just flung the boot CD like a frisbee in frustration.

 

Ok so at this point all we know is your computer wont boot, and that instead of creating the recovery discs yourself (for free) you decided to pay for them from Gateway.

The only two questions you asked answers:
It typically takes 4-6 weeks to get back form the repair Depot
Gateway is almost exclusivly selling out of every leptop they come out with so they will remain an active devision of Acer for quite i while i would think.

Now if you want help i (and everyone else on this forum) would be more than happy to help you. But you need to give some back ground info on your system and the problems you have/had.

What model are you using?
What errors (if any) were given when it was starting to have the issues?
Are you running an AV program (and do you go to sites that arent very trustworthy and might have picked up a bad virus)?
Have you had heat issues, or do you sit it on soft surfaces that might cause a thermal problem to the componets?
Anything else you want to volenteer that might be useful?

Computer literate or not, everyone has issues they cant solve. Just the nature of the beast. There are 300K+ members on this forum and i promise you there are smarter people here than you... i feel like an idiot every day here because the sheer level of knowledge some of the people on this site have. And that makes it the best place in the world to actually get issues solved. Haivng a father who works for IBM or having worked on computers for years really doesnt make up for the insane amount of knowledge available here for you to enjoy.

If all you came here to do was rant... thats fine, but understand you're not telling us anything we dont know. Gateways (and most all other comsumer quality notebook OEMs) service is pretty low quality until you get to a very high level in their service department. But thats why places like this exist.

If GWscan isnt working, have you tried a Linux Disto and attempt to see if the computer will run under the liveCD? If so then all you probably need is to replace the hard drive and you'll be back running in about 2 hours (counting install times)

Now on the other hand if you just came here to rant and not be productive in anyway, i'll happily remove your account and we can pretend like this never happened. Its your choice there though.

 

Just as proof that Gateway's tech support does indeed work, my hard drive has arrived at my parents' place. Good thing they live close cuz I'm never home when UPS and FedEx deliver and my mom's always home.

Anyhow, gonna go retrieve it, install it, and bask in the glory that is a somewhat functioning Gateway tech support.

 

Might wanna post your rant somewhere else then...

If your father is all knowing in PC's have him fix it why call anyone else

 

This guy is teh lulz xDDD