MPC - They Won't Send Me My Laptop Back

Hi everyone, I'm curious to see if anyone has had a problem like I'm having.

MPC Corp aparently bought out Gateway's professional line a year ago. I have a 2-year old Gateway E-100M that has a 3 year warranty. Gateway said that since they sold their pro line to MPC, I should contact them for repairs. Well, the touch pad stopped working in September. I called MPC and they sent a box out to send in the laptop for repair (great service at that time). They said the repair should take 3-5 business days.

My laptop was then sent in at the end of September - I still don't have it back. For 5 weeks they claimed that the part was on backorder and they had no ETA. So I called again a couple weeks back and it turns out they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Once I finally got ahold of someone on the phone (no one there is returning e-mails anymore and phone hold times are >45min) they said I would have to wait for the bankruptcy court to make a decision and there is no way to get my laptop shipped back. They also said the warranty is no longer valid and it will probably not be repaired. They had no ETA on when I would get my laptop back (it's been gone now for more than 7 weeks).

I'm now pissed at both Gateway and MPC. I use this laptop for both college and work and it has been tough without it. I'm probably going to buy a Samsung x460 to replace it, but I really need my laptop back. Does anyone have any ideas??

 

Depending upon where they are located, that is probably fraud and theft. If it is in the USA, contact the Attorney General of the state in which they are located. You might want to have your parents check with an attorney.

 

They are based in Idaho, but filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. I contacted a professor I have at school who was a lawyer and she said it is probable that their assets are frozen. I looked at how long it takes cases like this to clear the courts and it could be months. Ugh...

Is it worth the cost of an attorney?

 

But would your laptop count as an asset of theirs in this case? It is in their possession because they're supposed to repair it and the bankruptcy may help them avoid having to repair it, but it would be really, really weird if something that was owned by you the entire time somehow gets classified as their asset.

 

I used to work for Gateway in South Dakota. It was a good company. Then a backwards company from Idaho called MPC took over the professional side of the business. I apologize to anyone living in Idaho, but does the "I" in Idaho stand for inbred? They made every mistake possible while running the company. I only wish I was on the Gateway consumer side so I could have worked for Acer. I still would have lost my job, but at least I would have gotten a nice severance package. The few people on the MPC side that were promised a severance package only got one payment and then were told that they were not going to get any more.

As you can tell the whole backorder thing was just a lie. Instead it was MPC not being able to afford to pay anyone.

Gateway is dead, I mourn the loss of a good company. When I was part of their professional support, we did everything possible to resolve an issue. MPC did not follow Gateway's example nor did they listen to those of us with experience. They chose to follow their own path. John Yeros, the CEO, came in personally to let us go. He told us "it is what it is" and that we had an hour to leave the building. Despite my deep personal hatred for that man and my lack of employment (I have a wife, 3 kids, and a mortgage), I feel more sorrow than anger. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about how all the customers that I got to know over the years are getting such horrible treatment.

If there is any justice in this world, Mr. Yeros will hopefully in some way be killed by a malfunctioning personal computer.....ha ha. Always try to find a little humor in a bad situation.

 

DesertFlyer, I don't know if anyone told you, MPC is no longer. They are gone - they shut the doors permanently December 29, 2008. They are liquidating all their assets. I know it is way late compared to other posts and I thought I should share the news with you since I know what happened.

Helix, I am sorry you think MPC was a bad company. For the most part they were good - I agree with you that management had a LOT to do with the failure with the company. There was a lot of...issues with buying Gateway a lot of people don't know about but I got to hear. Besides management, most of the people who work(ed) there were wonderful and I know when they shut the doors on everyone Monday, it hurt a lot of people because they were family. I am not going to change your mind about MPC, just wanted to know we sympathize with you and others in SD about everything that happened. It was a good idea that ended very very badly. And yes, MPC management SUCKED GOATS! A lot of people believe the CEO is responsible for the FAILURE of the company since he didn't do a thing right. He gets to live with the fact he turned a decent company(ies) into nothing and ran it(them) into the ground taking all the hard, loyal employees with it(them) while he is sipping on champagne in some ski lodge somewhere. The idea/imagery of Yeros being toasted by a malfunctioning personal computer is very fitting.

 

A good company run into the ground by poor management...

http://www.ktvb.com/news/business/stories/ktvbn-dec2908-mpc_computers_.1b5c5edd.html

FYI, Most Gateway branded notebooks where serviced by Quanta. Any Gateway branded notebook that was sent in is being held by Quanta because MPC couldn't pay to have them fixed or shipped back.

At this point Quanta is just one of the 10,000+ creditors listed in the bankruptcy filing so chances are nobody is getting them back.

The E-100M is an Arima unit. Arima was recently purchased by Flextronics who now feels the same about MPC as Quanta.

On the flip side Flextronics did a great deal to insure MPC's failure.