The Great, The Good, The Ugly
Written: Jan 09 '00
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Pros: Easy to use website, Received as ordered and FAST! VERY FAST!
Cons: Defective mother board out of the box
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| PaulyP's Full Review: Gateway Performance 600 |
Ok. So it was time to upgrade from the Old HP Pavilion 7050 100mgz to a newer system. I visited numerous websites and I came to two manufactures. I was extremely happy with HP's tech support during the past 5 years and the system's performance and durability. I went to their website to order one online, and I guess their Webmaster had not been paid for a while because their links did not work.
So, me being the impulsive buyer that I am, I went to the other website (Gateway's) I applied for credit and was instantly approved. Neat feature. I then picked out my system and made some modifications and upgrades. And then processed the order.
I received an email within 24 hours from Gateway "form mail" about my system order was being processed and when I should receive it. I then received an email from my salesperson (if you want to call him that). I sent him an email back asking for the tracking numbers 5 times in 5 days. No reply at all (sounds like a song that I know). So, I called up Gateways 1800 number and wrote down the voice prompts as I pushed the buttons on the phone. (I am a voice mail system pro) The first time the system said that all sales personnel were busy and for me to call back later. AND then it HUNG UP ON ME! How rude! So, I immediately called back, hit the corresponding voice prompt numbers and wella! I was talking to a LIVE PERSON! I guess everyone hung up at once because I was calling back?
The female salesperson was very helpful and gave me all of my UPS tracking numbers. I went to UPS's website and tracked all 6 of my packages. One sat in Oregon for 3 days! And that was my monitor. But that was not Gateways fault and it was the holidays. (I do have some patience and understanding)
I received all of my packages two days before Christmas and four days after Gateways "promised" time. Oh well. I hooked the whole system up, fired it up, BUT NO SOUND! I know something about computers and fiddled around with a bunch of things but still no sound. I called up Gateway tech support Christmas morning at 2am! Of course someone was there to help me out almost immediately and was very helpful. Ended up having to send me a new sound card. I asked him if this was a common problem and he stated that one out of 10 have a defective sound card. I guess I was one of the lucky 10. I went to sleep.
Christmas day my sister in law/ Geek girl comes over and suggested that I move the sound card to another PCI slot. It worked! I still have to call up Gateway and give them the bad news that the motherboard is defective!
I also received a digital camera from Gateway. It was the HP C200. The camera works great, but I cannot get it to communicate with the serial port. My Palm communicates with it just fine. So, I called up Gateway and they walked me through a lot of procedures and ended up giving me HP's tech support number directly to their Digital Camera department. I was pleased with the help I got and the overall attitude of their tech support team. So far.
I have yet to find the time to call up HP and chat with the camera problem. Hopefully, it will not be a run around. I do have three way calling and will get both HP and Gateway on the phone at the same time to fix this issue if I half to.
Other than that, I am very happy with the Gateway Performance Series 600 that I got. It's very fast, very efficient and I am pretty happy with how the purchase and set up went.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): Over 12
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Epinions.com ID:
PaulyP
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Location: South Hill, WA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 5 members
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