My first and last GatewayApr 05 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Don't buy their computers. Quality control is poor, service is abominable.
I wish I had known about Epinions before I bought my Gateway desktop last year. I see that most of them were already saying what I have had to find out on my own: Gateway service is a joke. When I took it out of the box it didn't work. I messed around with it for a day or so, disbelieving that something which had gone through bench testing could be so obviously screwed up. Now I wonder whether the bench testing claim itself is completely bogus. Anyway, I finally decided to get on the phone. I went through the customary round of phone trees and referrals to other numbers. "Escalating", I believe they call it. Eventually I was referred to someone who really knew her stuff (thank god for that!), and she decided that what needed to happen was that I had to completely trash Windows Me and start over. This is not a trivial task, folks. I think I spent about six hours that day doing what the factory should have done. They never told me where I could send the bill for my time. But at least they were there, they helped, we got the thing fixed and it works. Now, though, a few months later, I'm trying to get my little two-computer network to work, and I turned to them with some questions. Big mistake! First, I told them my problem. They said, "Oh, that's a software problem, we can't help you with that." They referred me to the MS knowledge base. OK, fair enough, I went and did a little research. Come to find out, there are two files the MS KB says I should have on my computer which apparently AREN'T THERE! The step-by-step instruction tells me to load my Windows disc, but I don't have a Windows disc ... I just have the Gateway 3-disc "Recovery" set. I tried these ... all three of 'em ... but the files aren't there. So I email back to Gateway, saying, "Send me the files." They respond with a two-page step-by-step on how to reload the whole set of Windows Me files, a procedure which is less onerous than reloading Windows completely (it "only" takes about an hour and a half and it doesn't trash everything on your computer) but still significant. I did this, checked the system, the files are still missing. I report back to Gateway, the response I get is, "This is considered a customization issue, which is beyond the scope of Gateway's free support." And then the standard pitch for the 900 number. Bottom line: They sold me a broken computer, made me take my own time to fix it. They sold me an incomplete version of the operating system, and when I asked for help they told me to go suck an egg. They say Gateway is having trouble competing, that sales are down and so is their stock. It's with good reason, in my view. If my plans as a consumer are any kind of a bellwether, Gateway is in for much rougher times ahead. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Wait, no, I WOULD recommend them to my worst enemy.  |
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