My wife and I finally decided to get a new computer. This was a big step for me, as I had been building computers for years. But, she wanted a Gateway, so we went to a "Gateway Country" store to check them out. They seemed friendly, and we ordered our new computer that day.

When it arrived, setup was very straight forward, and went smoothly. About a month later, we started having major problems opening programs. After a two-hour call to tech support, they wanted to re-format the hard drive. I thought this was an extreme step for a one month old computer, but we did it. Then, we started having problems with their diagnostic software. They said it was a bad version, and then sent us a new version. Next, I had the speakers go out. They sent me a new set, but expected me to pay to send the old ones back to them. When I didn't, they tried to charge me for them! I'm still fighting that.

Finally, when my wife called to dispute the speaker scenario, she asked for a supervisor. We later found out that the person we spoke to wasn't a supervisor. On top of that, he told us he didn't care about our speakers, or our d*mn computer, it was our problem.

All of this leads me to believe that Gateway has a poorly controlled manufacturing process, that leads to all these faulty hardware problems. And, their customer support staff is poorly trained and corrupt, which leads to such poor satisfaction ratings.

We have since bought a DELL, and not had a bit of problems with it, or a second DELL system we bought.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 499
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 401-500
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20