Unless you enjoy misery, do not buy a Gateway.
Written: Feb 06 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Inexpensive
Cons: Expect dead pixels, poor tech support, don't expect your computer any time soon
The Bottom Line: Stay away from this computer series. Gateway knowingly sells these computers with defective monitors (dead pixels) and will not repair them.
|
|
|
| stang966's Full Review: Gateway 400XL PC Notebook |
I am a professional computer programmer and have owned many in my lifetime. I first attempted to purchase a Gateway notebook a year ago. Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel my order after waiting nearly two months without receiving even an email telling me my computer was delayed.
I swore I would never purchase another Gateway, but their 400 series notebook was just too well priced to pass up. I bought the notebook, and received it within a week.
Unfortunately, the first time I turned on the computer I noticed a few small dots on my screen. These dots turned out to be dead pixels, and would never display the correct colors. I immediately called Gateway tech support to tell them the problem I was having. To my surprise tech support told me all of their 400 series screens were defective, it's completely normal, and they will do nothing about it. If I wanted a screen with no dead pixels I would have to buy a more expensive series. I was outraged, and after nearly two hours of explaining to tech support a defective screen is not a normal laptop problem, Gateway told me they would refer my case to the case manager and to expect a call the next day. Four days later still no call had come. I have dealt with every major computer company's tech support and never experienced such poor treatment. I sent back my computer and Gateway, of course, refused to pay shipping after charging 50 dollars for seven day ground shipping (it actually costs 29 dollars).
Please, if you are thinking of purchasing a laptop, no matter what Gateway tells you, dead pixels ARE NOT NORMAL! Compaq, HP and Dell (as well as many others I imagine) will fix any defective screen no matter the problem.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
stang966
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.