Gateway Tech Support is the Worst I Have Experienced
Written: Oct 01 '03
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Pros: It's pretty powerful, and has a nice looking display.
Cons: Tech support is horribly underqualified.
The Bottom Line: Stay away from Gateway until they get their act together.
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| ontol's Full Review: Gateway 500 XL PC Desktop |
If it were 5 years ago, when we purchased our 350, there would be nothing but praises. Things certainly have changed...
I had a bit of trouble ordering over the phone, haggling with the sales rep. I still swear I had purchased 512M of RAM and when the system arrived it had only 256M. The invoice does show 256--but I know what I ordered.
I haven't been able to get online using the new 500X I spent $1600 for. 5 calls to the tech support line (with an average of over 2 hours per call). The worst call was with a tech asking me what icons were on my desktop. The tech had no idea what the 'recycle bin' was. I told him "the trashcan". He told me he had never heard of having a trashcan on the desktop and that I should delete it. My response wasn't very mature; I cussed a little and told him I need a real tech, not some _____ idiot who hasn't mastered his Commodore 64 yet. I kid you not; this guy had NO idea what a recycle bin was!
I finally (after threats to place the computer in tech's orafices it probably wouldn't fit) reached a senior tech and she was helpful and calm, a credit to her profession. We determined it was a faulty ethernet jack and the motherboard would have to be replaced (they are integrated for some brilliant reason). She wanted a deposit of $250 until I sent the other back, to which I refused and told her to either send me the replacement now, or give me a return authorization number for the whole system. They also expected me to swap out the boards myself, but having paid for 3 year on-site service, I demanded they send a tech out.
The tech finally arrives tomorrow (I received the computer 9/10/03; it is 10/01/03 today). I think they are trying to let the 30 day return policy elapse. The part arrived early last week (maybe 8-9 days ago), and Gateway just today called threatening to charge me for the motherboard unless I send the faulty one back, caring little that the reason I haven't sent it back is that the repairs haven't yet been made by their service person that has yet to get to my house.
This will be absolutely my last purchase from Gateway, if I don't end up sending this one back in the next few days. I am an Apple user myself, the PC was for the wife and kids. I can't say much for Apple's customer support either, but I really haven't needed them, so it hasn't been much of an issue. I guess I am just used to things that work like they are supposed to.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1600
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
ontol
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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