On 5/3/09, my father purchased a Gateway laptop at the Bloomington, Indiana Best Buy.in very short order, he discovered the charge cord was defective. He took it back to the Best Buy and they told him he had to bring the computer as well. So he drove home, got the computer and returned. They tested the cord and told him it was defective, which he already knew. He was then told that Best Buy wouldn't replace it and that he had to deal with Gateway.
At this point, I told him I would take care of it. I called the warranty service number (866-539-3901) and spoke to a representative who told me I had to figure out which of the two part charge cord (the cord or the transformer box) was defective. Apparently they didn't want to send both. After much difficulty in getting back to my father's house to get access to the laptop, I figured out that the transformer is defective.
Today (9/9/09) I just spent 15 minutes doing battle with Gateway's voice prompt system. It repeatedly asked for the computer's serial number. After I put it in, the voice said it couldn't find that number and asked for it again. After three or four tries, it told me goodbye and hung up. There is no option to speak to a person. If the system doesn't accept your serial number, you're done. I tried everything I could think of to get to a live person, but it is impossible. I don't have any idea what to do now. As you might imagine, this was the most maddening experience I have had in a long time.
Had my father asked me before his purchase, I would have advised him not to buy a Gateway. Their support is always low-rated by Consumer Reports. Now I know why. I have had even worse experiences with Dell. On the other hand, I have a Toshiba laptop that I have had no problems with and had fairly decent experiences when I did contact their tech support. According to Consumer Reports, the only computer company with good tech support is Apple. Unfortunately, if you have to use a PC, you don't have any decent choices. My advice to anyone considering a laptop is to only purchase a Gateway if you have superhuman tolerance for frustration.
Good luck!
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