Gateway Computers
Ripoff

I purchased a Gateway Pentium 4 Performance 1300 in March from a Gateway Country Store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Within two weeks of my purchase the store closed. I received no information from Gateway explaining how I was to proceed should I require service. Within approximately 8 months we realized that the burner was not writing properly. We had burned less than 20 cds over the 8 months.

I contacted Gateway and requested service. I was told that we needed to attempt to solve the issue diagnostically and follow the instructions provided by the "helpful" service representatives from Gateway. We followed their directions to the letter without success and spoke to Gateway representatives at least 4 times. I then requested to know where we could take the computer for servicing. I was told that I needed to contact Gateway's service representatives for that information. (???) I contacted Gateway and was informed that it was necessary for me to send my computer back to Gateway in the USA if I wanted it serviced. The fact is that it would cost me more to send the CPU to Gateway in South Dakota than the burner was worth to replace myself.

I then requested if it was possible to send just the burner in to Gateway for servicing. That was 3 weeks ago. I have attempted to follow up on two more occassions without response. Both my wife and I are highly computer literate and work in the computer industry maintaining systems and LANs. The kind of "service" that I have seen so far does not in any way resemble the manner in which customers should be treated. I will definitely NOT RECOMMEND Gateway to any of my clients (over 10,000 and counting), - and will provide them with all the gory details of my experience.

Thank you Gateway for opening the eyes of one more "sucker". It is a lesson learned and one which will not go uncompensated. I will reward all prospective Gateway Computer purchases with a comprehensive history of my experience. (I also teach business ethics at college and now have a new source of anecdotal information for the 23,000 students that step onto campus).

Ken
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada

Company: Gateway Computers
Country: USA
State: South Dakota
City: North Sioux City
Site: www.gateway.com

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