Gateway Customer Support

[Vipersfate]

Im on the phone with Gateway Customer support right this second. I lost my OEM Windows, and well, it was broke as well. As long as the computer was purchased after october 2k4, they can ship me out the OEM software for free under warranty! I love this. Instead of having to buy a new copy of Windows, I can have the OEM Disk! Also, when my CDRW went out, they shipped me a new one in 3 days! I have to say, Thumbs up to gateway! They have some of the best tech support Ive ever had.

[stool]

Not to nitpick, but if they are actually doing what you say, you are WAY
ahead with Gateway. In all honestly, they have (in my experience), been better than Dell or HP, with support and in some cases, product. Bad part is that they are getting dated, and rumor has it, going down the tube.

[Vipersfate]

Its hard for them to really keep up with Dell, and Of course, HP. I just think that they should start producing some nice higher end gaming rigs.

[TollhouseFrank]

nice! At least they have improved! I had to deal with gateway support years ago, and it was dodgy to say the least

[soundfx4]

I feel I am qualified to give my opinion in this matter :beer: . I perform warranty work for Dell and gateway computers, and I have to say that I absolutely HATE gateway. They are difficult to work with, they send us the wrong parts way too often, many times even we can't get through to support to order replacement parts, and they are never consistent with shipping. Sometimes they use fedex, sometimes they use UPS, sometimes we will get a part before it is in our service call box, sometimes we have to wait several days to get a part, and other times the part comes in overnight. VERY random, and it annoys everyone I work with.

Slight off topic information. Most of gateways systems are also more difficult to work with. For example, one desktop motherboard I replaced had the front panel switch wires just like they would be if you were building your own system! And their boards are NOT labeled so you have to try and remember where the stupid things go. Hmm...when I typed that it doesn't sound as big of a deal as it actually felt...grrrr...oh well, it is just a bunch of little stupid things that make their systems difficult to work with (especially their laptops!). Luckily though, we dont' have to work on many gateway systems.


Dell on the other hand is better in this case. Dell always ships overnight DHL, they hardly ever get the wrong parts sent out, and the wait on the phone is little to no time. They are more organized and much easier to work with.


AT LEAST that is from my experience. Unfortunately I can't say anything from a customer point of view as I've never owed a gateway system, and I've had no problems with any of the dell stuff I own. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with gateway systems, in fact the library I used to work at used only gateway systems, with a few dells here and there. Their systems worked great, only had a few problems out of several dozen computers.


I think about it sometimes and I wander about why we work on so many dell systems, and why we hardly ever work on gateway systems...a few possibilities always come to mind.

1: Gateway computers are more reliable
2: There are just more Dell computers in my regional area
3: Other service companies do most of the gateway work, and we only get a few

I dunno, it does make me wander, and it definitely doesn't look good for dell, the DHL guy mentioned to me once that with all the dell parts he delivers everyday, he would never get a dell :shrug:

[Vipersfate]

The only thing that has gone wrong in my old gateway was the CDRW stopped burning CDs correctly, which was replaced in 3 days. But, your post there does make me thing. oh well, I'd still rather build my own :D

[soundfx4]

The only thing that has gone wrong in my old gateway was the CDRW stopped burning CDs correctly, which was replaced in 3 days. But, your post there does make me thing. oh well, I'd still rather build my own :D

lol, yeah, me too.