View Full Version : Gateway is a joke
rocksfan_1
08-10-07, 05:27 PM
First off I was forced by my college to purchase a laptop from gateway, so I sucked up and spent the money to buy a laptop from them. The guy that I ordered my laptop was great, but the fun ended there. When the computer arrived the touchpad didn't work. I find this to be pretty pathetic because you would think there would be a small amount of testing before shipping out an item. Well I tried installing drivers, windows reinstallation, and all kinds of worthless suggestions that the customer service could offer with no help. Then they had the nerve to suggest that I spend money to ship my laptop into them to have it fixed, I plainly told them that I was not putting another dime into this laptop because I overpaid already for what I got. Well I have a 4 year accidental and total protection plan, so I thought maybe they could use their next day onsite service. I spent 3 hours on the phone setting up the onsite service and they said they would contact me in 2-3 days for an appointment. Well 7 business days have passed and no phone call. I then call the onsite people, well the first person talked so quiet that I couldn't understand a word, so I hung up and called back. I then get the pleasure to talk to a person that doesn't even speak english, barely understood her, but she let me know that my parts are ordered and they will come in someday, but no idea when. Well I need this laptop working in the next week for school I told her, she then quickly transfered the call to customer service.
Sorry needed to vent some, but I will never purchase another gateway product and strongly advise others to avoid them at all costs. I will let you know when I finally get my laptop fixed as well also.
Komitet
08-10-07, 05:35 PM
I'll let you all in on a little secret, when calling customer service that is sourced out to other countries, (IE India Pakistan etc...) press the French option, than speak English when they pick up, you will get an English speaking bilingual representative.
El<(')>Maxi
08-10-07, 05:54 PM
First off I was forced by my college to purchase a laptop from gateway.
What??? Did you purchase this laptop on credit by chance? If so I'd call your card company, dispute the charges and send the laptop back.
SeasonalEclipse
08-10-07, 06:02 PM
wow, that sucks. Id totally get a refund and go to a better company like dell.. Or build your own laptop!
synthetic_fenix
08-10-07, 06:07 PM
wow, that sucks. Id totally get a refund and go to a better company like dell.. Or build your own laptop!
Well he said his school urged him to buy a laptop from gateway. Rankin Technical School is like this in their IT programs. They want everyone to have the identical system even though it doesn't matter and its your own money buying it. My G/f had to go through this their and its a Pain in the arse. So with that said, more then likely he had no choice then to buy from Gateway which I will add has possibly the worst tech support out there next to Netgear, and on top of it, with their protection plans they don't offer to ship it for you they want you to pay for shipping which I feel is a little bogus. Atleast dell will send you a shipping label for a laptop to send it back to them with.
rocksfan_1
08-10-07, 06:17 PM
Well the shipping for fixing isn't a really big deal because my campus (NOT Gateway) has a repair center that they do for the school and they will usually do on-site stuff for us there if we have the warranty and send it in and what not, but this is because my college went the extra mile for us the students, but when we are away from campus, we are stuck with the lousy customer support, I think I will call and try and get a return, tell them to eat the shipping costs and that they need to send me an upgraded laptop or they can lose the sale totally.
Gateway has been bottom of the barrel of a decade now. Emachines and Gateway are a wonderfully matched pair of OEMs to avoid at all costs.
If your school forced you to buy, it means you actually bought it from them. They probably bought a bunch of these at a discount or worked some deal with Gateway (and are making some money off the sale, possibly to help support that on campus tech bench?). Your school needs to deal with Gateway. Get out of the middle and let the school haggle.
I'm curious about the bilingual suggestion. Why would hitting the option for French ensure an English speaking representative?
Komitet
08-10-07, 07:45 PM
because it's cheaper to hire say a bilingual canadian, which we take mandatory in school, than to train an outsourced company to speak the language.
synthetic_fenix
08-10-07, 07:47 PM
Gateway has been bottom of the barrel of a decade now. Emachines and Gateway are a wonderfully matched pair of OEMs to avoid at all costs.
If your school forced you to buy, it means you actually bought it from them. They probably bought a bunch of these at a discount or worked some deal with Gateway (and are making some money off the sale, possibly to help support that on campus tech bench?). Your school needs to deal with Gateway. Get out of the middle and let the school haggle.
I'm curious about the bilingual suggestion. Why would hitting the option for French ensure an English speaking representative?
Every call center I have been in or worked at has Bilingual representatives, I have never seen one that only spoke one language unless it was english. and As far as I know companies like Gateway, Dell, HP and the like use the cheap outsourced call centers for anyone who speaks english and uses the few call centers here in the states for other languages like spanish, german, french, etc. So if you select french or whatnot, you stand a pretty good chance that you will get someone who can speak english better then those in the outsourced call centers elsewhere. All you would have to do is say you accidentally selected (insert chosen language here).
I'll let you all in on a little secret, when calling customer service that is sourced out to other countries, (IE India Pakistan etc...) press the French option, than speak English when they pick up, you will get an English speaking bilingual representative.
You sneaky bastige! That is absolutely brilliant!!!! You should get an award for thinking that up.
What??? Did you purchase this laptop on credit by chance? If so I'd call your card company, dispute the charges and send the laptop back.
Ditto above. I'd tell (order) them to rush courier you a replacement, with tracking data to verify the rush, or else you'll dispute the charge with the credit card company (assuming you used your credit card) and if they grief you, dispute it.
I'm curious about the bilingual suggestion. Why would hitting the option for French ensure an English speaking representative?
Every call center I have been in or worked at has Bilingual representatives, I have never seen one that only spoke one language unless it was english. and As far as I know companies like Gateway, Dell, HP and the like use the cheap outsourced call centers for anyone who speaks english and uses the few call centers here in the states for other languages like spanish, german, french, etc. So if you select french or whatnot, you stand a pretty good chance that you will get someone who can speak english better then those in the outsourced call centers elsewhere. All you would have to do is say you accidentally selected (insert chosen language here).
My city has two or three call centers, if you've ever used Onstar more than 5 times, you've probably spoken with someone I know, and they all tell me the same thing: THAT THEY REALLY HATE THEIR JOB! ;) ...but other than that they say that bilingualism is a real plus in the job and the employers look for it when hiring. Strangely enough of the 50-100 people I know who do call center work, none to my recollection speak French...
synthetic_fenix
08-10-07, 08:19 PM
You sneaky bastige! That is absolutely brilliant!!!! You should get an award for thinking that up.
Ditto above. I'd tell (order) them to rush courier you a replacement, with tracking data to verify the rush, or else you'll dispute the charge with the credit card company (assuming you used your credit card) and if they grief you, dispute it.
My city has two or three call centers, if you've ever used Onstar more than 5 times, you've probably spoken with someone I know, and they all tell me the same thing: THAT THEY REALLY HATE THEIR JOB! ;) ...but other than that they say that bilingualism is a real plus in the job and the employers look for it when hiring. Strangely enough of the 50-100 people I know who do call center work, none to my recollection speak French...
LOL one of the call centers I used to work for was for a Company Called 321 Studios and the team leader for the team i was on when I Started there was Tri-lingual, she spoke Spanish, French and English(obviously) and her and like two other people were the french speaking reps for the company with only one call center in St. Louis, Mo.
rocksfan_1
08-10-07, 08:29 PM
My college has 4 models from each generation that they support, and for certain degrees at the college you need to choose one of these models. I ordered this laptop from Gateway, not through the school.
El<(')>Maxi
08-10-07, 10:52 PM
So if you don't buy Gateway, no degree? I'd find another school.:)
rocksfan_1
08-11-07, 07:54 AM
It isn't a no gateway no degree thing, my program in my college requires all of the people in the program to use a laptop, because it will be used intensively in class. The reason that we all have to have Gateway is because if our laptop breaks down we can have it fixed on campus, and the on-campus repair will give us a loaner laptop until our orginal laptop is fixed. In other words they are only able to support a few number of laptops, so they force the students to only by those laptops(only those students in certain degrees)
I think it is great that they give out loaner laptops, but I could easily buy 2 500-600 laptops from dell and have my own personal laptop for less than my laptop from gateway, tried explaining that to the professors, but they don't think it is easier that way.
freakdiablo
08-11-07, 08:19 AM
I think it is great that they give out loaner laptops, but I could easily buy 2 500-600 laptops from dell and have my own personal laptop for less than my laptop from gateway, tried explaining that to the professors, but they don't think it is easier that way.
They don't think its easier to have a second laptop stuck in a closet somewhere that you could pull out if the first one breaks then to go through all of the trouble you are going through?
Soichiro
08-11-07, 11:25 AM
I'd rather not buy a Gateway than have onsite support. That's just HOW BAD Gateway's laptops are. I had two, the first one was a replacement for a bad HP that broke like 6 times in 2 years (half those times it came back from repair broken), and it broke 3 times in about 3 months. I think Best Buy and the Gateway repair center they sent it to actually had it more than I did. So they gave me a replacement that came with a dead wireless card. Great job, Gateway and Best Buy. I'm now on a Sony and, while I hate them as a company, since I didn't spend a cent on the laptop and it still works, it's great as far as I'm concerned.
dippy_skoodlez
08-11-07, 01:56 PM
Thats why you support it yourself.
if you're in an IT major, theres no excuse for a "laptop brand requirement" IMO.
Hell, I'm going for computer engineering, and I use a macbook pro!
It offers more versatility than any dell will, and I trust it to be reliable.
I think it is great that they give out loaner laptops, but I could easily buy 2 500-600 laptops from dell and have my own personal laptop for less than my laptop from gateway, tried explaining that to the professors, but they don't think it is easier that way.
Sounds like you've already come up with the solution. ;)
And, by chance, there's a pretty good deal on Dell.com right now...
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=523063
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