Gateway 950 with Athlon chip - sold memory chips from Gateway that don't fit computer

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on July 31, 2002:

From:

RE: Gateway 950 with Athlon chip - sold memory chips from Gateway that don't fit computer

I would like to preface this by saying that up until this point, I have been a very happy and faithful Gateway customer. I have probably owned 8 Gateways over the last dozen years and have influenced a lot of friends to buy Gateways.

I currently have a Gateway 950 with Athlon chip and 256-megs RAM. Wanting to add some RAM so I could run Windows XP, I approached the Gateway accessories page.

I should say that in the past when I have had problems with my Gateway, the support people always wanted to know whether I had purchased memory upgrades, hardware, operating systems, from THEM or someone else. They seem to feel (and I can't blame them) that if THEY sold me the part or whatever, THEY will support it, otherwise tough luck. So I have always tried to buy stuff from them and save the headache.

I went to an online chat area where I was told I was chatting with an "upgrade expert". He had all the info on my current computer in front of him. When I told him that I wanted to upgrade my RAM and go to XP, he told me which memory I should buy from them. I specifically told him I wanted to be sure the memory worked in my computer, and was told that it would.

Well, along came a package (actually three) containing two RAM memory boards and the Windows XP upgrade.

When I attempted to install the memory boards, it quickly became apparent they wouldn't fit into the slots!

I called customer service, and spent an hour being shuffled from one person to another (Oh, you don't want to talk to ME--you need to talk to Charlie in flimflobs---CLICK!!!").

Eventually, I talked to two people who seemed to know what they were doing.

One ("I can't BELIEVE they sold you that memory---it won't fit into your computer" ) said he would arrange to send me the right memory. He then transferred (CLICK!!) me to another lady.

She took my information and said I would receive a return authorization number (RMA) within 48-72 hours to return my memory for credit (did I mention this was $400 of now-worthless hardware?).

Well, today, 5 days after that, I received an email from Gateway, giving me an RMA for THE WINDOWS XP UPGRADE (!). I don't even remember mentioning that I HAD the XP upgrade!

Since then, I have exchanged several emails from the nice folks at Gateway. The thread ran something like this:

"Oh, we're sorry you don't want the XP anymore"

"Oh, you DO want the XP?? Well great, we've cancelled the RMA"

"Oh, no, you CAN'T return the memory on that RMA number! You won't get credit for it! If you want to return it, please call the number below."

Guess what---the number was the same one I had called a week earlier! Figuring I had nothing to lose, I called it. They guy there said "OOPS", his computer had just gone down (must be a Gateway!) but he took my phone number and story and promised to call back ASAP.

4 hours later, no call.

My point is this---Any company can produce a lemon of a computer. But it takes a company with egregious disregard for customer satisfaction to consistently display this kind of incompetence and lack of appreciation of a customer's plight. If this is how Gateway intends to treat customers, my next one is a Dell!

All this from someone who two weeks ago would have defended Gateway to the last breath.

If any of you people run into that Dave guy (the one with the ponytail), tell him to spend less on cow commercials and more on training the people running the phones and computers.

Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

Jim