Gateway Computer SL2550 SP PIII - trouble with customer service

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on July 24, 2002:

From:

RE: Gateway Computer SL2550 SP PIII - trouble with customer service Like many of the other people that have posted, I too am dissatisfied with Gateway! In February of 2000 I purchased a SL2550 SP, PIII for about $3000.00. Less than one month after I received it I was back in Gateway Country in Daly City (which is now closed, go figure!) complaining about the performance. The machine was running sluggish and always hung up while shutting down. At that time I requested to speak with the manager with regards to this problem and the concern that I had that this laptop could possibly be a lemon. She treated be in a very condescending manner and insinuated that I did not know how to use a computer. I explained to her that I am a multiplatform user and am very well versed in computers and requested to have the number of her supervisor.

She then stated that without them looking at in nothing could be done, so I submitted it for repair. When I picked the laptop up I was informed that their was nothing wrong with the computer and that there was a conflict with their Gateway "Go-Back" and Norton and suggested that I remove Norton Disk Doctor. I did so but the problem still persisted. Again I returned to their repair facility quite frustrated that I had just spent all this money for a faulty machine and they were unwilling to do ANYTHING about it. So much for their motto At Gateway, we treat customers the way we expect to be treated ourselves. At this time they again ran it through a diagnostics, low level formatted the hard drive and removed the "Go-Back". At this time I spoke with a gentleman who was the district manager who happened to be in the store and once again requested a replacement to which his reply was you need to give us the opportunity to fix the problem and since it is not the same problem consistently the machine could not be replaced. I argued the problem was the same, it was not running as it should! The machine ran (still sluggishly) for another couple months until August 2000 when I brought it back again because it would not even boot up, at this time they replaced the hard drive. By this time discouraged and outraged I placed the laptop in its bag and changed my primary computer to my DELL laptop! Since then each time I attempted to use the computer it would crash, not run up to its potential and not shut down properly. Finally I decided to reinstall everything myself and did so using the restore disk. At that point I only used the laptop on occasion as it was/is not trustworthy! Just recently, I had to restore the laptop again and was very dismayed to find that several drivers that I needed (NIC, Video) did not install properly or were not on the restore disk. I went to the Gateway website and attempted to download the drivers, the drivers that they claimed were the correct ones for my laptop did not even work! Once again, (March 2002) I took the laptop to a Gateway repair facility, this time in Stockton. They reinstalled the drivers and the laptop worked for the first time until May 27, 2002 the week before my finals when all of a sudden the screen started flickering and then ended up going black!

At that time I did not have the time to take it immediately to a repair facility and it was not until June 25, 2002 that I took it into the Berkeley, Ca Gateway Country (which no longer has a repair facility) and spoke with the FIRST person in Gateway that seemed to care. The manager, David Lingle attempted to assist me in resolving the issue by calling Gateway looking for their ERT (Emergency Response Team) which was no longer in existence and by calling the territories Lead Service Manager Jeremy Clark.

While David was on the phone with Jeremy I was on the line with Gateway Customer Service trying to resolve the issue from the other end, I spoke with a very uninformed young lady named Claissa (badge number 022) who placed my on hold for over 20 minutes while she looked for some to assist me and then subsequently disconnected me. Even though she had a call back number she never called back! Mr. Lingle stayed on the line with Mr. Clark and on completion of their phone call informed me that Mr. Clark was going to check the service records and see "what could be done regarding a replacement" and that Mr. Clark would call me back by the end of the week. He never did. Finally,(July 15,2002) I took it to the Gateway Country Store in Dublin Pleasanton (the nearest repair facility in the Bay Area for about a 30 mile radius!) and explained to the service tech the problem and of the promised phone call from Mr. Clark and she called him. I reminded him of the conversation with Mr. Lingle and he apologized that he had not gotten back to me, apparently he did not know I was expecting him to and then said that he "hated to do this without looking at the machine but would authorize the replacement of the Chassis!" I finally felt as if someone was assisting me, but I jumped the gun.

The person assisting me at Gateway in Dublin quoted me a turn around time of 3-5 business days, when I called on Friday to check the status I was put on hold for 10 minutes and then informed that it would not be ready until July 25, 2002 (but probably sooner) as the part did not come in yet. I requested to know why someone did not contact me to alert me to this change, there was no answer given. I requested that I be notified immediately when the laptop was ready to pick up and she assured me she would. Instead what I received was a phone call last night (July 23,2002) from John (badge number 92130) stating that the request for the replacement chassis was denied numerous times and that the unit would have to be sent out so that it could be looked at. He requested to know where the laptop was and I informed him that it had been sitting in his store since the 15th, again I inquired as to why I the customer was not informed of the problems, once again no answer! John informed me that he would send my laptop out today (July 24,2002) and that it should be returned within 2-7 business days (but he could not guarantee it!) ! Moral of the story: Gateway's customer service is not all they claim it to be and if you are buying a laptop, Dell is a better option (I have never had a problem with my Dell) Isabella F. Mendoza

Berkeley, California 94720-1460