Complaint Review: Gateway Computers - Wilmington North Carolina

During November of 2002 I felt prepared to invest in my own PC. I always refer to Consumer's Reports before making a large purchase. I decided on Gateway (I can already hear some of you saying "what were you thinking") for several reasons. 1st Consumer's Report gave it a reasonable rating, the prices were competitive, 12 months no interest to pay, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY there was a local Gateway store in my town. I felt extremely confident that any tech issues could be handled with relative ease. Instead of Consumer's Report I should have been reading the Wall Street Journal.

With in two months of my purchase my local Gateway store disappeared. The company was experiencing some profit troubles and found that by cutting employees and face to face customer service, the execs could impress the shareholders while lining their pockets somemore. With my PC I purchased an extended 3 year warrenty. The salesman had told me during this time I could bring my tower in each year for a "check-up" and whenever I was experiencing difficulties. If the local store could not remedy the problem, they would ship my machine off for service and loan me a tower while it was gone. It just sounded too good to be true and it was. When Gateway left town, they essentially took my warrenty with them.

I called Gateway Customer service to discuss how this issue would be handled. I spoke with a rep named Rodney. Rodney was not very nice. He told me to just jump in my car and take my PC to the nearest Gateway store. I had already checked this out and the nearest store is 60 miles from me, 120 round trip to drop off and another to pick up. I explained to Rodney that I paid for the best warrenty possible and this does not sound like the best service possible. My next option wasn't any better. Rodney offered to allow ME to pay to ship my tower to and from the Gateway Central in order to have my machine serviced. I inquired as to why I should incur any further costs after paying up front to prevent a mess like this. After all, in a city of 120,000 someone must be able to fix a computer. Rodney said that's just the way it is. Rodney must have equated my young female voice with a lack of intelligence for when I asked to speak with his supervisor, he replied no.

My frustration was increasing while Rodney denied my every request. "May I speak to someone else in Customer Service? NO! May I have your full name? NO!" Clearly we weren't going to reach a resolution together. I thanked Rodney for treating me so rudely. In the 15 years I lived in NY I never encountered such rudeness. If I treated a client in that same manner, my employer would escort me to the door.

I waited a day and called the service center back yet again. This time I reached a Bethany. I discussed my concerns with her for 10 minutes. She told me to take my PC to the nearest Gateway. Again I explained that 240 miles to drop off and pick up my machine was unreasonable. She put me on hold to speak with her superior. Gateway counter offered to pay half the shipping in order to send my computer to be serviced at their central location. Gateway and I reached a stallmate.

Since this fiasco, I have contact several sources for information on how to handle this situation. The NC Att. General told me I have a right to be refunded for the cost of the warrenty since Gateway essentially defaulted on our contract when the local store closed and no reasonable accomodation, i.e. contracting the work on my PC out to a local technician, could be reached. He also kindly warned me that just because I have the right to something from a company does not mean I will ever see it.

After two more weeks of e-mails to Gateway expressing my views, I decided to call it quits. The fight is just not worth that much of my time. In the end, if I can help someone else to be more alert to potentially devious corporate practices than my headache is validated. I would be interested in hearing from others who feel scammed by Gateway or anyone who just thinks I am looney for my perception of how this situation should have been handled.

Michele

Wilmington, North Carolina
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Gateway

Click here to read about the finance company for Gateway Computers