Wednesday, August 26, 2009
still no news
Gateway received my laptop yesterday and sent me an email. No other news from them. I hope they will fix my problem or call me to ask me what's wrong. I don't really believe they will though.
Monday, August 24, 2009
a dream come true?
Tonight I dreamed Gateway fixed my laptop. I also dreamed that my grandma, who died a couple of years ago, was going to buy groceries and I was waiting for her to come back. She also told me something I can't remember right now. Wondering what that means I checked the FedEx shipping of my laptop to the repair service. It should be there today. I hope my dream comes true. The Gateway one.
Friday, August 21, 2009
what a BBB complaint can do
Yesterday I got a call from Gateway. I thought it would be about my repair. Instead, the guy told me they had received my BBB (Better Business Bureau) complaint and wanted to know what's going on. So i told him my terrible experience and that I was disappointed and frustrated and how all this thing is being such a waste of my time.
I have to say that he was very kind. Since I sent my laptop in for repair to some kind of "higher level" technical support, the guy said that we could wait until the laptop comes back and within 48 hours he is going to call me again. If the issue is still there he said there are "other options", but did not say what those are since they involve choices he can't make himself. I wonder what that is.
I'm glad something's changing though. Maybe now I will have my problem solved or maybe a replacement (I hope that's one of the "other options").
Stay tuned.
I have to say that he was very kind. Since I sent my laptop in for repair to some kind of "higher level" technical support, the guy said that we could wait until the laptop comes back and within 48 hours he is going to call me again. If the issue is still there he said there are "other options", but did not say what those are since they involve choices he can't make himself. I wonder what that is.
I'm glad something's changing though. Maybe now I will have my problem solved or maybe a replacement (I hope that's one of the "other options").
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
how it all started: Gateway P-7811FX
I'm starting this blog about my very bad adventure with Gateway Computer.
I bought a Gateway gaming laptop, the P-7811FX, at the end of August 2008. This was a very appealing machine since it has an Intel P8400 core 2 duo processor, 4GB RAM, a nice 200 GB hard disk, a 17" screen and most of all an Nvidia Geforce 9800M GTS with 512 MB of RAM, which makes it very good for gaming. By the way, I wanted a laptop for gaming, but I'm also a programmer and I need it for work too.
Did I say "good for gaming"? I wish that was true. Unfortunately, gaming with this computer has always been a big pain in the butt. I started experiencing system freezing very soon after I started using this computer. The first game I played on it was Crysis. The performance is very good but after a hour or so the computer just froze. And it was a serious freezing issue: I was forced to manually shut down the laptop each time (holding down the power button for a couple of seconds). Also, I noticed very soon that I had the same issue when Windows Aero was activated after the Windows Vista Aurora screensaver was up for a while. The issue was probably due to the graphics card overheating and causing a system lock up. I double checked this hypothesis using GPU-Z, that showed a peak in the GPU temperature right before the hang-up (around 70 C).
My big mistake was not to bring the computer back to bestbuy when I still could and also to underestimate this hang ups. Anyway, I am Italian, so I came back to Italy at the end of September and these issues became more frequent. I had the same troubles with other games too, like The Witcher. I contacted Gateway customer service but of course I needed to be in the US for them to be able to repair my laptop.
When I came back to the US in February the first thing I did was to send my laptop in for repair. I thought: finally I am going to have a working machine. I had to pay the shipping and packing expense, which cost me 70$. After about 10 days, I received my laptop back and with big disappointment they had not done anything! On the technical support note there was written that they updated the BIOS and cleaned the fan. Now, I'm not a computer manufacturer engineer but I think I have enough experience with computers to say that cleaning the stupid fan can't fix a serious hang up problem. In fact, the problem was still there. I contacted Gateway customer support again and I had to call more than once to make them pay for the shipping. They finally sent me a FedEx drop off number and I shipped the laptop back to their repair center. Since I didn't want to replicate the first experience, I sent them an email, saying that they should have checked what happens with Windows Aero with the Aurora screensaver on for 20-30 min. Having done part of their job, they realized that mine was a serious issue and replaced a bunch of components: motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM. So, it wasn't a dusty fan, huh?
The laptop came back after another 10 days (so I think it was middle of March). This time I was much more satisfied. They actually did something and I was feeling more confident. All I had to do was to test it. The first tests I ran were quite successful: I could run a bunch of games for quite long without hang ups. So I decided to get some more games and I got Fallout 3.
I have been playing Fallout for a while before I got some troubles. After 2-3 hours of gaming, I randomly experienced hang ups again. The temperature of the GPU was going much higher this time though (80 C). Since the issue didn't happen so often, I neglected it for a while. I even managed to finish the whole game quite smoothly (beside some times when I haven't saved and the computer would freeze...).
At the mid of July I got the game Anno 1404, a strategy game. This game doesn't have incredible graphics. It looks very good but it's not cutting edge technology like Crysis for example, so I was pretty confident. Surprisingly, even with very very low graphics settings, the game would cause system hang ups after just 15min of playing! That was too much. I don't really care about this game, but I find really frustrating having to deal with this crap, since this laptop is supposed to be made for gaming.
With big frustration and disappointment I finally called Gateway customer service again and this time it was much easier to get them to pay for the shipping (too bad I had to pay 10$ for the box...). I sent the laptop in at the beginning of August 2009. I was concerned already because my previous experience wasn't very good. After another 10 days I got the laptop back and not very surprisingly the repair note said that they were "unable to reproduce the issue".
This was really too much. I wrote an email to PCWorld's "On Your Side" and started a complaint on BBB right after. I also called Gateway again and talked to their level 2 support. The level 2 support told me that they have some kind of level 2 technical support, which apparently goes more deeply into the diagnosis of the computer problem. By now my computer should have gotten to level 5 support then... They also gave me another drop off number.
I shipped my laptop to the Gateway repair center for the fourth time today. My warranty is gonna be over by the end of the month and even though my laptop will have an additional 90 days warranty after the repair, I don't feel any confident at all. It's been a frustrating and disappointing year with this computer and with Gateway customer service and technical support. I think they have been working in a very superficial way and with no real will of solving my issue. Also, my laptop is clearly a lemon, but Gateway apparently does not have a replacement policy and there's no way they are going to refund me, which is actually what I would really want: this laptop doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it's been a huge waste of my time.
Is there anybody who had my same bad experience with them? Any advice?
I bought a Gateway gaming laptop, the P-7811FX, at the end of August 2008. This was a very appealing machine since it has an Intel P8400 core 2 duo processor, 4GB RAM, a nice 200 GB hard disk, a 17" screen and most of all an Nvidia Geforce 9800M GTS with 512 MB of RAM, which makes it very good for gaming. By the way, I wanted a laptop for gaming, but I'm also a programmer and I need it for work too.
Did I say "good for gaming"? I wish that was true. Unfortunately, gaming with this computer has always been a big pain in the butt. I started experiencing system freezing very soon after I started using this computer. The first game I played on it was Crysis. The performance is very good but after a hour or so the computer just froze. And it was a serious freezing issue: I was forced to manually shut down the laptop each time (holding down the power button for a couple of seconds). Also, I noticed very soon that I had the same issue when Windows Aero was activated after the Windows Vista Aurora screensaver was up for a while. The issue was probably due to the graphics card overheating and causing a system lock up. I double checked this hypothesis using GPU-Z, that showed a peak in the GPU temperature right before the hang-up (around 70 C).
My big mistake was not to bring the computer back to bestbuy when I still could and also to underestimate this hang ups. Anyway, I am Italian, so I came back to Italy at the end of September and these issues became more frequent. I had the same troubles with other games too, like The Witcher. I contacted Gateway customer service but of course I needed to be in the US for them to be able to repair my laptop.
When I came back to the US in February the first thing I did was to send my laptop in for repair. I thought: finally I am going to have a working machine. I had to pay the shipping and packing expense, which cost me 70$. After about 10 days, I received my laptop back and with big disappointment they had not done anything! On the technical support note there was written that they updated the BIOS and cleaned the fan. Now, I'm not a computer manufacturer engineer but I think I have enough experience with computers to say that cleaning the stupid fan can't fix a serious hang up problem. In fact, the problem was still there. I contacted Gateway customer support again and I had to call more than once to make them pay for the shipping. They finally sent me a FedEx drop off number and I shipped the laptop back to their repair center. Since I didn't want to replicate the first experience, I sent them an email, saying that they should have checked what happens with Windows Aero with the Aurora screensaver on for 20-30 min. Having done part of their job, they realized that mine was a serious issue and replaced a bunch of components: motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM. So, it wasn't a dusty fan, huh?
The laptop came back after another 10 days (so I think it was middle of March). This time I was much more satisfied. They actually did something and I was feeling more confident. All I had to do was to test it. The first tests I ran were quite successful: I could run a bunch of games for quite long without hang ups. So I decided to get some more games and I got Fallout 3.
I have been playing Fallout for a while before I got some troubles. After 2-3 hours of gaming, I randomly experienced hang ups again. The temperature of the GPU was going much higher this time though (80 C). Since the issue didn't happen so often, I neglected it for a while. I even managed to finish the whole game quite smoothly (beside some times when I haven't saved and the computer would freeze...).
At the mid of July I got the game Anno 1404, a strategy game. This game doesn't have incredible graphics. It looks very good but it's not cutting edge technology like Crysis for example, so I was pretty confident. Surprisingly, even with very very low graphics settings, the game would cause system hang ups after just 15min of playing! That was too much. I don't really care about this game, but I find really frustrating having to deal with this crap, since this laptop is supposed to be made for gaming.
With big frustration and disappointment I finally called Gateway customer service again and this time it was much easier to get them to pay for the shipping (too bad I had to pay 10$ for the box...). I sent the laptop in at the beginning of August 2009. I was concerned already because my previous experience wasn't very good. After another 10 days I got the laptop back and not very surprisingly the repair note said that they were "unable to reproduce the issue".
This was really too much. I wrote an email to PCWorld's "On Your Side" and started a complaint on BBB right after. I also called Gateway again and talked to their level 2 support. The level 2 support told me that they have some kind of level 2 technical support, which apparently goes more deeply into the diagnosis of the computer problem. By now my computer should have gotten to level 5 support then... They also gave me another drop off number.
I shipped my laptop to the Gateway repair center for the fourth time today. My warranty is gonna be over by the end of the month and even though my laptop will have an additional 90 days warranty after the repair, I don't feel any confident at all. It's been a frustrating and disappointing year with this computer and with Gateway customer service and technical support. I think they have been working in a very superficial way and with no real will of solving my issue. Also, my laptop is clearly a lemon, but Gateway apparently does not have a replacement policy and there's no way they are going to refund me, which is actually what I would really want: this laptop doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it's been a huge waste of my time.
Is there anybody who had my same bad experience with them? Any advice?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
