Their support line is terrible, they offer no solutions, or just leave you hanging after they tell you to re-install Windows. I am still waiting for a response from their "Case Management" department.

I also, out of frustration, asked for the corporate headquarters' phone number and or location and was told, "We are not at liberty to give you that." I did reach someone who told me after I complained about having to format the disc and re-install and write the disc from scratch that, as a consumer, I should know how to do these things. I replied, I am not, nor do I want to be a computer tech --- this is not why I purchased a new computer --- to spend days of my time trying to fix it.

I have 16 pages of documentation of times and dates and conversations as to my problems with this computer and yet, Gateway still continues to try to sweep me under the rug. Their tech support and customer service is HORRIBLE!

I will never buy another gateway. they do not update the drivers if it is over 5 years old. I have a MP8708 gateway lap top and I tried installed windows 7 and gateway does not have drivers for windows 7 thus windows 7 locks up because gateway will not update there divers for the gateway MO8708 machine ... the MP8708 is a good machine, however, there service for the consumer is not the best, it in fact stinks ... they want u to spend more money on a new machine... rather that update there drivers for older machines... i suggest u never buy a gateway computer

I called Gateway to ask about a broken power button on my out-of-warranty laptop, which is two years old. They told me to send it in; they would assess the damage and call me with a quote. I could then either accept the repair work or have my laptop shipped back. First, though, they needed to put a $450 hold on my credit card. If I decided not to accept the repair work it would be refunded. If the repair work was less than $450, I would receive the balance.

A week later, I got my laptop back fixed without ever receiving that call. There was no receipt indicating service completed, but the $450 charge remained. When I called customer service, they denied the policy of giving customers a quote. Why would I pay $450 to replace a power button on a two-year-old $600 laptop? After much haggling, Gateway finally agreed to refund $250. I was upset they wouldn't acknowledge their fault, but this was a reasonable compromise.

Almost five months later, I still haven't received the refund. Now Gateway has no customer service line that will speak to me as an out-of-warranty customer (even though I paid $450 for a repair). I can only send emails, to which I only get the standard response: Your computer is out of warranty, so we cannot talk to you. Your refund has been denied. No further explanation is given.

Gateway's misleading repair service and dishonest customer service has wasted $450 of my money. Instead of a new laptop, I'm stuck with the same, slow running Gateway. Don't make the same mistake I did. Stay away from this company.

I ordered a laptop from Gateway in August of 2008. I recieved my laptop in September. In October of 2008 I contacted Gateway to let them know that the pre-installed software for Microsoft was not working. They advised me to contact Microsoft. I have been working with Microsoft since October of last year and they were not able to solve the problem at that time. The other day I was on the laptop registering for school when it cut off. At first I said to myself maybe the battery is loose. When I checked it, it was in tact. I cut the computer back on. The first thing I saw was the Gateway sreen. It never moved off. Five minutes later the Realtek boot screen came up telling me "no operating system found." I contacted Gateway to let them know what the problem was. Like most companies now a days they to have out-sourced employees. Their center is located in India. I talked to four associates in India who kept trying to tell me it was a software issue and kept trying to get me to send my computer to Texas where "it would take 18 days for them to figure out what was wrong or I could purchase a service agreement for $59.99, $129.99, and $199.99" for a software issue that did not exist. At this point I contacted Microsoft via chat online. The representative was more than helpful. She even did a confernce call to Gateway for me. The Gateway rep did not want to hear what the Microsoft rep or I was trying to tell him. After I raised my voice a couple of times he decided to give me what he thought was help. He said, "since your computer is under warranty I can put in a request to send you a new hard drive at no charge to you, but you pay for shipping and handling. You send us your hard drive, and once we get it we will send you a new one." "The second option we will charge your credit card, send you a new hard drive, and remove the charge once we get the faulty one back." I did not understand why I should have to pay for anything when a total of nine representatives from Gateway, including a supervisor and an escalation team member told me it was not my fault it was "faulty hardware" which was covered under warranty. Also why it took Microsoft 2 hours and 29 minutes to tell me what was wrong with my laptop and why Gateway could not figure it out and did not want to believe the rep from Microsoft in a day and a half . I could see if I owed Gateway some money, but the laptop was paid for. They were not willing to come out of their pockets for anything even though it was the companies fault. They were rude, impatient, inconsistent, not to mention their representatives in India were not knowlegable on the companies products or technical support. Basically I have a $900.00 laptop, that is 7 months old, that I have to fix out of my own pocket. I may not even have it by the time I start school. I would not recommend Gateway to anyone based on their warranty agreement, their faulty products, their lack of technical support, or their lack of customer service. I believe that if your going to take jobs from the US and place them in other countries because of cheap labor the least your company can do is make sure the employees you hire have the proper training. I do hope that anyone who has delt with this company or is currently dealing with does not have the same experience I did.

I bought an Acer Aspire One Netbook computer. A very good computer - until it broke after 3 months of using it. It just wouldn't boot up. So - I went to contact customer service. Now - NOTHING in Acer's materials that they supply when you buy the computer contains a phone number to reach them. NOTHING. In fact, if you go to there website for tech support online (which is also terrible) - you can't find a phone number there either! They purposely hide it! I'm not making this up either - it really can't be found. I found it by googling for it online - and it turns out that a PC Magazine reviewer had been so kind as to post it online after also finding it impossible to find. [It's 800-816-2237 by the way.]

When you call it's a good 5-10 minutes of getting through to someone through a maze of entering serial numbers for your machine. When I finally got through, indeed I had a problem that required sending the machine back. At first though, at my expense, I was told to go to Geek Squad or somewhere like that (cost me $65) because Acer would not save or get my data off my hard drive - once I sent the computer back it would likely come back with a reformatted hard drive. So I did that. And then I was told to ship the computer, at my own expense to their repair facility. I'll remind you again that this computer is under warranty and is 3 months old.

So I send it in, and they keep it for almost two weeks before it is sent back to me. During that time there is no way to know its status or when it might be returned to me.
And when it comes back - I turn it on - and again it doesn't boot up. Just doesn't work. So I call in AGAIN - and am told to send the computer back in AGAIN to them. This time ACER will spring for the cheapest possible (3 day ground Fed Ex Shipping) return shipping - BUT they make it very difficult because instead of providing a Fed Ex Billing number or a shipping label - they provide something called a "Fed Ex Drop Off #" which only authorized Kinko Fedex or actual Fed Ex branch people know what to do with. It's used so infrequently if you call Fed Ex (which I did) they don't know what it is either. AND the Acer reps on the phone don't tell you this - so if you go to a regular Fed Ex location (like a Mail Box etc.), which I did, everyone is confused until on my own I figure this out by calling into Acer support yet again. Oh - and Acer support is run by a separate company that won't identify itself - it's not even ACER. And if you send in your computer AGAIN as I did they don't even expedite the repair - you go into the same queue as first time repairs. So now my machine is on its 3-day return trip to Acer - and we'll see what happens when I get it back in another two weeks. I'm already out $65 + $11 for my original shipping to them - and this is on a $380 machine. This is the worst customer experience I've had in my life and I would highly recommend that you do not buy the Acer Aspire One - unless you believe nothing will ever go wrong.