Gateway/Acer Corporation DEFECTIVE LAPTOP. REFUSAL FOR REFUND. RETURNED THREE TIMES, RETURNED WITHOUT COVERING OF FAN, MOTHERBOARD Irvine California

Where do I begin? Purchased a Gateway laptop through HSN on May 23, 2008 for my son as a high school graduation gift. In November 2008 there was a hard drive failure. Lost all of his papers, emails, games, etc. I had to send it back to Gateway the first time on November 21, arrived on November 25, 2008. On December 3, 2008 I called to check the status of the laptop. I was told at that time that the hard drives were backordered and it could take up to 3 weeks to get it in....(I don't understand how a computer company can be backordered on such things). On December 10th it was finally shipped back to me, but without the power cords (which they did instruct me to put in the box since it was a new computer and they would need to check those too!). I called them on December 15th to inquire where the power supply was and after arguing with them they finally said they would send me new ones, but... you guessed it...they were on backorder. My son went back to school on January 11, 2009. His power supply finally came on January 5, 2009. Not more than a month later, it happened again. Hard drive failure. I called customer service, argued to speak with an American who could at least understand me, only to have this representative (who I know was from the East) tell me he was American. This time the computer was shipped out on February 18th with a letter stating that I wanted a different brand of hard drive. I had been told the two hard drives were from a defective company, why did they still use them?

Next : Well, guess what? Got the computer back on 03/6/2009, my son used it for a total of 6 days and then it crashed again. I called level II tech support last night, the gentleman asked me to call back again this morning and request a service technician come to my house to fix this. When I called I was told that that was not part of my warranty. I have to ship this piece of junk back to have it repaired, again. I am not satisfied with the response I got from Gateway, nor their lack of wanting to fix this immediately. It has been either en route or in their repair center more than it has been with my son. The computer finally arrived back to my house today! Yippee right? No! When I took it out of the box I noticed that there was no covering on the fan, motherboard, wireless card area. How incompetent can one be? I called and, of course, I have to send the unit back to them! They can't just send me the piece? I am contacting an attorney to see if there is anything that can be done about this. It's a pass the buck situation and no one cares. I have even called Corporate Care and Wade, the man who called and responded to my BBB complaint, just stated that it was repaired and returned.

So, now I have to send it back, they have to recheck the whole system (in which they had to replace the following : motherboard, hard drive (third time), wireless card, keyboard and plastics. They could have just sent me a new computer by now. I will never ever recommend Gateway. Will keep you updated as to the progress.

Kelly
Cincinnati, Ohio
U.S.A.