"On Oct. 9th I purchased a Canon G3 Digital Camera from Gateway.com with the merchandise showing in stock. I received an email the next day stating that the camera would be delivered by Oct. 15th. On Oct. 17th I called Gateway as I had not received the product. I spent about 1 hr. trying to get past the automated system and talk to a live human. I got thru and was told the camera was now on back order and would be delivered by Oct. 29th. The rep. stated that Gateway would upgrade the shipping so that I would receive it faster. On about Oct. 25th I called again and spoke to another rep. who showed the camera was on back order and he could not say when it might arrive. I then emailed the customer service dept. and got a prompt reply stating that I would get the camera by Oct. 29th. On Oct. 27th I called back just to check and was told that the camera was shipping on the 27th(which I informed the rep. was today). Nothing arrived on the 29th and I again made several phone calls and got several different answers as to where the camera was. I again emailed the company and received a reply that the NEW date of arrival was Nov. 5th (not quite in time for Halloween). I then called AGAIN and spoke to someone in sales who said my order was being CANCELLED. I then received an email from Gateway that the order was being cancelled. I immediately called the rep. who sent the email and was told the camera was no longer available from Canon. I called Canon and I was told the G3 was still available and if Gateway wanted them they could still purchase them.
I called the FTC and was told it was a violation for Gateway not to have notified me originally that the product would be delayed.
I have made many purchases on the internet and this experience is by far the worst.
I don't think they're dishonest, I just think they're in competent."

"This company is terrible and I would not recommend anyone purchase from them.

I order a Canon G3 digital camera from them on October 9. It was listed as IN STOCK and available for delivery. They were running 10% off camera so the deal was very good at $456. I got the first email that the order was received the following morning. Only found out it was backorder to the 15th by first checking online order status AND then calling automated phone system. A two step process that should be one.
Well after the 15th, the new delivery date was the 29th. I emailed and spoke to them several times.
"Are you going to get this camera in as its a discountinued model now?"
"Ohh certainly, sir, your our hightest priority."

Well after waiting 3 weeks to receive my camera, I've been informed my order is cancelled because they know longer carry that camera. Thanks for letting me know now.

As a result, several other vendors are now out of stock and the prices have went up on the ones that do have them.

We asked if we could get a G5 at a discount because of our trouble. We were told, "Sorry we're too busy to talk to you, please order the camera of your choice at the regular price."

Forget that, I will never shop at your site again.

P.S. The day my order was cancelled, my wife called and a salesman was going to take her order for a G3 and said there should be no problem getting the camera.
"

"I purchased my first Gateway in Sept 1998. Every step of the way I was delighted with my purchase. I was middle age, and that was my first system. With Gateway's excellent customer support, I was able to push what I knew and if it backfired, Gateway tech support helped me sort it out.

In November of 2000 I went back to Gateway to purchase my second system, and got talked into packages I did not want. Everything changed. Calls to tech support yielded conflicting information, and the wait grew longer and longer to even reach them. I finally came down to only calling in the 12 - 4 AM time frame. Each time I called them, I hoped I would get a tech support person that knew more than what they could find in their manual, emphasis on find because sometimes they had trouble finding anything. Virtually every tech support call ended up in completely reformatting my hard drive.

About 1 year after purchase, that system failed. I had to take it 130 miles round trip to a Gateway store and then make that same round trip to pick it up. They had replaced virtually all of the system components under warranty. After I picked it up and brought it home, most of the periphial connections did not work. I got virtually no support for Gateway, only a make those trips again. I hoped up another system to limp along.

In January 2003 I began to look for another system. Come to find out that Gateway (after replacing so much of the works in my system and less than 50 hours on it after the rebuild) would only allow me $160 on a trade in for what was still a relatively good system.

I went to ABS, got a system that it loaded and with the technical support I had with my original Gateway for about 800 less than what Gateway would sell me a similar system for.

Why pay Gateway's high prices and then never see "mail it in" or "on-site support" and only lousy phone tech support? Why go with a company that does not stand behind their product, even at trade in time? ABS took me back to what I wanted, built that sytem for me instead of pulling a stock one off their rack, and gave me a great price with count-on tech support. I used to recommend Gateway highly, now I warn people..."

"I actually have a postive comment to make about this Company.I purchased a complete system in July 2000.2 years later,my speakers went out even though I could still hear audio with a headset.I called support(got answered in about 4-5 minutes).They sent me a brand new subwoofer and 4 speakers without any probelms when I went through all the symptoms.That is taking care of the customer in my view."

"Gateway sucks big time! They offer NO support on their products. They want everything sent back to them so that they can rip you off for even MORE money!!"

"In November 2002, I bought a new Solo 1450 SE laptop from Gateway, along with an extended 3 year warranty. Within the first two days, I returned the laptop because the NIC was sending out billions of packets per second and nothing was recieving them. I talked them into giving me a new laptop for that.

Within a month of that, I had pixels go out on the screen of the laptop, causing black dots on my screen. I had to fight with them to get it fixed. One tech said I had to have six pixels out, but he didn't count six, I counted about 10. I called tech support and they told me the same thing. I later went back to the store and had one guy tell me 5% and a girl tell me 5 pixels. They couldn't make up their mind. I finally got them to send it in and try to have it fixed, they couldn't guarantee it. It finally got fixed.

Less than two months after that, I had more pixels go out on the new screen. Once again, I had to fight it. They would not guarantee that it would be fixed and would not give me a new one. After school was done, I sent it off and got it fixed.

Gateway does not fix things without trying to put up a fight. They also try to keep from getting sued by putting a problem resolution clause in the paperwork you sign when you buy. This has been found as illegal in Illinois, not far from me in Missouri. If you think you have a lemon, check out the Magnuson-Moss Warrenty Act, a federal act covering cars, but that also applies to computers.

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UPDATE -- 10/22/03 -- I am still working on getting my laptop taken care of. Once again, I am having to take my laptop back in order to get pixels fixed on it. The last time I took it in, I told them about where the case cracked and they refused to fix it saying that it was not covered under warrenty. I ended up buying a new HP from Bestbuy and love it. Everyone I know has had good luck with BestBuys warrenty, so I will give them a try.

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UPDATE -- 3/10/03 -- I have my HP and it works great. I am still fighting Gateway about my first laptop. I took it in on Feb 14 and after telling them what was wrong with it, they kept telling me that nothing was covered under warrenty (cracked case, CD drive won't boot, pixels out, bad battery). After they took my serial number, the tech said that they refused to work on it and that they were told not to touch it. They called the legal department and they said they could take it, but not work on it. Finally, about two weeks ago, the manager said they wanted to give me my money back. I had to refer him to my attorney. BTW, I went through arbitration and the arbitrator sided with Gateway and did not give any reasos as to why they did so.

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UPDATE -- 9/2/04 -- It has been a while since this was over. What ended up happening with my case was very stupid in my opinion. After arbitration, my attorney told me to continue to take it in so we could hopefully get our case re-instated through the state.

I took the laptop to Gateway for many problems (bad pixels, broken chassis, bad CD-ROM, the usual). After explaining this to the tech, he said he would send it in and have it repaired. Once he looked up my serial number, he said he was not allowed to touch the system because I went through arbitration. He stated that the last time they took the laptop they had been in trouble for taking it. They got on the phone with their legal department and they were allowed to take it.

During the week my laptop was gone, I received two checks from Gateway. One for the full price of the warrenty and another for the full price of the laptop. I did not cash them. I went to Gateway to pick up my laptop. I was told that the laptop was sent to the company and that I was set two checks in return. Once I argued with them on this, they said that they had the option to do this and this was in the papers I signed with the warrenty. After contacting my attorney, he said I could cash the checks. With the situation of the attorney, I did not have to pay him, however he was going to try to get Gateway to pay for part of the costs. Now its over."

"I purchased a laptop from Gateway nearly 2 years ago. This was the worst purchase I have ever made. Their customer service is terrible and one rep even hung up on me. I recently tried to purchase a battery for my laptop. The website said it was in stock and would ship in 2-3 days. This was fine because I needed the battery for some travels in 2 weeks. However, when I got my confirmation email shortly after it said my battery was not in stock and wouldnt ship for over 3 weeks. You have to love how their website is deceptive like that. I sent a first email to customer service asking why it would take so long and only got a response saying when my battery was supposed to arrive. On the second email I got some crap about gateway being a low cost company and blaming their manufacturers for delaying a product they supposedly had in stock. I waited for 2 weeks and finally cancelled my order since it wasn't there for when I needed it. "

"I ordered a Canon EOS 10D late in the afternoon on March 21. I had originally ordered the camera from another online vendor that morning, because I was incorrectly told that it was "In Stock, Same-Day Delivery"; however, I cancelled my order after the company asked me to "fax my driver's license" to confirm my order. I found out then that the camera was on backorder, and cancelled my order.

I tried Gateway because I had read on dpreview.com earlier in the month that they had them in stock.

When I called Gateway, I was told by an ethusiastic employee named "Billy" that it might be two weeks before I received the camera.

I was shocked later when I read some bad reviews of Gateway on dpreview.com, and I started second-guessing my decision.

I was very pleased and pleasently surprised when it arrived on March 27. I will be happy to do business with them again."

"A miserable experience. I was told by the salesperson that the item I sought was in stock and would ship overnight for Saturday delivery. I called later in the day to get a tracking number and was told that it did not ship and was out of stock. I then spoke to a supervisor who apologised, searched multiple warehouses and found the item. He rerouted the order and promised a monday delivery. On monday I called for a tracking number and was told that the item did not ship, is still backordered and that there is no record of my ever having talked to the supervisor. I asked to speak to the supervisor and gave the rep his name and badge # and was told that that was not enough information to find out who the person is. I pointed out that I had his badge number and was told that that doesn't help and is for "internal use only." I asked why, then, every rep offers their number at the beginning of each call as their identification and was told that that, too, is for in-house purposes.
I have never faced such blatant dishonesty and misleading information with any retailer. I encourage anyone considering a purchase from Gateway to explore alternate vendors."

"Promised to match pricing with Dell. Took credit card information. Called back to say the price wouldn't be honored. I agreed to pay the higher price. They told me the item was available and would ship overnight to be received Saturday. Didn't receive the item. Called back and was told it was out of stock. Cancelled order in disgust."

"Terrible people, and experience...misrepresentation, dishonest, empty promises, and no idea of what the other hand is doing...I canceled my order...for more details...get them from many others with this same experience at the links below...t

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=4629486

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=4627945

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=4626678

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=4620370"

"Horrible experience. Misrepresented stock, wouldn't return calls until I called at least a dozen times. Did not help in any way, and had an attitude about it. I cancelled my order immediately. BEWARE."

"Ordered a NEC 1920X LCD monitor from them. Got an e-mail right away of the confirmation to my order. Went to input my order number on their status web page and it told me the order didn't exist! Put in my phone number and it said the order was "processing, waiting to ship". I check again 5 days later and it still says "processing, waiting to shop". I sent them an e-mail asking what's the hold up as the monitor is in-stock. Told "sorry, it will come in another week". Huh?! Then later that night Fedex drops off the monitor!

These clowns need to get their act together on order tracking."

"Poor customer service. Repeatedly gave me incorrect information about my shipment. Wouldn't bother shopping here ever again. The price was attractive and shipping was free. And shipping was fast too, but VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. This is the first time I had a customer rep actually try to talk me into cancelling my order!"

"While in the market for a new computer I priced out systems from both Dell and Gateway. I bought the Gateway 700 xl P4 3.06 Loaded. Ordered on the 12th of Dec. it was shipped on the 14th of Dec. and I received it on the 17th of Dec. Excellent machine, I'm not surprised, this is my 5th PC I've purchased from them since 1996. I'd not only buy from them again, I still recommend other do as well."