"I ordered a digital camera early Friday morning from Gateway.com, and later in the day Newegg.com (who is great BTW) got them in stock for about $100 less. I had received nothing from Gateway about my order, so I called them to cancel it. I was asked why (fair enough) and put on hold for a few minutes. She came back and said the order was cancelled and that I was all set. I called back 20 minutes later after realizing the hold was still on my credit card to see if they could remove it. The person I talked to that time said the order had already shipped, that's why I couldn't cancel it. I told him that I had actually cancelled it earlier, and he said that wasn't possible since the order had shipped. So now I have to wait until next week to even find out if this thing shipped or not, send it back if it did, wait for the credit, then order from someplace that doesn't suck. Or I can keep it and chalk the $100 up to experience. Either way they're never getting any more of my business. Gateway.com has terrible ratings here and at Bizrate, I should have listened to them. Don't make the same mistake I did!!!"

"My experience with Gateway started out nice enough. I wanted to order the Gateway 300S Value computer for a Christmas gift. It was advertised on their Website as $399.00 (after $100 rebate). The website had a phone# to call if you had any questions about the rebate, so I called to make sure my purchase was eligible for the rebate (it was). The woman I spoke to on the phone was very nice and helpful so I placed my order directly through her instead of completing my order on the internet. She told me that a rebate form would be sent to me in the mail and would most likely arrive BEFORE my computer. I was happy with my purchase and also Ordered some Altec Lansing 641 speakers from their Accessory store. Well 3 weeks went by and my computer came, but still no rebate form so I called them again and was told that the rebate form takes 3-4 weeks to arrive so I waited patiently for it to come. A few days before Christmas Gateway called me to ask how I liked the computer and to see if there were any problems. I told them that it was a gift and still in the box and then I told them about still not receiving a rebate form at which time I was assured it would be sent right out. I still have not received a rebate form. I now feel like Gateway has INTENTIONALLY STOLEN $100.00 FROM ME. I never would have paid $499.00 for this computer and only bought it because of the rebate.
Gateway stole money from me and I learned an expensive lesson. I will never do business with Gateway again and I make sure to let anyone who is thinking about placing an order with Gateway know what they have done to me."

"I ordered a Canon i850 color photo printer from Gateway on May 8, 2003 through their website for a very competitive $142.95 with free shipping. I received the printer May 12, 2003 by fed express in perfect condition. This is my second experience with Gateway's excellent service. The first was the purchase of a complete system. I will definitely order from them again."

"I ordered a Dell 8250 on 11/23/02 with a shipping date of 12/9/02 which was later changed to 12/16/02 and then 2/5/03. On 12/9 I was thoroughly convinced that no matter how good their machine is I was not going to do business with a company that treats it's customers with such disrespect so I canceled my order and called Gateway.
To make a long story short I was promised my computer in a week and I received it in a week. The sales rep was a pleasure to deal with and the 700XL I purchased is incredible. Of interest, I thought I was short a cable so I called Gateway Tech Support expecting to be put on hold for 45 minutes like Dell. Amazing as it seems, I was immediately connected to a tech rep who explained why the cable wasn't needed in a friendly but professional manner.
This is my fourth Gateway machine and I have never had an unpleasant experience with them. I wanted to try Dell but they had their shot and blew it.
"

"It's winter time and we have had some power outages. So I look around to get a UPS. Having purchased a Camera from Gateway before with pretty good results, I found a Belkin UPS with free shipping, and a price about $30 lower than local retail. So I ordered 2 of them. Was sent an e-mail with a "Temporary" order number. The next morning I got an e-mail with a permanent order number. And was told that it would be viewable with in 24 hours online. It is not viewable, says it can't find my order, and after leaving a message yesterday for my "Web Order Management Representative" I called back and waiting on hold for about 20 min's to be told that the product is almost ready to ship??? OOO And I should expect it around 1/02/03. That is almost 3 full weeks from order date!!!

For a technology company that got it's start in phone/web custom systems their whole ordering/web tracking system seems to really suck!! I am not happy with this order at all. Next time, it's back to Newegg.com!

EDIT... Later the same day as posted above:
OK... They deserve an update to this. My UPS's just arrived!!! I am very impressed about the delivery speed! Obviously their internal tracking, and web tracking system needs some REAL work, but they got these products to me VERY fast!! I ordered them on 12/16/02 at approx 8pm PST, and have them by FedEx ground on 12/19/02!! I would have to say, improve their internal & external tracking systems and they would be a great place to buy accessories from!!!"

"For all the owner of 700X and others. You will find the problem with DVI connecter when you buy LCD disply [http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/127410620.shtml].
Another example of GW support:
Solution A: If the monitor has a VGA connector, use it instead. (they force you to use analog connector)
Solution B: Use the following steps.( read the above link )

I called them and I was disappointed by their responses.

Now, I will not call GW again and I prefer to pay 100 or more to get new case to fix this problem rather than calling GW support.

Gatway is bad.... try another company.

"

"I have had my PC for a year now and don't have any major complaints. I haven't had any problems with any of the components (knock on wood). I did have a Windows problem recently, and had to completely reinstall Windows. I contacted technical support through the live chat feature. They were somewhat helpful. My only complaint is that two people gave me conflicting advice on dealing with the problem before deciding that reinstallation was necessary. Fortunately, I didn't follow the advice the first person gave me because it sounded kind of extreme (something about resetting something on the motherboard). The second person advised me not to do that.
(Note: This update was done on 12/5/03, but didn't generate a new comment under the current date.)"

"Utterly disgusted. Ordered a unit a week ago and paid 2 day shipping. Called today to find out where it is and after a lengthy wait (20mins+) they told me the unit was on backorder. I then *tried* to cancel the order, which resulted in going through FIVE departments ultimately ending with a curt guy asking WHY I wanted to cancel the order. Throughly disgusted with gateway.com - I'll never order there again.

Edit - update After jumping through hoops canceling the order, the unit turned up today. They charged me 2 day shipping on a unit that took over a full week to arrive, then promise me the order is canceled yet (they said it would be unavilable anyway since it was on backorder) then they send me the unit after all. I'm not bothering to jump through the same hoops to get my money back. I'll put it down to experience and give the unit away as a Christmas gift. DO NOT ORDER FROM GATEWAY.COM - they have no idea what each department is doing. 0 out of 5"

"Bought a new 700XL that I ordered on 10/19/02. Got a ship date of 11/7/02. My new gateway was at my door 10/25/02. It worked like a champ and had lots of extra discs for the cdrw and the dvd-r that came with it. Every singel person I talked to was not only very helpful but estremely polite. This is my second Gateway and since both times I have not had even one problem I will buy from them again for sure."

"

"

"As there are only 60-some comment entries at this time for Gateway, and they sell far more systems than that each day, I came to the conclusion that people are more likely to write in a complaint than a compliment. People are more motivated when they are angry.

I was very satisfied with my Gateway exerience. This is my fourth system purchase from them. I have never had the problems with technical support that others report, and I have called in on each system to get questions answered.

The new 500X system is an awesome performer. The 18" LCD upgrade is worth every penny. For example, digital photos look far better than on my old 19" CRT.

The system worked right out of the box. Calls to technical support to get some questions answered about the new technologies were answered promptly. Even when I should have read the manual more carefully, the support person was very friendly, saying that many times just going over the written material with a tech support person gets the problem resolved.

I rate Gateway a perfect 10, and recommend you purchase from them."

"This company cares only about making money not customers: We bought 2 laptops Solo9550 with CDRW/DVD combo (made by Toshiba!!). This combo they used was found later (still within the warranty period)to be incompatible with playing DVD-R, which all other computers play (even this solo when I equipped it with an external DVD player). Tech support admitted incompatibility but refused to upgrade to something that works. I was forced to BUY the working accessory for an extra $400.00. They sell you a configuration knowing that it is not in good working order and ask you to buy the functioning one. Their customer service are there just to force the issues down the customer's throat but even their supervisor would not do anything more than the rep (the supervisor admitted to have no authority to solve problems, even before hearing the situation..!)."

"I got a very good deal from Gateway - $499.00 for what seems to be a remanufactured E4400, although it was not identified as such. But their technical support sucks: 1. It took me about half a dozen calls to pin them down on the exact specifications for a memory upgrade. 2. In another series of calls, when I asked them how much spare power was available in the system to supply power for upgrades, they told me: a) that it wasn't important, and b) (when I pressed) that it wasn't a fair question. Finally, in another call, I asked them what, if any, were the technical differences between the system I bought and the E4400. They said the technical difference was that my system was a "corporate" system and they didn't support it. That's what they said: they maintained that that was a "technical" difference.
I despair. In my experience, Gateway Technical Support's level of ignorance is beyond incredible.
-- Bob Day"

"so far so good. i got a P4 2gig for $780, everything work fine.and its fast as hell."