Thank you all for your responses and I feel much better about my decision in
purchasing a computer. Some of you wanted a hit and I am happy to do it.
___
Yes, I have brought 3 personal computers from Gateway in the last four
years. One for my daughter, one for my son, and finally the last one for me
a year ago. I have appreciated the direct sales people and had found
someone I trusted to sell me the right configuration for three very
different needs. We have a local store. Does Lawrence have one? I have
not had to take any back or any major glitches. I have used there in-store
inservices but found that wanting when I was trained on a photo program I
did not have. My windows 98 computer, a gaming machine, set up for my son
has some problems probably related to how he treats it. My daughter also is
not the best at cleaning and updating her lap top. Mind I got last year. I
have had HPs and IBMs before.
___
I have a Gateway at home. I love it. When I first got it about 4 years
ago, the monitor was bad. I have also heard from other people who have
had bad monitors from Gateway. But after that there have been no
problems -- at least none that were Gateway's fault! :)
I have had experience with customer service due to user error. They
were great both times.
___
I love mine I am working on number two. I gave my first one to my son. I
replaced it not becasue it wasn't great but because it was windows 98 and I
didn't want to upgrade but I did want XP so I bought a Profile 4 (that is
the all in one pice one). I love it. I will have had it a year in November
and not one single problem have I had with it. With the first one I had a
modem that went bad but tech support walked me through installing it and it
was great how nice the technician was. Have a good day and have fun making
your decision.
___
I don't have any experience with Gateway, but at work we have Dell computers
and the customer service was excellent and their product is good.
Personally, I just went to a computer show and had one of the vendors put a
system together for me for about $500. (That includes a CD-ROM, DVD-RAM,
ethernet card, 1/2 gig memory, 80 gig hard drive. But my father, who has
been putting computers together since the early 70s was with me and he
services my computer as I need it. So, if you don't have someone you can
count on, Dell is great.
___
I have a Gateway computer that is 3 years old now. I have been very pleased
with it. Tech support on the phone is very courteous and attentive.
The only thing is that about 2 1/2 years ago I brought in my computer for
service, and I had to wait several weeks to get it back. You need to find
out if their repair service has improved. Then again, I hear that people
have not been totally happy with Dell either.
My brother just recently bought a Gateway computer, and he is very happy
with it.
Good luck with your purchase!
___
One of my teachers bought a Gateway for his son who was going off to
college. He had a bad experience which I won't take the time to detail. He
only got satisfaction when he was in the store (after much frustration over
the problem) and loudly started detailing his experience so other customers
could hear!
My school has dealt with Dell for the last 4 years with good results. I
had a couple of hard drive failures after just a couple weeks' operation,
but they replaced the drives with no hassle. My county tech man says he has
found them good to work with.
___
We have a lot of Gateway computers here at our school, and we have one at
home. We also have Dells, but that is because my husband (the tech
director) says there is not much difference in the two and the board of
trustees has a member that is working with Dell.
___
One of my teachers bought a Gateway for his son who was going off to
college. He had a bad experience which I won't take the time to detail. He
only got satisfaction when he was in the store (after much frustration over
the problem) and loudly started detailing his experience so other customers
could hear!
My school has dealt with Dell for the last 4 years with good results. I
had a couple of hard drive failures after just a couple weeks' operation,
but they replaced the drives with no hassle. My county tech man says he has
found them good to work with.
___
I just bought a laptop and found lots of places online to comparison shop.
If you want a desktop, try
http://www7.activebuyersguide.com/abg/nav/StartGuide.cfm?CatID=125&PID=0X7X147X131629Xe1371&RefID=0
For a laptop purchase, the equivalent site is
http://www8.laptops.activebuyersguide.com/abg/nav/StartGuide.cfm?CatID=59&PID=0X8X149X85530Xa75b8
I created a couple of different scenarios with different price points, etc,
and got an unbiased list of the best buys for each set of criteria. I made
my purchase of a Compaq with great confidence.
___
I have a Gateway laptop and I have had no trouble with it. A friend of mine
has a desktop and is thinking about going to one of their laptops so both of
us have been satisfied.
___
My whole family has gateways. My father just had a problem over the weekend
and the online support did a great job in fixing his problem.
I like it because you can get the latest models. We have a gateway store in
our regional area so you can go and try them out and talk to people. I have
been very satisfied as has my father.
___
I have Gateways at home and at school. I have no complaints. At a
former school we had Dells. The school system contracted with Dell to
purchase thousands of computers. We had constant problems in the
library with the A drives. They just couldn't stand up to the steady
student use. I've had no hardware problems with any of my Gateways at
home or at my new school system. In fact, I'm on my second Gateway at
home. Flat screen monitor. I love it.
___
I bought a Gateway 5 years ago and am still using it. I did purchase the
extended warrantee just to make sure...I never had much trouble, but if I
did the service was accurate and rapid.
___
There are many sources of reviews of computers in magazines and newspapers
and on the web.
Here is one source (check the left margin for more specific
reviews)..........
http://reviews.cnet.com/Desktops/2001-3118_7-0.html?tag=glnav
But you may want to start with the listings in the Google Directory where
the Cnet reviews are listed second..........
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Hardware/Technical_Evaluations_and_Product_Reviews/
Here's another group of general guides. Scroll down where you have many
choices..........
http://directory.google.com/Top/Home/Consumer_Information/
My personal favorite is ConsumerSearch,
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/
and here is their budget desktop computer page.......
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/budget_desktops/index.html
PC Magazine recently (2 issues back) ran a reader survey on their
satisfaction with the various computer makers, but when I looked on the Net,
I could not find that issue as it has been replaced by the current on. I
did, however, find this which may be of use on buying a computer (be sure to
locate the table of contents in the small box in the middle of the
page............
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,4109,00.asp
___
My family has 3 Gateway laptop computers...1999, 2000, and 2003. They are
all
wonderful and we love them. Consumer's Report rates their laptops very
highly, but I don't think that their desktop was the highest rated. You
might
check Consumer's Reports and see what their experts think. My only
complaint
is that the batteries on our older computers have already had to be replaced
and they cost about $100 each.
___
Over the past 10 years, I've had 2 Gateway systems. The first one was not
very good. After trying Dell, I went back to Gateway. The second Gateway
system I owned was (and still is) great!! No problems with it at all.
___
use them all the time. No problems so far.
___
How about an Imac? I bought one year ago and I absolutely love it! No
virus problems, and most things I do at work on a PC in 5 steps take only 2
on my Imac!
___
I don't have any personal experience, but my district just made them our
exclusive purchase for this school year.
___
Over the years I have purchased 4 gateways for my personal
use, and have had great luck with the Pentiums. (1 was a celeron, and my
hubby had problems with it). I just purchased my newest one this summer.
I appreciate the tech support and the helpful attitude of the sales
people, etc. I also like to be able to put together my own desires of
what I want on the machine, etc. Good luck in your decision.
___
I had bad experiences with two in a row from Gateway. The laptop I bought
my Computer Science major son to take with him to finish his degree at
University of Hawaii and my own personal desktop. The laptop spend more of
the year that it was under warranty in the shop or in transit than it did in
use(I had to pay to ship my son's older desktop to Hawaii after all). I
bought the extended warranty on my desktop and found out what it was worth
when less than two years into owning it the hard drive died. My computer
was in the Gateway shop for nearly two months while I waited for my "free"
replacement that I was due under my expensive ($200+) warranty. Even then,
I did not get a true quality brand replacement, but a generic knock-off.
The even more galling thing was that I could have bought a larger hard drive
from the original manufacturer on clearance from the Circuit City across the
street for less than $30.
Fortunately, for me the Computer Science graduate moved back to my area and
completely rebuilt my system. Only the Monitor and tower case are the same.
I will never go to Gateway for a computer again.
On the other hand the new HP laptops I bought for the son and
daughter-in-law attending law school seem to be working very well. They now
sell direct online at hpshopping.com. I was able to buy them with $100
mail-in rebates for $750 and $800(upgrade to DVD/CRW drive) and got "six
months same as cash" financing.
___
We just purchased our second Gateway and love it. I ordered
online after midnight on a Sunday and it was there by
Wednesday. We have always purchased the 3 year service
agreement and it has more than paid for itself.
I have also had experience with Dell here at school because
I have 2 that were bought with grant monies that also
included a 3 year on site service agreement.
Comparing the two--I still would go Gateway!!!!!
___
My daughter got a Gateway through the university she attends, and we've had
lots of trouble with it. It took them several months to get around to
servicing her computer when the hard drive failed; then they didn't have the
right parts; and now, after several service calls, she still doesn't have
sound.
So I wouldn't recommend the company, but maybe others have had better luck.
Martha Oldham, Librarian
Lawrence High School
Lawrence, Kansas
Library Page: http://library.lhs.usd497.org
Personal Page: http://staff.usd497.org/~moldham/
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