Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!seismo!ukma!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!venus.lerc.nasa.gov!edanlx3
From: edanlx3@venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Wayne Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Gateway 2000 Computers
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.201724.8433@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>
Date: 21 Mar 91 19:12:02 GMT
References: <1991Mar11.154133.20168@cbnewsi.att.com> <1991Mar14.045637.15262@mathcs.sjsu.edu>
Sender: news@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: edanlx3@venus.lerc.nasa.gov
Distribution: usa
Organization: Analex Corp.
Lines: 43
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

In article <1991Mar14.045637.15262@mathcs.sjsu.edu>, horstman@mathcs.sjsu.edu (Cay Horstmann) writes...
>In article <1991Mar11.154133.20168@cbnewsi.att.com> Brian.C.Kohn@ATT.COM (bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM) writes:
>>What was that?  8 votes for; 1 vote against?  But who's counting?
>>
>>
>>;-)
>>
>Count mine against as well.
> 
>Seriously, a company would be in BIG trouble if more than a small fraction
>would call their product CHEAP (Brian) or POORLY ASSEMBLED FROM CHEAP PARTS
>(myself). Of course the failures are isolated incidents. I do not have the
>data on Gateway or other manufacturers on failure rates. I am happy to 
>hear that you and others are satisfied with your machines--chances are
>excellent that they will give you trouble-free service for a long time.
> 
>Nevertheless, some of us Gateway users had grief, in my case expensive
>grief. Once the warranty is over, there is little Gateway will do. They
>didn't service our tape drive which died--they had switched vendors in the
>mean time. (According to the guy I talked to, they had their share of
>problems with the vendor, i.e. their customers had that share of problems.)
>They didn't stock the DMA controller chip that failed on our motherboard,
>making a $100 repair into a $950 affair. 
> 
>As their glossy ads state, they are your friend in the business, but
>the friendship is strictly limited to one year. They are your acquaintance
>for a bit longer, as they will talk to you afterwards on their 800 line,
>but when something fails, that is your problem, not theirs. In all fairness,
>that is typical in the business. 
> 

Count me against.
We are now 3 for 3 in Motherboard replacemnts in our Gateway 2000s.
Add in a 1.2 mg ESDI floppy, a controller card, and a 2nd MB replacement
because one of the replacements was bad. 
Never Again.
I would recommend Macintrash over Gateway, and I hate Macs.


===================================================
=   Why is it called "common sense" when so few   =
=                people have it?                  =
===================================================