STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Andrea Julia · Coach

Gateway or Dell?

kealoha · Kate Spade

Stay away from Dell. I bought one a few years ago w/a 3-year parts & labor warranty. They refused to send me replacement speakers when they died after 6 months. I called every month for 2+ years asking them to send me replacements. Finally 3 weeks before my warranty expired, I made one last attempt to ask for a replacement. They refused once again & I had to threaten to sue them for breach of warranty, calling the BBB, & telling my friends who work @ newspapers & in tv news. They got to me w/in 2 days of my call, but died 1 month after my warranty expired. Thanks to their dreadful CS, I urge people to buy elsewhere.

Good luck w/your search. I know that my CompUSA sells Gateway, so you might want to see if one near you does too.

Karina · Chanel

Gateway all the way.

That's where mine is from .. their CS is excellent.

HeatherLynn · Gucci

I personally hate my gateway. I had it for four years (just got rid of it to get me a new laptop) and I realize it was a laptop thus meaning a lot of abuse but it was a piece if crap. I always had to send it off to be worked on. Yeah the customer service was great but they knew me by name because i had so many problems. Also in my area all the gateway stores went out of business so you have to ship it off to be worked on. Shipping it off takes a lot longer than it should, say comapred to Dell. Once the redid my hard drive completely which deleted everything off my system without telling me even though they had special instructions to call me if they were going to need to. They were not apologetic at all when this happened. I could go on and on. Let me know or PM me if you have any more specific questions. I personally know that a lot of engineers(i am an engineering student which makes me that more picky about my computers

) love their toshibas so that is a brand to consider. My biggest problem with gateway is that i paid over 2000 for a laptop that always had problems. My new one was a lot cheaper and has yet to give me any problems. HTH

Irene · Dooney & Bourke

There is absolutely no competition. Dell is totally the most reliable, most used computer company. My company uses them and you are talking about a company with over 275,000 employees. Actually, many large companies use them. How many companies use Gateway? None that I know of. And a part of that is that they are overpriced, and their customer service is very lacking. The company is popular for a reason. I wouldn't risk the pain in the ass that a Gateway can be. I've had both and I had too many problems with the gateways.

lsubatgirl · Gucci

From what I've heard from people don't get Gateway. I haven't heard of any horrible problems with Dell and that's what I use at work and I've never had a problem with mine.

Lilykind · Hermes

My dad was a computer science major in college so he's a computer nut. When we bought a computer in 1997, he chose to go with Dell because he felt that they made the best computers. That Dell computer (it was a desktop) was used on a regular basis until 2002 with very little problems. We had to have it serviced a few weeks after we bought it, but the Dell people came over to our house and fixed everything right really fast. Since then, there have been virtually no problems.

I know very little about Gateway so I can vouch for or against them.

RyanJ · Coach

I like Dell. That is what just about all of my family has- laptop or pc. We have never had any major problems and if we did we just called and they fixed it over the phone. My brother was also a computer science major and he is the on that got us started on Dell. He recommends them and would probably never buy a computer for a different company.

I know many people are having problmes w/ the customer service and repairs because they are outsourcing much of the work to India which can make the communication between you and the people trying to help a little difficult. I think they are in process of trying to change that and bring some of the work back here. As far as their product goes my brother and Lilykind's dad

seems to think they are the best.

Andrea Julia · Coach

Thanks for your help ladies! I am the proud new owner of a Dell Dimension 8400 Desktop. I valued all of your opinions equally, but decided on Dell because I found out yesterday that my company has a special discount code for Dell (and it seemed that there was pretty much an equal amount of people in support of each one).

My last computer (the one that just broke) was a Gateway. I got it from my stepfather when he decided to buy some $3000 computer. It was about a year old when I got it, but he only had gotten a one year warranty, so I had limited contact with their customer service. I called once or twice and I think I had to pay $60 to even talk to someone, but I think that is typical. All other repairs were done by my stepfather. It seemed like a pretty good computer though. Hopefully I didn't make the wrong choice in switching to Dell.

-- Edited by Andrea Julia at 09:54, 2005-03-08

Andrea Julia · Coach

quote:
Originally posted by: RyanJ
"I know many people are having problmes w/ the customer service and repairs because they are outsourcing much of the work to India which can make the communication between you and the people trying to help a little difficult. I think they are in process of trying to change that and bring some of the work back here. "

When I was picking out the options for my Dell, there was actually an option you can add to your regular warranty(that cost more money) that seems to mean you get to actually speak to real techs that speak clear English.

It is worded like this:

"Want access to advanced, industry-certified technicians to resolve hardware problems covered under warranty? Premier Warranty Support quickly connects you to a dedicated team equipped with your service history. Must be less than or equal to your Limited Warranty Term"