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Bonnie of Encino, CA, writes: Company refuses to replace a computer that cannot seem to be repaired, even though unit is still under warranty. I have suffered financial damage both in loss of business time spent trying to trouble-shoot the problems on this unit as well in my lack of a reliable small-business computer.  I also lose business because I cannot answer my own phone lines, or handle my regular business functions while trapped on the extended (two hours, for example, just today) calls required.

The only way to force Gateway to pay attention to its customers' complaints is to make the appropriate regulatory agencies aware of its actions. The first of these is South Dakota's own Dept. of Consumer Affairs. Write or fax your complaint to:

Ms. Jill Dean, Consumer Affairs 
Office of the Attorney General
500 E. Capitol
State Capitol Building
Pierre, SD 57501-5070

The phone number is 605/773-4400. Complainants can FAX copies of their letters of complaint to her at 605/773-4106.

I filed my complaint with Jill Dean of the South Dakota Atty Gen'ls office on 11/19. On 11/22 I received a call from a member of Gateway's Executive Response Team, asking me - most sweetly - what the problem was. Seems Ms Dean had already forwarded the complaint to them and given them 20 days in which to resolve the issue. (I subsequently received a copy of her notice in the mail.) I am now "discussing" redress with Gateway. We'll see what happens.

When I asked a member of Gateway's "case management" dept for the name and address of the dept where I could file a formal complaint, I was given a SERVICE department address, at a street location I'd never seen in connection with Gateway. I was also told that the complaint dept had NO PHONE NUMBER, and had to be reached by mail only. (And this by someone supposedly assigned to help resolve customer complaints!) When I protested the obvious lack of sense in this statement, the person simply repeated himself. I therefore had my husband call Gateway separately. He obtained the Exec. Resp. Team address, though neither phone nor fax number. Had I followed the instructions Gateway's "problem solver" I would literally have been prevented from filing a complaint - my letter would have been knowingly misdirected into never-never land. Don't know about you, but that smells worse than dead fish in the hot sun to me.

WRONG ADDRESS (as supplied by Gateway's "problem solver") Gateway Service British Columbia Building No. Sioux City, SD 57049 ACTUAL EXECUTIVE RESPONSE TEAM ADDRESS Executive Response Team 610 Gateway Drive P. O. Box 2000 No. Sioux City, SD 57049

Gateway has now made me its standard offer to replace the defective computer with a rebuilt one. My issue here is that I did NOT pay Gateway's prices for a rebuilt machine. I paid for a NEW, working computer. Gateway's rep insisted that a remanufactured computer is the same as a new one, etc etc. However, in the course of the conversation, she admitted that Gateway sells the re-mfg'd machines for less than the new ones.

In obliging consumers who have received defective computers to accept a re-mfg'd machine as a replacement for a new one, therefore, Gateway is NOT providing its customers the new product they paid for. They ARE substituting an item of proven lesser value. Where the new machines were defective from day 1, as mine was, that does NOT constitute an equivalent value. It simply forces customers to pay state-of-the-art prices for second-hand machines.

She claims to be researching the possibility of providing me a genuinely new computer, though she's made no promise to actually do so. Alternatively, I have asked her to take their machine back & refund my money, or - if they refuse to provide a genuinely new machine - to refund me the difference between the price of the remfg'd unit they're actually selling me and what I paid for the defective new one.

Sherwin of Muskogee OK (1/16/04):
I am happy to say that thanks to this site and its post of the Attorney Generals address in South Dakota I am getting a new computer. Gateway is sending me their current top of the line laptop to replace my year old lemon.

Four dead hard drives and a lot of work later, I am getting a full current replacement laptop. One small step for man, one huge step against the corporation.