Talk:Gateway, Inc.

Business Model

Recently, Gateway has taken the approach of a non-paper based model. That is, no receipts are issued when service is done on a Gateway product. This approach may assist the Company's bottom line profits, but it does wreck havoc for applying for third party reimbursement for such expenses. User: Rindech, 25 Oct 2007

I think he's taken the Dell route and renamed to Gateway Inc.--Jerryseinfeld 03:10, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Relationship with Amiga

Could someone write about them owning Amiga and them putting the kibosh on Jim Collas' plans for the new Amiga resulting in his resignation and selling of his shares? --137.205.139.44 22:10, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I moved this page from Gateway Computers to Gateway, Inc. because I thought that that "Gateway, Inc." would be more appropriate. Any objections? Scottmso 06:07, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Deleted paragraph about inferior support

I have reverted edits by User:151.205.113.51. I am a computer support professional, and I think Gateway has above-average support. They use industry standard components, and have a remarkably comprehensive and helpful support website. The user clearly has a bone to pick. --24.17.30.163 23:13, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, Being that I was an actual support person for Gateway in the mid 90s up until 2001, I feel the need to interject. Gateway 2000 was in direct competition with HP Compaq and Dell, part of that was world class customer service. It's what built Gateway 2000, When Ted Waite handed over the reigns to another CEO in 99, that CEO was one of the first to outsource technical support. The comedic stereotype that you now see as the typical Indi tech support line was derived from this. They were the first. But be aware, Gateway set the standard for the best technical support for their product, it's what built them. Also within the article, it's states that they took the idea of direct shipping from Dell, this is false, Gateway 2000 was the first in this arena as well. The last 2 giants standing after the PC wars of the late 90s were Gateway and Dell, prior to Dell being the number 1 PC company on the planet, it was all Gateway 2000. There is no denying that. As I was a part of that, it was very disheartening to see it's demise fall to simple minded corporate fat cats. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:0:980:391:451D:7A59:64B4:B473 (talk) 15:43, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Customers have reported offputting experiences with the company's stonewalling attitude toward product support, particularly with cameras (e.g., see http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/gateway-dct50-reviews.html for the most favorable reviews of one discontinued model; http://search.reviews.ebay.com/Gateway-DC-T50-5-0-Megapixel_W0QQfvcsZ1787QQsoprZ30005566 is more typical). Service professionals report that parts and technical information are simply not provided for Gateway products, making third-party post-warranty repair a moot point. Shoppers seeking products that feature long-term serviceability, rather than planned obsolescence, rarely buy a second Gateway product.

But it is semi-true. Since I have 3 Gateways (1 old, 1 newer, 1 really new) I have been around their support, so I know all about their support. --Weatherman1126 00:46, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm a corporate user. We purchase 90% of our computers through Gateway DIRECT, and 10% from Best Buy due to time constraints. The difference in support quality between business support and retail support is like night and day. I maintain ~100 computers, so I end up calling for replacement parts once every two weeks. For comparison purposes, I will relate my experiences with the failure of two motherboard integrated NICs, one on a business-line machine, and one on a computer purchased from Best Buy. Business: Brief (15 min) confirmation of my troubleshooting steps, 10 min to set up an Advance RMA on the entire motherboard (overnight shipping).

Retail support line: 30 minutes of redundant checks, empty promise of replacement motherboard. The integrated NIC was 1Gbs, and I was shipped a 10/100 Mbs DLink expansion card. I called again, asked to speak with a manager. The manager refused to remedy the situation, stating that motherboard replacement was against policy. It's bad enough that they would try to apply a temporary patch like an expansion card to a failing motherboard, but the fact that they tried to pawn a 100Mbs $10 DLink card off on us is unbelievable. We've been customers for 16 years, and have purchased hundreds of computers.

The computer is located in our studio, and constantly uses our corporate network to acces our 8 terabyte raid for audio files, so a fast network connection is critical. I never did pursuade them to even ship a faster network card, despite the fact that I spent six dolif hours on the phone.

I called twice more, and was once directed to an old, irrelevant eMachines number, and once the call was dropped.

I called Business support in desperation, and was kindly explained to that, while they would gladly perform the replacement, that they were denied access to retail support cases and couldn't help.

I called the retail line again, and finally found two people that were very helpful. Susan, badge #72672

Tom, badge #70056

I called headquarters, and talked to Matt. Matt gave me two options: ship the entire computer to Gateway for repair, or to a Best Buy center. Of course, in a busines timeframe, this is unacceptable. 216.205.215.130 21:51, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I have re-removed the section (prior to noticing this earlier thread). While I'm inclined to agree with the sentiment, it's not appropriate to use an anonymous internet review forum as a citation for allegations of inferior support, per Wikipedia:Reliable Sources. Neil916 (Talk) 07:48, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

"Customers have reported offputting experiences with the company's stonewalling attitude toward product support"

This is 100% true. Never before or after did I encounter such terrible support. Any decent article about Gateway needs to discuss the terrible support. It seems pretty likely that Gateway tried to save money in the short term by providing lousy support and that this destroyed their company long term. After I bought a computer from Gateway, I felt like I'd been conned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.50.87 (talk) 11:54, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Criticism

A criticism section should be added for this company in order to better balance it out with other companies (Microsoft, Apple, Dell, ect...) simply for the sake of objectivity. One must look at the whole picture of a company afterall, not just the positive if they wish to have a truly informed opinion... hence why I think the Microsoft, Apple Computer and Dell, Inc. pages are soo good. Also, this Gateway page seems a little skimpy and could use some meat so to speak ;) 216.58.43.69 03:00, 9 February 2006

• If the criticism of this company is similar to those you have already listed, then adding this type of section would be a good idea, provided it follows the guidelines established for this type of thing. Also, remember to source everything! Bowmanjj 16:14, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

• • • I am sorry to say, I work for Apple also, Tier 2 and I must say that the repair turn around time is just terrible. Whenever I call they tell me different things, pure lies. I just want to know the simple answers. For the retail service it is just aweful. Laptop in repair now for ONE month, they just lie to you... about when parts arrive and don't arrive. My honest opinion here, yet I will still buy Gateway. I am just a loyal customer I guess...

• • • I also don't wish to say this but... I am a CS major using a 600 YGR and a 600 YG2 (laptops). My YGR got dropped down a set of stairs when it was in its case (I know it was my fault). It took sending it down to Tier 3 three times before they found the broken heat sink screw. By that time it had taken a lot of life out of the motherboard and other parts. After over two years fighting with Gateway they replaced the chassis. It took them over six months to send me the replacement (yes, they did try to bill me for the old one before I received the new one so I could send the old one back). I was told they would give me (1) a 100% "new" YGR, (2) chassis with out the drives, (3) chassis with out the drives and battery. When I received the chassis it had no drives, battery, ram, and back covers. During the two years the hard drive failed twice because at one point in time the drive errors got so bad I was reformatting the hard drive weekly (I set it to zero's each time). One of the replacement hard drives didn't pass a standard hard drive scan out of the box. All replacement parts they ever sent me were used. I can't even guess the ammount of times I herd a lie come Gateway "support". I would never recommend a Gateway computer until they are a 100% US Company. The best part is the VA (US Gov.) paid for the YGR. The only reason I have a YG2 is because they can hot swap drive bays and 2.5 GHZ P4. 72.24.158.130 09:34, 8 September 2007 (UTC)theno.101

Well, I ordered a Gateway laptop in 2004. I'm not the most tech savvy girl, so I trusted Gateway to build it to the specks that I requested. Make it good for Video Editing and make sure it has 1gig RAM. Well, I found out this year, 2008, that Gateway charged me for the type of computer I wanted; however, they gave me a substandard computer with only 512mb RAM. They refuse to do anything about it even though they committed fraud! I will take this to the CEO if necessary. Defrauding a church is sad!

Bought a Gateway multimedia pc, within a 2-3 months keyboard stopped working, then mouse. At about 6 months the monitor crashed! Then the dvd burner stopped working. I still have it, but almost nothing in it is original. The original motherboard is gone, all that's left of the original pc is the video card, sound card, PSU, CPU and case. LOL! Don't buy Gateway. You're regret it! Akaloc (talk) 18:02, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

• • • I have purchased 3 Gateway laptop pcs within a relatively short period of time (1 year). Only one of the laptops required an extended warranty due to the type and amount of work it would be doing. This particular laptop required repair at the end of its original warranty period. I purchased the 3-yr extended warranty and upgraded the RAM at the same time. I've recently had the dis-pleasure of sending it back in for repair again. When I finally received the laptop it was missing the (upgraded) memory. After several weeks of conversation they are NOT sending my missing memory because it was not of the "original" configuration even though I purchased it direct from Gateway. My thought of Gateway service? When Gateway was not under Acer, service was great. Now, not so much. 9 April 2009

This 'company' was a shambles, another notch on the 'idiotic support/repair staff'... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.91.105.67 (talk) 13:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Gateway computers suck. Just sayin' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.196.70.72 (talk) 10:24, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Expansion into international markets

Does the company have any intention of re-entering international markets in the future?

It's leaning a bit over, the Gateway page....

I certainly agree with Bowmanjj.There should be a criticism or "Cons" side. This article rather strongly focuses on the major successes of the company and hardly any of its falls in market shares or anything else.It makes the company sound like a baby cow!

Vistajai 20:05, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Just to add, I certainly don't think there should be a critisism or 'cons' section - I feel negative sections like that often tip an article somewhat. Rather, I think some 'negative' information should be incorporated in the article as it stands. _TheIslander 20:29, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Poor and unbalanced article - worthy of Pravda

Everybody knows that gateway had a shockingly awful reputation in the early 2000s (in Europe at least) for products turning up late and defective. I knew nobody who bought their products who wanted to buy from them again. One IT professional friend had to return an ordered PC 3 times.

This article needs a serious attempt to explain why they went so far out of favour. As it stands it is a biased piece of company fluff that completely misrepresents this company's true record of serving customers. Future historians will use the Gateway brand as a comparison with HP, Dell etc in how some companies make a business model work and some fail to get the practicalities right despite huge investment.

It is correct that Wiki eschews strong language, but sometimes, such as here, sitting on the fence gives a very distorted picture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.153.102.227 (talk) 14:31, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

• 1. Do you have sufficient sources that explain so? If not, we cannot allow Wikipedia:Original research
• 2. What exactly is fluff? Which sentences? WhisperToMe (talk) 05:11, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Links that go to the wrong place,

In the hardware section of 'Current Products' I found two link that go to the wrong place. The link to C-series, a series of convertible notebooks that Gateway used to market (another mistake-C-series isn't a current product) goes to an article about an anticipated family of Bombardier Aerospace airplanes. The C-series is described in the gateway article as being, and I quote, "notebook PCs combined with tablet PC technology including handwriting recognition with a stylus much like a personal digital assistant (PDA)." 'Notebook' is a hyperlink to the page about notebooks. Not notebook computers, just notebooks. I'm not sure, but I think that these links should go to the right articles or not be there at all —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.153.106.73 (talk) 13:16, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Mid-2000s

It will be half a millennium in the future before this era rolls around. Unfree (talk) 21:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Bad external link

"Installation Instructions for Gateway Laptops" appears to have disappeared. Unfree (talk) 01:04, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Rick Snyder

Actually, he's been gone for a few years now. Is he still there because he was an important figure, or does this just need to be updated? I wanted to ask before removing his name. Greenw47 (talk) 01:26, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Reworking Current Product List

Instead of displaying a list of all of the currently selling products (as this list can change rather quickly) why not just display a list of the series...so instead of SX2800 and SX2300, just put SX Series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.124.119.130 (talk) 20:09, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Made in the USA

The article is almost completely lacking in any historical account of where Gateway computers were/are manufactured, which was a fundamental element of the company's brand. Gateway's early advertising made a huge point about the source of their products (presumably middle America), which was the whole purpose of the spotted cow logo. Implicit in the Gateway experience was the idea that you were buying a computer made in the USA--built by wholesome people in the Plains states. At some point, the company went public (no information here) and at some point, presumably (although one would never know it from reading this article), the board made a business decision to move production offshore, which basically negated its entire core brand identity. Gateways became just another product of cheap offshore labor and the only thing to differentiate them from the competition was a meaningless logo. To write an article about Gateway without addressing this is like writing an article about McDonald's without mentioning hamburgers. Among the major omissions that need to be addressed: Where were/are the company's products made? Were they ever made in Iowa? If so, when? Why did it stop? When did the company go public? Who made the decisions to move the company and its production and why?Snschulze (talk) 15:17, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, just another sucky Wikipedia article about a company. See WP:BOLD. Someone not using his real name (talk) 08:38, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

No mention of Dublin Ireland HQ

On the 8th of August 2001 the European Headquarters in Dublin closed. Didn't see any mention of that, or indeed of the visit around that time by Bill Clinton to the plant. These articles tend to be very one - dimensional in terms of facts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.234.181 (talk) 02:15, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Expected to find product history

I had expected that the Wikipedia page would have some history of the products produced. Gateway has used different model numbers for any slight difference in the configuration, so it is difficult to find similar models that can be salvaged for replacement parts. I didn't find any product history info on the web, so I am listing my tentative conclusions from what was able to find about the various product series.

My main interest was the MT & MX series, so those are is the only ones I have looked at in detail. There appears to be an MA-series model number associated with each laptop in the MT & MX series. I suspect that the MA series has something do with the overall mechanical configuration.

A - tablet; LT - notebook; NV - notebook; NE - notebook; ID - ?; ML - ?; NX - ?; M - ?; DX - desktop; FX - desktop; LX - desktop ?; SX - desktop; ZX - desktop; MT - laptops that came with Win Vista; MX - laptops that came with Win XP

I hope others can contribute more information. I can provide a list of web sites where I gathered this info if the editors think that is necessary.

Lloyd Ewing (talk) 09:21, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Honestly the whole article lacks focus

Like many articles, particularly those on topics from the last few decades, it's just an accumulation of "and then this happened" news stories but doesn't explain why the topic is important. Any encyclopedic overview of Gateway should address:

• Its rapid rise in the public consciousness in the late 1990s.
• The fact that, despite being perhaps the best-known consumer desktop computer brand for 5+ years, it was never a major company when measured by actual sales volume, peaking at around 4% of the computer hardware market in its best year; and what these two facts combined say about the relationship between hype and profitability during the first tech bubble.
• The company's rapid collapse in the mid-2000s to worthlessness and being sold as a nameplate brand to a low-end Taiwanese firm.

That seems to be the "Gateway story" that's missing here in favor of arbitrary news stories thrown together with no coherence. Predestiprestidigitation (talk) 11:46, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

Out of business?

Weren't they like out of business for a while back when their website didn't work and one couldn't find any downloads for Gateway products?

I'm just curios if anyone would know.

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.42.91.57 (talk) 07:22, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Some of their troubles are explained by this: bankruptcy filed mpc corporation, formerly gateway computers Clear up that Gateway Pro was the topic with MPC Corporation Holidaypepsi (talk) 17:34, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

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Where! Is on a GATE WAY

Russified 198.27.219.86 (talk) 02:58, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Article needs updating.

The legacy of Gateway needs to be moved elsewhere into the article and the beginning of the article needs to reflect the new company. I'm trying to get reliable sources in the mean time, hopefully all of you can help in this matter. 2601:642:4400:9F00:69DD:AC2A:552D:EA83 (talk) 18:24, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

Multiple issues

This article on Gateway needs more references. It's an abomination of an article, not even worthy of existing, because of so many lack of citations and original research.

It also contradicts itself. Please provide enough solid evidence on the founding year. Was it 1985 or 1987? No, one cite isn't gonna be enough.

Not to mention the poorly formatted section with this line: "Gateway moved build-to-order desktop, laptop, and server manufacturing back to the United States..." Where from? Why did it go there, to begin with?

A better description of their business tech would be nice. Some example hardware, for instance, more specific than just "they made PCs".

I request that this article, if not fixed, either be deleted or merged into Acer. 199.192.194.118 (talk) 15:09, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly, this article was a travesty. I have now majorly expanded it; please tell me what you think. DigitalIceAge (talk) 08:16, 9 March 2023 (UTC)