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How can wring the most out of Gateway?
Shawnasee
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Got a laptop back in November of last year from BB. It's a Gateway p7811FX which is no longer in production.
Nice machine and I got it for a steal especially after I got the BB manager to knock some money off.
Anyway, got the thing home, fired it up and it died after about 10 minutes of playing City of Heroes. Whenever something graphics intensive was going on on the lappy, it shutdown. Hard boot kind of shutdown.
Did some research and found that this is a known problem with this particular model.
So I call Gateway: they were both unhelpful and dumb.
I finally get it sent in, they 'repair' it and send it back.
I fire it up and it has the same problem.
I send it back again.
They send it back but FEDEX ends up losing the damn thing.
Which was a blessing really. After months of back and forth Gateway finally says
"ok, we will replace the laptop"
to which I say
"well, I don't want the p7811 FX. It has a history of this same problem and I am tired of sending it back and forth. I want to be upgraded."
Gateway says "no problem...we can give you the p7805u"
Me: "No thanks, thats a downgrade. The 7811 has 1920x1080 screen res and the 7805's have 1440x900"
GW: "Wow, you're right. Well, we will get back with you in 72 hours with another offer."
Here's the thing: they don't have anything that is comparable to the 7811fx. The guts of the 7811 and the 7805 are the same but as I stated, the screen res is lower in the newer model.
Am I within my rights to ask for other things in addition to the 7805 to make up for the downgrade to the screen resolution? For example another Hard Drive or a printer or something/anything?
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
They have mentioned that they might offer a refund but what would they refund? The discounted price I paid at BB or the value of the 7811 itself?
Trying to line up my bullets and prepare for the phone call I will be getting on Friday.
In the 8 months since I purchased the laptop I have had it (all together) for maybe three weeks and I feel that I'm not being compensated fairly.
How far can I expect to push them before they tell me what I occasionally tell my kids:
"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
Nice machine and I got it for a steal especially after I got the BB manager to knock some money off.
Anyway, got the thing home, fired it up and it died after about 10 minutes of playing City of Heroes. Whenever something graphics intensive was going on on the lappy, it shutdown. Hard boot kind of shutdown.
Did some research and found that this is a known problem with this particular model.
So I call Gateway: they were both unhelpful and dumb.
I finally get it sent in, they 'repair' it and send it back.
I fire it up and it has the same problem.
I send it back again.
They send it back but FEDEX ends up losing the damn thing.
Which was a blessing really. After months of back and forth Gateway finally says
"ok, we will replace the laptop"
to which I say
"well, I don't want the p7811 FX. It has a history of this same problem and I am tired of sending it back and forth. I want to be upgraded."
Gateway says "no problem...we can give you the p7805u"
Me: "No thanks, thats a downgrade. The 7811 has 1920x1080 screen res and the 7805's have 1440x900"
GW: "Wow, you're right. Well, we will get back with you in 72 hours with another offer."
Here's the thing: they don't have anything that is comparable to the 7811fx. The guts of the 7811 and the 7805 are the same but as I stated, the screen res is lower in the newer model.
Am I within my rights to ask for other things in addition to the 7805 to make up for the downgrade to the screen resolution? For example another Hard Drive or a printer or something/anything?
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
They have mentioned that they might offer a refund but what would they refund? The discounted price I paid at BB or the value of the 7811 itself?
Trying to line up my bullets and prepare for the phone call I will be getting on Friday.
In the 8 months since I purchased the laptop I have had it (all together) for maybe three weeks and I feel that I'm not being compensated fairly.
How far can I expect to push them before they tell me what I occasionally tell my kids:
"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
Shawnasee on
0
Posts
Generally the cost to upgrade to a shitfuckawesome screen such as that is about $200-$250 from an OEM - so use that as your target mark. But given that you've had the machine for 3 weeks of 8 months, you can probably go higher. Hell, ask for a desktop monitor with that resolution (22"-24"?) - tell them you bought the laptop for CAD/CAM/photo editing use, and 1440x900 doesn't give you enough real estate. :P
Just be polite. Don't go at it with the "I'm Entitled Because Of How Shitty This Has Been" attitude, even if it's spot-on; go with the "I bought it specifically because of the 1920x1200xAwesome resolution, and I want to have that."
Failing that, if they offer a refund, it'll likely be for purchase price. But if there's a big delta there, ask for a P7805U with full/extended warranty, and then resell the SOB.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
I had definitely thought of reselling but I had not thought of asking for an extended warranty.
If you had to burn an extra few hundred on a laptop there's far worse ways to do it, especially with kids in the house who want to see if other round flat objects can go into DVD drives (eg: cookies, cheese slices, pancakes with syrup)
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.