Bamboozled (Gateway Performance)

Member Name: shazam100

Product:	Gateway Performance
Date:	13/03/01 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to buy, helpful sales staff

Disadvantages: suspect monitor quality

I bought my Performance 600 system 14 months ago after considerable research into prices/quality from published sources. The sales team ( Irish ) were charming and helpful, but not easy to get hold of to discuss optional upgrades to basic systems.
However, we finally settled for the required specs and waited 2 weeks for delivery as promised. The system ws easy to connect with good basic instructions and worked without hitch immediately.
Within a couple of months, we started getting problems with Windows error message ' this application has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down ' with a load of hex addresses shown, which were meaningless to us. Gateways tech help attempted to help, but with little success, and suggested a 'Snapshot' restore. We did this without any improvement, and have lived with this problem since. We don't know if it's a Windows 98 S.E. problem or not.
13 months after purchase, the monitor lost picture after some kind of 'crackling' noise from inside the case and refused to work thereafter. Despite only being a month over warranty, Gateway refused to even contemplate any 'Goodwill gesture' towards replacement, and referred me to a repairer they recommended in Essex who told me the repair cost would be almost as much as a replacement ( £150 )...I declined !!
I would endorse the opinion elsewhere in this forum, that the monitors are poor grade for the price charged.

Summary: