Attn: Gateway MX6958 from BESTBUY!!!

[Jwrussell]

OK, if you read Brian's "Shopping for a laptop for work" thread you saw my initial post on this. If you know of anyone that took advantage of BestBuy's 2 day sale this past weekend and bought the above notebook computer, have them check the Hard Drive disk space ASAP! It may be local to my Bestbuy, but I would find that strange.

Here's the deal. The MX6958 should come with a 120Gig Hard Drive. Mine actually had a 60 Gig Hard Drive instead. I called BB and they told me to bring it in to the GeekSquad and they'd take care of it no problem. I brought it in, the girl pulled off the HD and guess what? It read "120 Gig". They powered it up and sure enough, as I had told them, it was truly a 60 Gig. Turns out the one they had on the sales floor (and the only one they had left) ALSO had a 60Gig hard drive in it.

They are swapping out the 60 for a 120 and I should have it tomorrow. But they certainly didn't konw this was a problem before I got there, so if all of the computers went out this way, there's a bunch of folks out there with alot less disk space than they thought they were getting.

 

[avid toker]

Ain't that a bitch!

 

[MichiganM]

That's somethin else...good catch.

 

[Wasch_24]

I find it difficult to believe this could be an honest mistake.

 

[Jwrussell]

Todd, (all of what I'm about to say is obviously taking the BB people at their word...for what it's worth, I believe them)

The model the had out on the floor of my laptop had the exact same issue. When I went back this evening the GeekSquad manager dude told me there would probably be a recall as they "pushed this one up pretty far".

This BestBuy has restored my faith in the chain. I've had some not so great experiences, but this was customer service, if not at its best, then very close to it. I got a call on my cell phone (of course it was off so I didn't get it until 10:30pm) from the girl helping me. She told me that they did not have the correct size HD to replace mine and that if I came in they would make sure I got a "comparable" system. This was not something I was happy to hear as I really didn't want to have to wonder what I was giving up by getting another system. As I didn't want to deal with somone new tomorrow I headed over to the BB (it's across the street, very close) at about 10:45. They close at 11, but the guy said he was there until midnight anyway, so no problems.

When I got there, I have to admit, he didn't instill a TON of confidence. He showed me two computers and the first was a slightly inferior Gateway with a slightly slower processor speed (1.5G vs 1.6G). Not a lot to quibble about, but as I said earlier, I wanted what I bought, nothing less. Well, the next computer he showed me made up for all of that. The Toshiba A105-S384.

This computer is an upgrade from the Gateway I bought, but he considered it comparable, so I wasn't about to argue. Here's the differences, Gateway first, Tosh second.

Core Duo 1.6GHz (thought it was actually a 1.66GHz)
vs
Core Duo 2 1.66GHz

120Gig HD at 5400rpm
vs
160Gig HD at 4200rpm
Slightly slower on the Tosh, but a larger HD, so I'll take the difference.

I do beleive the Tosh will also play DVDs and such without booting up, another bonus.

Not a whole lot of difference, but it worked out in my favor. Plus, Toshiba is what I originaly wanted...and, it looks better. :thumbsup:

Here's the link.

So, thanks BestBuy for something uncommon nowadays, good customer service.

 

[Wasch_24]

Cool.


I too have experienced very excellent customer service from Best Buy recently.

We bought all new appliances for the house and the Washer machine did not show up...it was special order.

So, we go to the store to work it out and they tell us they have to re-order the washer...we are pissed but have opened the can of whoop-ass yet. :rofl:

I was already thinking they we were going to need a washer for the nest two weeks and before I could mention that to the manager he offered us the floor model of our washer for use until ours arrived.

I was shocked and it worked out perfectly. The next morning the floor model arrived and then two weeks later they came and delivered our washer.

I was amazed.

 

[Jwrussell]

That's awesome. I wish the people in the Jersey Bestbuy on Black Friday had been nearly as customer service oriented.

 

[jknepper]

Actually, the hard drive is a 120 Gig. It really is whether you can use it or not. The problem is, that when it was originally formatted they only allocated the 50 gig for the main HD and the smaller 6 gig. The other 50+ Gigs are there, they just aren't usable right this minute. Gateway is working on a solution to this problem and are going to call me with-in 48 hours of 4 o'clock December 21st. So once I get an answer I'll let you know...if you don't believe me on the size of your HD then go into Control Panel/Performance/Administrative Tools/Computer Management

Click on Disk Management at the bottom of the left column and then you will see ...
Disk 0 (D 6 gig 51.73 Unallocated (C 53.22 GB NTFS

That unallocated 51.73 is the other part of your HD. Its there, just unusable at the present moment in time. I'll let you know as soon as I have an update, as the Gateway repair will not void your warranty and the BestBuy repairs may change it slightly, since Gateway will no longer warranty the HD that BestBuy replaces it with.

 

[CWS]

Wow. Someone is listening.

 

[Jwrussell]

Wow indeed. J, actually if you read up above BestBuy replaced the Gateway with a Toshiba system. So I'm good to go. But I'd still like to hear any news you can offer on the issue.

Noticing this is your first post, can I ask how you found us?

Thanks for the information!

 

[jknepper]

Basically, I'm an impatient person most of the time, and especially when it comes to my new toys. I didn't really feel like waiting for Gateway to contact me and so I started searching the web for an answer to the problem. I've actually found a couple, but am still waiting to hear from Gateway.

I'm glad you got a different computer that is more to your liking. I suppose I really posted yesterday in order for someone else who stumbles across this site looking for a solution like I did.

Happy Holidays All!

 

[Electric Sheep]

Geesh, I'd take that trade if given the chance...that's a helluva upgrade, Core Duo -to- Core 2 Duo!

Interesing situation to watch, nonetheless.

 

[Jwrussell]

Well, I hope it works out J.

 

[joshua]

If the new one you got is a Core 2 Duo chip, those are actually a lot better. Should be better on the power consumption too.

Thats a pretty stupid mistake though, but I bet when they built the model they don't install the OS by hand every time they just do it once and then do a direct image onto a bunch of machines as they are made. The only problem was they probably used an image made from a system with half the hard drive space, which means it was there just not formatted. Could have either wiped it clean and gotten re-installed or formatted the extra space as a new drive letter under windows.

 

[Wasch_24]

Actually, the hard drive is a 120 Gig. It really is whether you can use it or not. The problem is, that when it was originally formatted they only allocated the 50 gig for the main HD and the smaller 6 gig. The other 50+ Gigs are there, they just aren't usable right this minute. Gateway is working on a solution to this problem and are going to call me with-in 48 hours of 4 o'clock December 21st. So once I get an answer I'll let you know...if you don't believe me on the size of your HD then go into Control Panel/Performance/Administrative Tools/Computer Management

Click on Disk Management at the bottom of the left column and then you will see ...
Disk 0 (D 6 gig 51.73 Unallocated (C 53.22 GB NTFS

That unallocated 51.73 is the other part of your HD. Its there, just unusable at the present moment in time. I'll let you know as soon as I have an update, as the Gateway repair will not void your warranty and the BestBuy repairs may change it slightly, since Gateway will no longer warranty the HD that BestBuy replaces it with.

Very intereresting.

I take it Google indexed this thread already and that is how you found us? :dunno:

Anyhow, nice info and :welcome:

 

[Electric Sheep]

It was the Google Gnomes...they're working double-time during the Holiday season. :grin:

 

[gui_tarzan]

Thats a pretty stupid mistake though, but I bet when they built the model they don't install the OS by hand every time they just do it once and then do a direct image onto a bunch of machines as they are made. The only problem was they probably used an image made from a system with half the hard drive space, which means it was there just not formatted. Could have either wiped it clean and gotten re-installed or formatted the extra space as a new drive letter under windows.

That's exactly what happened. If you had run the system restore it would have re-formatted the drive and installed all of the pre-installed stuff on the full space. As they say, "shit happens", this is a pretty minor thing in the grand scheme of things because it's easily rectified.

 

[cvm4]

Nice upgrade there Jason. Someone screwed the pooch on this deal with the Gateways.