Best Buy to peddle Gateway gear

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Gateway future too uncertain

I have been a long time supporter of Gateway and their products. I even owned stock in the company and for the moment all the computers here at the law firm are Gateway. That will end.

Starting last fall their pricing become less competative, but I dealt with it as I liked the products and the local Gateway store had a really good staff, and top drawer manager.

When Gateway announced the purchase of e-Machine I knew there was going to be trouble. e-Machine is known for tow things cheap computers and really poor customer service. The changes Gateway started last fall reduced the quality of the support, but it was still tolerable.

Since the official buyout, in March Gateway has gone to hell. They closed the retail stores with a minimum of announcement. They did not even give the new concepts a chance to work. The also closed the stores with no one in line to pick up the slack in sales. The stores generated over $1 BILLION, yes with a "B" in sales. That alone gave them a major hit in the sales figures.

By the time they get some sucker to take on the Gateway branded product the public will have moved on. I do not see Best Buy being able to make up for the BILLION dollars in retail sales, that was lost with the closing of the stores. Yes there is costs with operating the stores, but Best Buy will want to make at least 30% on the Gateway branded stuff and most likely more. Gateway's brand identity was closely tied to the stores.

I sold my stock when the e-Machine purchase was announced. I knew it had the potential of killing Gateway and now I am sure of it. If Gateway is going to just "farm out" manufacturing to the lowest bidder, Best Buy can do that themselves, create their own brand, and save the middle man, meaning the cut Gateway gets. The LCS's, digital camers, MP3 players and so forth were simply various manufacturers putting the Gateway brand on the item instead of another name. Nothing different. Some of the Gateway plasma screens are Sampoo, the 18" LCD TV is the same one Viewsonic sells, so nothing original.

The law firm is getting ready to replace half our computers. Gateway will not be on the bid list. I have purchased hundreds of Gateways, but no more. Dell has too many problems; they may be on the bid list but unless they get US-based support no dice. Sony Viao's have a chance. The most likely is that we will resume building our own boxes. We can get better quality for less money.
In the Gateway's for the last couple fo years we had to do all the support labor anyway so why no save the money, or buy better parts, or buy better than planned computers.

Gateway did this to themselves. Obviously the stock market is unimpressed. They have slowly drifted downward for months. Since the eMachine management took charge it is drifting a little faster and has no sign of stopping.

I am sorry to say I can no longer encourage or suggest Gateway products. Gateway did it too themselves. Best Buy will not be the savior they need.

Posted by: drichards1953   Posted on: 06/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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