Gateway: Gamer's Nightmare by Joseph Greppo
	"All this overhead for something you don't stock here, huh?" "Well Sir," says my Snakeway man, "People always get different stuff put in their machines, that's why we do it at the factory." But note: they do repairs right there at the Store. They do upgrades at the Store. It takes a few days, but they do it. Two days later my Nightmare begins. The system arrives 4/7. Now I know I ordered it on 4/3 and normally it takes two days. I ordered it on a weekend and UPS doesn't deliver on weekends. 500 MHz of Raw and.. Cow Paddies 500 MHZ of RAW power. I open the boxes. I am excited. I have the latest fastest Intel. WHAT'S THIS? How cute. Inside was a little cute black and white cattle box and thank you card. Even... a mug! And a little squeezy stress cow, a pen and a note pad. ANd even more goodies! They sent along a little three ring binder with the cattle print all over it. More you ask? Yes, a surge protector! Not a bad touch. For 50 cents more I could have gotten the rest of the cow! I took my 4 boxes up to my office. I opened them up and set up the system. I even read the instructions. I was like a kid in a candy store. I hooked up my HOTAS system, Suncom F-15E TALON, SFS Split Throttle, QuickShot Master Pilot, and my rudder pedals. I registered everything as I loaded up my software. Then away I went. Spooling up... I am smiling, I am grinning..... What the *&%$$**. VIDEO crash???? Okay, calm down. Check the connections. Power up.....everything looks good so far. Loaded up TAW (Total Air War). NOW what? Joystick DRIFT, big time DRIFT. My aircraft is almost uncontrollable. Click to continue		Polls and Politicians And it's not my HOTAS. I did all the checks. In the process I made an AMAZING discovery. The Snakeway crew told me I had a separate sound card and video card. WRONG. They integrated my sound; built in permanently to the mainboard. And when the hardware was built someone forgot to uncheck the "poll interrupt" for the joystick! I tried another stick. Same thing. So I called them up. You know Gateway. I called the store where I bought the machine. I ask for Johnny. He picks up and I say I have a problem. Now he's not so cool. "Well sir, you have to send it back to Gateway and pay the shipping both ways." I am dumbfounded, although many responses are clicking through my brain. My system doesn't work for sims and the video is crashing and you want me to do what? I had to remind him of the 30 day policy. He was not trained in customer service, he was trained with the STALL GAME...... 95 additional dollars both ways. I am not impressed. It took less than a second to read him a warranty he now was trying to back out of. "30 days is 30 days and no questions asked; you guys wrote it not me." So Johnny Smooth calms down. Good thing for him because I have a habit of showing up and putting a boot in peoples back side. Remember uncontrollable DRIFT and video crashing. "Well Sir, it must be your games." No, it's not my SIMS.. I had to straighten him out with that one. They are Simulations, not games. It's a good thing Falcon wasn't out yet, he may have suckered me with that one. Go to Part III: 30 Day Dance
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