Gateway jerks charging me for System Recovery Disk

You gotta love these guys. They remind me of some eBay sellers.

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Subject: Gateway General Customer Service Questions AA3
(KMM25503368V12093L0KM)

************************************************** ********************
Hello Ron,

Thank you for your e-mail. With regard to the System Recovery Discs
for
your computer, I can process an order for you. In order to process
your
order, you will need to provide a method of payment. For your
protection, Gateway no longer accepts credit card numbers via e-mail.
Instead, we have a secured site where this information can be entered.
This information will only be accessible to Gateway, for the purposes
of
placing this specific order. Please click on the link below to begin
this process:

https://www.gateway.com/support/cont...&cusid=7598050

If the Service Request Number and Customer ID are not automatically
filled in, please enter them manually. Your Service Request Number is
T365AK101 and your Customer ID is 7598050.

The cost of shipping and handling for this part is $20. Any
applicable
taxes will apply to this amount. Please note that you will not be
charged anything more or less than this amount. Also note that this
charge is for shipping and handling, and not the product itself.

Please respond to this message to let me know that your information
has
been submitted. Once I receive your reply, I will place the order for
you. I will then e-mail you back with your order number.

I have documented this correspondence in Service Request Number
205518569 in our contact tracking database. Please use this number in
the future if you need to contact us again regarding this issue.

Please reply to this message if you require further assistance with
this
issue. If your reply is received while I am out of the office, to
ensure a speedy resolution, your issue will be handled by one of my
colleagues.

Sincerely,

Teresa
Badge GWEL9621

A memory upgrade is often times the best value for increasing overall
computer performance. It is also one of the easist upgrades you can
perform. Chat with our sales staff today by simply clicking on or
inserting the link below into your browser.

https://support.gateway.com/Support/...de.asp?id=6209

Information provided pursuant to Gateway's and/or eMachine's Terms of
Sale and Limited Warranty Agreement. All brands and names are
trademarks of their respective companies.

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

General Customer Service Questions
Issue Description: I need the Gateway System Recovery discs that I
never
got w/ my computer. I remember not having any CDs/DVDs of anything b/
c
it was all on the computer already.

I forgot to say they are charging me for something I should have
gotten in the 1st place w/ my purchase.

Well, yes and no. Microsoft has put serious pressure on its name-brand OEMs to
NOT include the system restore CDs with the purchase of a new system. Dell
used to include all the CDs automatically with each system shipped. Now you
have to ask Dell for them and pay another $10 to have them put in the box. If
you buy most any brand of computer in a big box store these days, you will not
get any recovery CDs or DVDs (Vista WOW). With luck, you will get some software
pre-installed with the operating system to let you burn your own recovery CDs.

Honestly, Gateway's $20 is not an outrageous amount to charge for the CDs, given
industry trends.

I sell both refurb and new computers, and I provide full restore CDs with every
system I sell, even the refurb Dells that leave here. Other smaller resellers
do not provide the CDs, in effect screwing over the customer if the system ever,
ever needs Windows reinstalled.

Bite the bullet. Spend the $20... Ben Myers

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:38:42 -0800 (PST), Ablang wrote:

I forgot to say they are charging me for something I should have
gotten in the 1st place w/ my purchase.