Watchdog

Welcome to Watchdog, designed specifically to protect your interests as a consumer. Over the page, we check out the latest PC prices on the High Street and direct from manufacturers in Pricewatch

GATEWAY IMPROVES SERVICE

Recently we've received several letters complaining about poor service from PC manufacturer Gateway. The problems range from delayed and incorrect orders through to a slow response to customer calls and ill-prepared engineers.

Adam Matthew Publications had trouble with its order for three PCs and a notebook. It claims Gateway took three weeks to get the order correct, then another three to deliver the PCs, while the notebook was lost altogether.

This was just the beginning of the problems as some of the PCs were faulty and the engineer dispatched to fix them hadn't been briefed correctly and therefore didn't have the right components to fix them. Eventually the issues were resolved, but the company was not happy with the service it had received.

Rachel Coombes, who bought a single PC from Gateway, also encountered delays and mistakes in getting her order filled, and found it took some time to sort these out. Gerald Carroll has had problems with his Gateway PC too, though we contacted Gateway on his behalf and it agreed to supply him with a new system.

Watchdog spoke to Jim Hobby, Gateway's vice president of client care, EMEA, and asked how it intends to resolve these issues. He asked us to pass on all our readers' correspondence to him to be dealt with individually.

He also admitted that Gateway has had problems with its ordering process and after-sales telephone service, and is now addressing these areas.

To streamline ordering it has partnered with its delivery companies and brought their representatives in-house to advise.

To improve service once orders have been filled, the company has ditched its automated call back service and tech support call conferences. It intends to reinstate an enhanced call back system.

Gateway also claims to have integrated its customer service and technical support departments to help solve customers' queries faster. To ensure that every member of staff is briefed on any issue, it's storing customer histories, with all calls logged into a single file.

SUPERMARKET PCs: WHO'S RESPONSIBLE?

David Gutsell wrote to us about a Fujitsu PC he bought from Tesco, and raised questions about after-sales difficulties with supermarket-bought PCs. His PC was fine, but he found a UMAX scanner, bought from PC World, wouldn't work with it.

The question that perplexes Mr Gutsell is whose responsibility is a problem like this? We called Tesco, who directed us back to Fujitsu, which handles support for all the PCs it sells through the supermarket. Fujitsu expressed regret and promised to contact Mr Gutsell to apologise for the inconvenience.

Fujitsu is keen to point out that customers who buy a PC through Tesco are supported by a local-call rate telephone helpline. It also supports third-party products with a separate helpline charged at 50p per minute.

Tesco customers can also make use of a free installation service where an engineer will set up your PC with any third party devices you have.

E-MAIL ALERT

Computer viruses are a major problem and, as the recent Melissa outbreak illustrated, the Internet is a perfect way for them to spread.

Unfortunately, for every genuine virus alert, there are 10 fake ones and the What PC? mailbox receives a steady supply of messages - some from people who should know better - warning us of the latest threat.

These messages usually take the form of a dire warning against reading an e-mail with a certain subject header or lately, opening an e-mail with a certain attachment. The warning is often attributed to a major organisation (usually Microsoft) and the message ends with a request to forward the warning 'to EVERYONE in your address book'.

The warnings are hoaxes and are the electronic equivalent of a chain letter. The giveaway is the 'forward to everyone request' and e-mails we've received have been sent to dozens of people, dozens of times. While the actual e-mails themselves are harmless, they do result in huge numbers of e-mail messages being sent, often with the full list of recipients' addresses visible to everyone who receives it.

If you receive an e-mail along these lines, read it (if you really must), then delete it. Do not forward it to anyone. E-mail messages with infected attachments exist but you should be relying upon an up-to-date virus checker to spot them, not spam warnings. For more information on hoax virus alerts, take a look at the kumite.com/myths site.

WRITE TO WATCHDOG

If you have a case for us to solve or a story that needs investigating write to: Watchdog, What PC? Editorial, VNU Business Publications, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG, or e-mail us on watchdog@whatpc.vnu.co.uk.

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