I continue to get a fair number of letters from people who purchased a Gateway computer before MPC Corp. bought Gateway's professional products division in 2007, filed Chapter 11, and then went completely belly up, leaving all its customers -- even those who purchased extensive warranty support -- without warranty (or any kind of) repair or support.
For example, Pete recently sent me a note asking, "We have been trying to get warranty work on our Gateway tablet computer but keep running into a dead end. Do you know how we can get it repaired?" I got that sinking feeling I get every time I'm asked this question. But as usual, I sent the query over to my contact at Gateway, hoping this one would turn out not be an MPC Corp. Gateway machine but a Gateway/Acer Gateway machine.
[ Review the MPC saga in earlier Gripe Line posts: "Grassroots forum for orphaned MPC customers," "One man picks up where MPC left off," and "When vendors go bust" | Frustrated by tech support? Get answers in InfoWorld's Gripe Line newsletter. ]
"I would need the serial number to confirm this," Lisa responded immediately. "But since it's a tablet, I'm 99 percent sure this would be an MPC product." Just to be certain, though, we got the serial number from Pete. (These 10- to 13-digit numbers are printed on the bottom of the laptop as well as in the receipt you got when you purchased it.) And then she and I both entered the number into the search at the Gateway service lookup page.
Ouch! Sure enough, the page that redirects customers to MPC for support popped up. That page now also redirects customers to the links, downloads, and support information Gateway had on its site prior to the sale of the professional division to MPC in 2007 because, well, sending people to MPC for help is both fruitless and cruel.
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Download now »If you bought a computer from MPC, I understand you are out of luck. But if the purchase was actually from Gateway, as the first paragraph says, then you are a creditor of Gateway, which is still alive. The bankruptcy of MPC shouldn't affect you. Gateway is still responsible (unless you consented to the transfer of the debt to MPC). I think Gateway is taking advantage of customer ignorance, not any law. If the law allowed companies to pass on debts without recourse like that, you could sell your credit card liability to a bum, and then tell the credit card company to sue the bum? I don't think the law works like that. No, assets are tranferable like that, but not debts.
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