Gateway Customer Sues to Get His PC Fixed

prostoalex writes "The Sacramento Bee tells the story of an El Dorado resident who had to go to small claims court to get his Gateway PC fixed: 'Right out of the box, he says, the computer displayed scattered graphics and wouldn't work properly. He says he called a Gateway salesman five times and sent him an e-mail to get an authorization number to send the computer back, but his phone calls and message were never returned. Then, over the course of months, Sheehan said he called Gateway technical support dozens of times.' Gateway insists that by clicking 'Accept' on a customer service EULA when the computer was first booted, Mr. Sheehan has waived his rights to sue the computer manufacturer in United States courts. The Gateway EULA states that conflicts must be resolved via private arbitrage. Sheehan, though, argues that he never saw the EULA, because of the broken graphics. As such, he's not held to that agreement." Some connections between this and a discussion about a Second Life case we had yesterday.

Comments

Zonk

[PenGun]

He just posts here ... I don't think he reads the site much.

Re:Zonk

[noidentity]

Not a dupe! Yesterday's article appeared as scattered graphics and didn't display properly.

Re:I tried

[evilviper]

I never understood why someone would pay /. for the privilege of doing their work for them...

Re:I tried

[gEvil (beta)]

Saw this come from "the mysterious future" and I e-mailed the on-duty editor like it says. I guess that doesn't work so well.

It's because Zonk can't see what's on his screen and is just blindly clicking around. You should expect to be sued by him for the dupe soon.

Re:Taking advantage of the dupe

[Anonymous Coward]

Zaguar, you asshole. You thought you could copy +5 comments from the original story and boost your karma? Well, I just modded you down.
The editors are lazy fucks for not even checking this, but sadly I can't mode them down... but you're worse, trying to exploit their stupidity

http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23775 1&cid=19431651

EULAs are not meant to be read
(Score:5, Insightful)
by Opportunist (166417) on Fri Jun 08, '07 08:03 AM (#19431651)
Seriously. Have you? Can you keep a straight face and tell me you read all those legalese crap? I didn't.

First of all, it can be summed up into "We may do everything, you may do nothing, essentially, you're a dork for using our software". And second, almost all of them violate our consumer protection laws.

So, why bother wasting time?

Re:So, I mis-modded

[Eudial]

You know, you can opt out of the moderation system. Just click on options up the top, and then homepage, scroll down to

[x] Willing to Moderate

and uncheck the box.

O, I am willing to moderate. It's just I accidentally cranked open a huge canister of -1 troll on the wrong post. Figured I didn't want to spoil the poor guy's karma.

Gateway loses, again.

[Futurepower(R)]

It's not a dupe. It's a backup, to assure reliability. Here's a backup of my comment to the earlier story:

The big loser is Gateway. Would you buy a Gateway computer after reading the Slashdot article?

An appeal means that the case is no longer in small claims court. Both parties can then hire a lawyer. An appeal means that Gateway exposes itself to more attention.

The company is apparently unable to manage itself: Jury finds former Gateway execs manipulated earnings.

Okay, maybe the story is not a backup. Maybe Zonk is zonked.

Re:Yes...

[tomhudson]

[_] Zonk is reposting for those who don't have the CowboyNeal option ,,, (original story posted by CowboyNeal).

... [_] Zonk is the new CowboyNeal, like orange was the new pink

[_] Zonk uses a Gateway and can't see the stories

[_] Zonk - "Hmmm this is a dupe story, I think I'll can it ... OMG Ponies!"

[_] "What goes around, comes around, especially on /.."

[_] This is a "Best of slashdot" repeat presentation"

[_] "I didn't see the original story on my f***ed-up Gateway, you ignorant clod!"

[_] There really should be someone who's in charge of looking at the story queue and actually cans dupe stories before they're posted - and who reads slashdot more than once in a while ...

Re:All your dupes are belong to us!

[ColdWetDog]

Actually, it makes me wonder if the editors can read, period.

Is there a "Mavis Beacon teaches reading comprehension" course on the web?

Re:Yes...

[utopianfiat]

Oh ye of little long-term memory, this is MUCH more than a day old. I saw this half a week ago.
In gamer circles, we call this a M-M-M-M-MONSTER DUPE!!

Layman's terms

[jadin]

I installed software once that had the best EULA ever. While it did have the "legal speak" version you had to agree to, it also had a recap in layman's terms. Made it very very easy to see what you were agreeing to.

Example (not a real example, but you get the idea) :

1.1 Installation and use. You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Software on a single computer, such as a workstation, terminal or other device ("Workstation Computer"). The Software may not be used by more than one processor at any one time on any single Workstation Computer.

Becomes

1.1 You get one copy for one computer.

Kids

[7311587]

I get my kids to click EULA's since contracts with minors are not valid.

Re:He's 95% of Slashdot

[Runefox]

Oh, great. That's just what we need... Then we'd have Z0|\||<.

Worse?

[Warg! The Orcs!!]

Is there such a thing as "Worse than Packard Bell"?

I had a Packard Bell running Windows98... [cuts long, sad story short]..and binned it.