Slashdot Mirror
Acer to Acquire Gateway for $710 million
downix writes "On the way into work today, I heard about Acer buying Gateway. A bold move strategically, I wonder what consequences this will have for Gateway's employees and customers. As the purchase price was at $1.90 per share, those of us that purchased Gateway shares a few years ago are reminded just how far it has fallen."
From personal experience I can shed some light on that.
Gateway before then had a good reputation for customer service. lifetime service and most of the reps you'd talk to would solve your problems, period. In fact if a Gateway Tech wanted to "Nuke" a system (format/reload), they had to get permission from a senior rep who would grill you on your troubleshooting thus far, approvals were only given to cases with merit. About that time (late 2001) Gateway owned and operated most of it's own call centers.
Fast forward 6 months and one of their last call centers (actually one of their best) was being closed down in favor of outsourcers who got paid almost half of what we did. We had already experienced the aftermath of these "outsourcers", they had no real formal PC support training, worked on multiple "accounts" (not just Gatway, and not just PC support), and were having customers Format Reload as if it were the *only* troubleshooting step.
Funny thing is a good percentage of our calls those last months were people calling back because they were told to Format Reload for an issue that didn't require it (say a defective soundcard/ speakers/ etc) and thus needed *more* support. Anyway, the main thing GW had going for it was it's good customer service, but that was done away with to "cut costs"....
In retrospect, aside from getting laid off (along with 400 or so other people in the same town), Gateway used to be a great company to work for. They cared for their employees (as well as their customers). Some of the best benefits I knew of for the time, very good pay (though not extravagant), and incredibly good training. I can say that when we were laid off we were taken care of, we were all given 2 months, 3 weeks pay as a minimum severance *and* GW hired some folks for 2 months to help us hone our interviewing skills and find jobs (even hosted a job fair in the old call center).
Sorry to be posted anonymously, but that big check at the end came with an NDA.