I picked up my tower from the Gateway Country Store in Appleton, and I
brought it home after almost three weeks in the repair shop.  The technicians
tell me it has: a new hard drive, a new motherboard, and a new brain.  They
were miffed when I said that there probably wasn't anything left to replace,
and they were also miffed when I asked them why they weren't giving me a new
tower.  I have had the computer since the end of  last August, and it is
(thankfully) still under warranty.  After a great deal of frustration and a
call to the Gateway repair people, I got this up and running after I got
home, running, I said running, but with no speed.  This is 500mz and it has
an extra memory chip, but it is operating oh, s-o-, sl-o-w-ly.  I could do my
nails as I sit and wait for the computer to operate.  The receptionist at the
Gateway store, who, of course, by now recognizes my voice on the phone and
who tells me much more than that clerk in the service department, tells me
that the technicians did not think that the computer would boot up for me
when I brought it home because the technicians were having difficulties
getting it to boot up in the shop even after they replaced everything.

So, my question is why did they have me take the tower home?  I have some
ideas.  But about Gateway, the product, the customer service people, that
800-number for technical assistance, the repair people, etc., exempting only
the Director of Sales at the Appleton store, I have nothing to say.  You
know, that old adage, if you HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO SAY, you should say
nothing.  About Gateway,  I have nothing, absolutely nothing to say.

Obviously, this is not over yet.  Only the cat is happy--he likes having the
tower back.  As soon as I put the tower on the floor and I started plugging
all the cords back in, he was right there, sniffing the tower and the cords.
Ooophs, I forgot to close the door.  I firmly believe that there are things
cats should not know about; this cat should not know that there are all these
lovely, playable cords behind the tower and he definitely should not know
about that space between the computer desk and the wall which is full of
lovely, tantalizing, playable cords and things.  He should only know that the
tower comes and goes as if by magic and that the tower turns on its green
light and emits its soothing hums as if by magic.   Looking for a little bit
of magic, Katie