Gateway's outsourced tech-repair center mistakenly refurbished and resold my laptop. Yes, you read that correctly. Refurbished and resold. What was supposed to be a simple 2 week repair of a faulty screen has turned into a 7 week struggle to find out info about my computer and get a laptop back on my lap, so to speak. That's the short version.

I bought the M320X Plus in mid-January. The laptop came, but a receipt, confirmation order, or invoice did not. This posed a problem since I needed one of the above to get my $150 rebate.

Mid-March, my rebate date was quickly approaching and I still had no "proof" of purchase other than a credit card bill. After several phone calls, I was finally sent a receipt.

The next evening (after a full day of problem-free work), during a planning meeting, I opened up my laptop. Instead of returning from its slumber, it flickered.

That was the end of my screen. I fed-exed it to Arima Computer Corp. in Houston a day or two later. I was told that the company would email me when they received the system and send regular updates along the way. Just to make sure there were no miscommunications, I taped a detailed description of the problems to the laptop lid.

"You'll have it back in two weeks," they said.

"Good. Because I'm travelling for work in two weeks." Not only could I not work on my teaching and powerpoint stuff before I traveled, but I also didn't know if the computer would arrive before or after takeoff.

After not hearing whether they even received my laptop, I queried FedEx. The laptop had arrived 2 days after I sent it. No problema, right?

So I called Gateway. They didn't have a record of my serial number. They said it was still waiting to be received.

Multiply this by at least 20-30 phone calls over the next 5 weeks.

I finally got my employer on the phone. I figured a deep voice might get the job done more quickly then my "Hi I still sound like a college girl" voice.

No answers still, although they did continue sending Arima emails to speed up the process. One person at one point said they had found the computer and it was going through "diagnostics." Then they "lost" it again.

After giving them my FedEx tracking number (again), they said they'd call back within 72 hours. Four days later, we called them back.

They had answers this time. The computer had been sent from Arima to be refurbished/resold.

My compensation....well, that has been a bit of a battle too. Turns out they didn't really want to give me the same model. They wanted to "set me up good" by giving me a slightly (very slightly) faster M360. The catch -- it's bigger and weighs more. Also, it has a lesser rebate. I had to fight for the most extensive warranty--wherein they come to my house to fix it.

So it was going to cost me MORE money to get this other one. Ridiculous! Finally, after the customer service guy bugged his manager a bit more, he reduced the price to be the same as what I paid for the first one.

But there's still a catch -- it only comes with a $100 rebate, instead of the $150 I was originally supposed to get but couldn't since I didn't have the appropriate shipping labels anymore (had to send the laptop back to them in its box).

The laptop is supposed to arrive May 17 (they sent in the order on May 8). By then, it'll have been 8 weeks without my laptop, and I'm still out about $50 worth of rebates.