OK, get this. In January I bought a Gateway 7405GX laptop from J&R Electronics. The laptop was actually manufactured by Arima and rebranded as a Gateway and its been a real performer; I've been very happy with it. Well, I learned at Notebookforums.com that this series of laptops has a manufacturer's defect that has caused many hinges to crack and this left me hoping that I would not be affected. Sure enough, I noticed that my hinge had cracked last week. This Monday, I called Gateway's Technical Support and was on the phone talking to a live human being within 60 seconds of picking up the phone. The guy gave me an RMA approval without a hassle. The prepaid return box arrive late Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon I packed it up and called DHL for pickup and a DHL van arrived 15 minutes later. A FedEx van arrived today (Friday) and returned my laptop. The lid had been completely replaced and was fixed. They even gave me a new screen with no stuck/dead pixels (I had one stuck pixel that would warm up by the time Windows was loaded).
Sorry for the long and boring story but rarely in my life have I experienced customer service this phenomenal.