MPC customers are left stranded -- some with their computers held hostage -- as MPC Corporation reorganizes Shortly after I posted a while back about the Chapter 11 filing of MPC Corporation, which was handling warranty support for Gateway, Tim Kimathi responded, “You said that if anyone has issues with MPC to contact you. I have an MPC Transport GX notebook. The power supply is not charging the battery or allowing me to operate the computer. I have few more years left on my warranty but I’m unable to get hold of a single person at MPC.” Unfortunately Kimathi’s was not the only letter I got. Tim bought a tablet PC in June 2007 with a five-year parts-and-labor onsite warranty. “I was working with MPC on a problem and they had ordered a memory card for me and were supposed to send someone out to diagnose a cooling issue,” he explains. “For a while they were vague and hard to get in touch with. I spent hours on hold. Now when I call all I get is a recording about the chapter-11 filing.” But the worst of the letters are from people who can’t get their computer back after sending it in for repairs. “In February 2006, I bought a Gateway tablet laptop,” says Ryan. “I bought a 3-year warranty. In October 2008, my motherboard blew up and I called MPC and they confirmed that I should send my laptop in for warranty repair work. They sent me a UPS box and I sent them my laptop back with the promise that it would be done in a few weeks. Then, in early November, I read about MPC filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a law student I am familiar with bankruptcy and suspected that it would affect my warranty [at least until the bankruptcy process was over] so I called MPC and asked for an update. They told me all repair work was on hold pending orders for the trustee in bankruptcy or the court itself. I then requested that they send me my laptop back and even offered to pay for the shipping. They refused, saying that they would not be shipping any unrepaired computers back until the bankruptcy had run its course. My laptop is not their asset and so there is no reason they should keep it.” In a similar situation, DJ was told “no shipments are going out until a judgment is rendered.” I have forwarded every letter — and there have been quite a few — to MPC. And I have left phone messages at MPC but have heard nothing back. Gateway’s consumer division has been very responsive, but this is out of their hands. In fact, Lisa at Gateway consumer products sounded equally frustrated when I contacted her — again — to see if she knew anything. “MPC remains a totally separate entity from Acer and the Gateway consumer brand,” she explains. “They are obligated to provide support for the products they sold and acquired as part of their purchase of the Gateway Professional Business in 2007.” I wish I could say that I had an answer for you Gateway business customers, but I don’t. Not yet anyway. I will continue to forward and follow up on any letters you send me, though, and I’ll let you know as soon as I get a response from anyone at MPC about the status of warranty repairs — and those hostage laptops. Got gripes? E-mail me at christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com. Technology Industry