Not so much, but as recently as five years ago. They don't pre-image, but they open up the computer, and Geek Squad "optimizes" and "preps" it for you, including installing a bunch of crapware.

And then when you ask for one that hasn't been "prepared" they look at you like "why would you ever want that?" and when you insist, they'll apologize that they have none of that model in stock that haven't been prepared.

Seriously? That’s not a new machine at that point.

It was 2013.

Gateway was bought by Acer and stop selling online and sells (sold?) exclusively through third party retailers.

Support was decent though. The hard drive crashed and I had to ship the entire computer back to them.