I've bought 3 laptops from BB - one, an HP/AMD, burned out the mobo; the second, an HP Intel Pentium 4, lasted a good while and was a free replacement for the first (because it was under warranty). The third was my Gateway tablet PC which I loved but just ultimately became impractical. My most recent purchase was direct from Gateway; I got the same warranty and managed to talk them down an additional $300 because I was a student and I wanted to buy it on my credit card that only had a $1500 limit on it. So I basically got the 4-hour battery and extra power adapter for free.
I've really liked my Gateway laptops, and their support is awesome (esp. compared to Dell). My uncle's Dell notebook recently ran so hot that it cracked a big piece of glass on his desk.... $500 to replace the glass. At least Dell's sending him a new laptop. *shrug*