Customers Rate PC Vendors' Tech Support

VorfeedTech writes "News.com has a story on consumers' satisfaction with tech support. The article goes on to mention ConsumerReports' survey results comparing a few of the major PC vendors. Apple rated the best for tech support. I guess this is where they think different (TM)."

Comments

A Universal Truth...

[RomSteady]

Those in the know about any subject almost always think those who are not in the know are complete idiots.

When you are supporting something, you become a genre expert, and as such, have a domain of knowledge about the product that few outside of tech support could hope to attain.

Besides, when you've worked tech support, you only remember the bad calls, never the good ones.

Dell buys adds => Dell gets press

[capt.Hij]

It looks like Dell's satisfaction numbers are slipping, and the article gives many excuses as to why this might be. It is a little difficult to give this much credence when they've paid for the banners spanning across the top of the page. Not only that but they gave Apple a few passing comments even thought they were the only ones to improve their satisfaction numbers.

I wonder if there is a connection there?

I used to be a big Dell fan until...

[BlackMesaResearchFac]

...I had to use their customer support.

I've had two Dell computers without problem. The PCs worked fine for the duration of their life with me(2-3 years) and all was good.

This past winter I was going to buy another one only I had a complete brain fart about the limit on my card since I had never used it to make a purchase over $100 online.

So they send me an e-mail back saying the bank denied my purchase but did not give them a reason and I was to call Dell back, yadda yadda. So after figuring out about the limit from my card company I call Dell back and explain. I called the number they told me to call in the e-mail but after waiting 20 minutes to talk to them they had to rout me through to someone else because it wasn't the right department. So I wait another 20 minutes and I explain the problem to the next person...oh wait, it's not their department so they route me some place else. So I wait another 20 minutes and I explain the problem to the next person...oh wait, it's not their department so they route me some place else. Only this time my connection is disconnected...

I was so irritated I just forgot about the entire thing. In 2 days they had to release my order (as said in the e-mail) and I never did get a Dell. I built my own computer (thank goodness).

This could have all been avoided had I not bought the computer on the last day of a significant sale (free shipping -$90 plus a free upgrade or two, so I was saving quite a bit). Because of that I couldn't just cancel the order and configure and buy again.

In any event, that entire ordeal soured me to Dell.

After a great experience building my own computer months later, I'd never go back unless perhaps I ever bought a laptop.

Good ones...

[Corporate Troll]

They don't remember the good ones? That's sad.

A few years ago a Jaz disk would eject immediately after inserting it in the drive and I called Iomega. After going trough the automated stuff (push # for ...), I finally got a live person on the line.
After the usual (cables, drivers, etc....) stuff she exactly told me what to do to make it stay in there (easy: keep your hand the disk, until it snaps, it never had the problem after that occurence). She even was very patient with me because I had to walk to the computer each time to do something because the phone and computer were in different rooms. After being helped, I thanked her for her friendly and useful help, and she actually sounded astonished anyone would thank her for the help.
And now you say they don't remember the good calls? *snif* (Oh, and she had one kind of sexy voice with a slight Irish accent)

More kudos to Apple ... anyone with bad stories?

[jolshefsky]

I dare ye to compare this to any other company's support story: I bought a PowerBook G3 in 2000. After a couple months the hard drive started going bad (heavy clicking, and not to do with what I was downloading...) Anyway, I thought I could expedite things by having them send me a new hard drive. No dice--I'd have to send the whole laptop back to Apple. Great, I thought.

On Monday afternoon I called them and they said they'd send me an overnight shipping package.

Tuesday, mid-day, an Airborne Express box was sitting on my porch. I packed the machine and brought it to the Airborne office for shipping.

Wednesday, I check the website and my machine arrived in the morning, has been fixed and is being shipped out in the afternoon.

Thursday, mid-day, an Airborne Express box is on my porch with my laptop with a new hard drive.

Time from problem discovery to problem resolution: 70 hours. Cost to me: $0. (Well, I did miss out on the $200 rebate offer when I bought it by one friggin' day ... darn you Apple--why won't you be nice and give it to me anyway? why? Oh ... sorry ... )