OK L's & G's, let's have another perspective. While I too have been a victim of tech support, I also worked at IBM for two years as a first and second level support tech.
Firstly, customers think when they buy a computer, they get free tech support also known as "How do I do this?" You can buy a $250,000 car, and do you get driving lessons with it? No!
Second, the warranty support provided with just about any computer is based on ensuring that the HW is working to spec. Software warranty is typically 30-90 days, and does not ensure that Windows XX will work with the 15 games, 20 Sharewares and WAREZ that you've d/loaded and installed.
On average I would receive about 25-45 calls a day at tech support, and of those, maybe 5 were customers with actual problems covered by the warranty. Every other question/problem was not covered and while we could offer assistance, it takes time. Time and money. Someone is paying my wages, someone is renting the building space, heating and lighting the building, paying for the phones and computer systems etc. Someone once calc'd that the average warranty support call cost about $35-50.00. Most warranty calls can be resolved in 45 min or less. The typical software question could take as much if not more time! Now we could help, but it costs money, and the way we're paid is by the money initially generated through the sale of systems. So if you want all sorts of free help, those systems will cost alot more!
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OK L's & G's, let's have another perspective. While I too have been a victim of tech support, I also worked at IBM for two years as a first and second level support tech. Firstly, customers think when they buy a computer, they get free tech support also known as "How do I do this?" You can buy a $250,000 car, and do you get driving lessons with it? No! Second, the warranty support provided with just about any computer is based on ensuring that the HW is working to spec. Software warranty is typically 30-90 days, and does not ensure that Windows XX will work with the 15 games, 20 Sharewares and WAREZ that you've d/loaded and installed. On average I would receive about 25-45 calls a day at tech support, and of those, maybe 5 were customers with actual problems covered by the warranty. Every other question/problem was not covered and while we could offer assistance, it takes time. Time and money. Someone is paying my wages, someone is renting the building space, heating and lighting the building, paying for the phones and computer systems etc. Someone once calc'd that the average warranty support call cost about $35-50.00. Most warranty calls can be resolved in 45 min or less. The typical software question could take as much if not more time! Now we could help, but it costs money, and the way we're paid is by the money initially generated through the sale of systems. So if you want all sorts of free help, those systems will cost alot more!