Laptop mag puts tech support through the torture test
By Evan Blass 
posted Aug 15th 2006 4:29PM
posted Aug 15th 2006 4:29PM
Usually when shopping for a computer, the only two factors that really matter to most people are cost and features; if you can get the specs you want at a price you can afford, well, you're probably a happy camper. What many folks don't consider -- until it's too late, that is -- is the quality of the tech support provided by your PC's manufacturer when a problem arises. Well luckily Laptop magazine is very interested in customer support: so interested, in fact, that they actually concoct fake problems and call up the various manufacturers to see how they fare with what would normally be considered very simple issues. This time around, they switched off the WiFi on their notebooks and installed a number of startup-slowing applications, and then graded the nine major laptop makers on both their online and phone support. Coming out on top were Apple and Lenovo -- followed closely by Fujitsu -- whose websites were so well stocked with info that they precluded the need to call for help in the first place; they still called, just for kicks, and found all three support teams to be prompt in both picking up the calls (no long hold times) and solving the problems. Gateway, Sony, Dell, and HP all ended up in the middle of the pack, performing well in some areas but floundering in others. The worst of the bunch were Acer and Toshiba, with the former earning a "D" for its lousy online documentation (though hold times were non-existent), while the latter apparently experienced some damaged phone lines to its Manila call center during the testing, and was unable to solve any of Laptop's problems (or even answer the phone in under an hour, for that matter). While these results should not be considered gospel on the quality of the support you're going to get from each manufacturer, they're probably a decent representation on what you can expect following your purchase of a particular machine -- or maybe not. Readers, do you have any first-hand experiences which either support or disprove these rankings?
I buy nothing but IBM/Lenovo laptops and I have always had excellent service from them, so in my case the rankings seem accurate.
Acer is well placed among the bottom of the pack. A grant I was working for purchased over a thousand Acer laptops one year; almost all of them had some problems and there were people who actually called us in tears after talking to the Acer support people. They were extremely rude and obviously not very good at their jobs as the problems were usually diagnosed and fixed within minutes (after the waterworks were shut down). I called on behalf of several people and was often red-hot mad by the end of the call. It was really unacceptable. We decided they would never be part of our grant again, and I still tell people not to buy Acer because of the horrible service.
At my workplace, we ordered a Toshiba tablet pc back in May and when we received it, the tablet was defective. Needless to say, they had me on hold for about 30 minutes, and they couldn't even figure it out and so we had to send it back. Three months later, and they didn't even send us a replacement tablet, and our shipment was delayed for months. We canceled the order in the end. I do agree, Toshiba's tech support sucks! In the end, we got a HP Compaq tc4400 and no problems.
I've had good experience with IBM in the past, so its good to hear that Lenovo is keeping it up...
I'm not sure how Dell was able to get in the middle, we tried to order a pc from them but the service we experienced was alot like the Taco Bell drive thru.
We could not understand them then they hung up on us right at closing time, we found out it was closing time when we called back 2 min later to find out they were closed. I could go on but you get the point. If I worked there I would try to order a pc and see what happened.
I have a 2 year old HP laptop. The lcd case was cracked and the ac/dc plug was loose so it wouldnt charge and it was just out of warranty. They had me send it in no questions asked. I had it back in 3 days good as new. For this reason my next laptop will be HP.
I've always had pretty good experiences with AppleCare, etc. so it sounds about right to me.
I will say that I actually had a pretty good experience with Dell support too, although that was a few years ago.
I've currently got a Dell Dimension 5150, and a month after I got it, the hard drive crashed. I ended up talking to 3 different people, two in India (different centers I guess), one in USA, and since their databases aren't linked, they had to make a new report for me every time I called. I spent hours with them, all trying the same damn few things over and over again, with no avail. They insisted it was a virus, but in the end I decided to put the whole thing on a separate drive and hit it with every single virus scanner and adware scanner known to man. Guess what? No viruses. Because they were so incompetent, I ended up using my own money to buy myself a new hard drive, and put everything back on, just incase the old hard drive crashed again. I now build my own computers, and build/sell for other people.
I've had good luck with HP, and the phone and live online chat support always had my RMA set up fast (both problems were hardware issues) and in one case, I got my laptop back 2 days after sending it in, they sent it out the same day they received it. With that being said, my support from HP has always been better than Dell, the main bonus being that I can actually easily understand their accents. My experience with Apple support has been good, and they seem to only have American call centers which is a bonus. The only bad part about them is that after 90 days, they want money to talk to you, which is only refunded after a hardware issue has been diagnosed if it's within the first year.
Dell support is terrible. I recently bought a XPS 600 and i wanted to add an additional videocard for SLI... several people i talked to didnt know what SLI was (and this was supposed to be the exclusive XPS supportline), they couldnt find another compatible card (nvidia 6800) and couldnt provide me with an SLI connector (Nvidia says its supposed to ship with the MOBO), then i just wanted to know the manufactuerer of the graphics card (xfx, evga, etc.) and they couldnt tell me. after that clusterf*ck, i just forked over for a 7900GT (at a MUCH cheaper price than dell). I also had waiting problems, and their website sucked for support on this issue. I also dont believe there is another power connector if i wanted to add another 7900gt for SLI.
HOWEVER, i have a solid computer that was actually a great price. It wouldve cost me a few hundie more if i built it myself, not to mention have any sort of warranty or tech support.
My first experience with Apple was quite good with wait time of around 10 mins. Sadly the problem I was having (MacBook LEAP is broken)and they couldn't really do anything for me. The tech was generally *very* helpful, until she ran out of knowledge base entries to work from.
I've since had a power supply issue, and waited 13 mins on hold before a very helpful guy sorted everything out for me. Replacement arrived next day.
All good for Apple
At this point I would be willing to accept any tech support where the technicians speak English.
The thick accents really reduce understandability and efficiency in communication.
I have an HP laptop. About a year ago the hard-drive died. I called tech support, the lady was extremely pleasant and did her best to help me troubleshoot the laptop. At the end they just send a new laptop... no questions asked. My next laptop will also be an HP.
Dell support became terrible when they started outsourcing the majority of their customer service/tech support... I could just feel the difference, in the quality of the connection, in the accent of the person, in their knowledge, in their grasp of my language (English) and my description of the problem..
To all Consumer Product based companies: I will pay more for better service.. but the problem is it is really hard to find these days... Thank god for my Lexus.. dealing with those guys when I have a problem is the only thing that gives me alittle hope when it comes to consumer / customer service quality.
I never ever post comments - I just like reading the articles but I have to post on this.
Acer are soooo the worst at this - My laptop had a critical main board error that the were never able to fix (finally got joy on insurance after dropping it and got a Tosihiba repacement lol).
Anyway the laptop bounce back between me and acer about 7 or 8 times and in one particulalry galling incident they had replaced my hard drive (costing my a lot of data) with one HALF the size - imagine I were a novice user - they could've got away with that.
It is horrendous - good though that mags are testing them out though maybe change their policies now.
Malc
Sony customer support is the WORST I have ever dealt with. My VAIO laptop at work had numerous problems throughout its short lifetime, and Sony was never able to help me with any issue (all my problems were hardware related). My WEGA TV also was busted at one point (another hardware problem), and Sony was unable to do anything but sound stupid. I will never buy ANYTHING from Sony again, unless the item is branded "Playstation". Don't be captivated by those sexy VAIO notebooks. Sure, you may think you are spending a premium on quality, but you are actually paying a lot for simply stinky crap.
Interesting comments here...
I have to say that in the past few years dealing with Dell, I have nothing but good things to say about their support. First of all, I believe they have different typs of support including "Gold" support where there is no queue. Of course this costs extra coin, but needless to say, I have not encountered a bad experience with them yet, maybe I just get lucky or their support staff really knows their stuff.
Cheers!
Acer are the worst. Do you know their technicial helpline closes for an hour at lunch here in the UK!!! In this day and age what sort of company CLOSES their helplines at lunch time. Wait times are always over 20mins. Luckily they recently changed their hold music to nicer stuff so the wait is not that bad. We have 100 Acer laptops at work and would not wish them on our worst enemy.
I've always had good experince with HP support when it comes to their business laptops. Any parts were either shipped next day or a tech would show up.
I'm not sure about the consumer support since it seemed like a different department handled that.
I noticed that most "Business" laptops in general have better support terms that the consumer models.
Great site
I've been looking to buy a laptop in the past couple of week. Tosiba, dell, sony, gateway. After reading on this site, look like HP is winning this battle. Tech support is a must for all electronics
when i make a purchase. Thanks to all of you for you nightmare experinces with tech support from differnt laptop companys.
Apple wins again. That should not surprise any one though.
I have had very little reason to call Apples tech Support, but the one or two times that I have, have been with out a doubt, the best customer service I have ever received any where, even above and beyond computers service.
Of the three companies that I have contacted, here is a summary.
Apple is actually pretty good,
Sony is a joke,
Dell has tech support?
Have had great experience w/ Apple's phone support.
Have had absolutely horrible experience w/ Apple's so-called "Genius Bar" in their retail outlets.
I think the big difference between the two were the egos involved. Don't go to an Apple retail outlet unless you want the holier-than-thou attitude.
It has been mentioned before, but I think it needs to be repeated: With Dell, it depends on what kind of machine and warranty you get. Dell's home support (Dimension / Inspiron) lines are routed to India. I have had bad luck with those services and would not recommend any home-line Dell because of them.
On the other hand, the business line computers almost always include better support, and if your company has an account with Dell, usually you can get a free upgrade to Gold support. This is on the Optiplex / Latitude / Precision / PowerEdge lines and often times the same computers don't cost much more or in some cases, cost less. This is the Dell support I'm used to dealing with and have had nothing but the best possible service. The people on the other end will listen to you if you tell them you've already tried things and are much more willing to send out replacement parts (and any other closely related parts just in case) and a person to install them if you want it. In this way, I'd say Dell pretty much rocks when it comes to support.
Toshiba on the other hand, I've had nothing but problems with. I found HP / Compaq to be so-so. IBM's service system always seemed far to complex to easily find help when I needed it. It doesn't help that they wont give you the OS CD either, and unless you pay them for some better support, their service seems to be fairly useless.
Dave, I thought the holier-than-thou attitude came standard with every apple purchase.
While I haven't had a reason to call Apple's tech support for the personal MacBook yet, I have had reason to call them for various desktops at work (a community college) and have had nothing but good service ONCE I GOT THE GUY ON THE OTHER END TO STOP READING A SCRIPT.
I really wish that there was an option at the beginning of each support call to get to a different support queue if you're a halfway computer literate person. They could keep a line open for the id10t people who think that turning off the monitor shuts down the computer, but have another line for those who really already know what's wrong and simply want a return authorization number to get a new part shipped.
We have almost all Dell computers at the school, except for the Macs in our film/video production, graphics and photo editing classes. We have Dell's gold support on our servers, but for student PCs we have to wait like everyone else. The servers get fixed in 4 hours or less, the PCs take days to weeks.
My experiences with apple are definitely different than most people's so far.
Their phone support, for me, has been good, but not exceptional. Their in-store support, on the other hand, has been phenomenal. I owned an older TiBook and the whole thing was shot. Broken screen, screen hinges broken, hard drive dead, chipping paint, cracked case, and I got it all replaced in store when all I really wanted was the screen fixed.
I ended up not paying for any of it since the guy wrangled me all in under the ACPP. I have been even more loyal to Apple since then.
Sam, you are correct, the holier than thou attitude does come standard with Mac users, but there is a good reason for it. Go get yourself a MacBook, and you will see why.
Fujitsu really lost face with me recently. My tablet died after about 10 months and had to be sent back. Before sending it I went through the usual checks - remove individual memory modules, peripherals, complete discharge and recharge etc. Having sent it (and seeing it delivered on the couriers website) they then failed to check it in for 3 days. One call sent them scurrying to find it. Two days later another call actually got them to find it. Another call got me the diagnostic (dead motherboard) and a promise of an expediated fix and priority shipment....
3 days later I chased them up to find that it hadn't been shipped as they had been trying to contact me (on the number I used when I ordered it, not the one I gave when I logged the fault) because I needed to buy some more memory from them. The woman actually tried to convince me that having replaced the motherboard the engineer had decided that the problem was not fixed and proceeed to check the memory - apparently replacing the m/b *before* checking the memory is a perfectly natural diagnostic process. I asked her if my 'faulty' memory was still with the machine and when she said yes told her to ship it back. Immediately. She seemed most put out by the fact that I didn't want to buy an (overpriced) memory module from her.
The memory was, of course, working perfectly when it got to me. This attempt to stiff me for unnecessary replacement memory put fujitsu a long way back in my book.
RikF (previously accredited Toshiba/Compaq laptop engineer!)
Apple service is probably good only cause its on a "high" right now, and its probably one the few US companies who even know anything about customer service.
I really dont have issue with anyone's customer service over the phone, and I attribute that to the fact that I can explain the problem at hand effciently and understand the accent if calls are routed to other countries. I have had bigger issues with on-site support rather than the phone support.
I agree that Lenovo/IBM support was the best of the lot. Dont use apple and never will, so cant say much for that. But have had good support from HP as well. Dell and Toshiba for me would be at the botton of the heap. Dell due to poor on-site technicians and Toshiba due to just poor service centers across the country, and both had long wait times on the phone. HP I might be biased cause I knew the manager in India, and happened to buy a base laptop and got all the goodies/upgrade overnighted for no cost.
I've been an Apple person since 1988, and never had a problem with their machines or tech support - but face to face in a store is a different story altogether (I don't do "holier than thou" very well, and I tolerate it even less). Recently, I bought an HP Pavillion laptop and wanted to get a PCI card. When I called them, I couldn't speak Farsi, or whatever they spoke there, so I used the online service, and I have to say, they worked very diligently to inform me that I needed to get a PC Xpress card instead of PCI, and the remote control for the DVD player needs to be removed so the card can be inserted. It's nowhere in the manual, and looking at icons on the side of the computer doesn't help. Anyway, I'd like to throw some props to the people at HP, just because.
I have excellent reviews from Apple support. I recently ordered a 17" iMac and paid for 2-3 day shipping. 30 minutes after the FedEx website estimated it being delivered, it appeared to still be in China, according to everybody including FedEx. I called Apple and complained that I had no idea when I would get my computer and I should've just gotten the free standard shipping. They refunded my shipping costs without question, and my computer even arrived the next day, in the 2-3 day window! I also had the scrollball on my Mighty Mouse die recently and after pointing me towards the right knowledge base articles to try and fix the problem myself, they shipped me out another mouse and I received it the next day. All told, I never spent more than 5 minutes on hold waiting for a technician. I am very pleased with Apple customer support.
I have an apple ibook and recently the focus board went out on it. I took it to a nearby apple store to be shipped off. The tech guy at the store told me that it would be around 10 business days to get it back. I had it back within 4 days. I have had nothing but great service from Apple's tech support.
I'm not sure I would rate Apple care way up there. We had a problem with one of our Macs at work and the onsite guy didn't really seem all that swift.
When I had a dell notebook I found the email support was much much better then calling them. I would actually get answers instead of trying to understand what the persaying was saying. Furabed touchpad.
I'm not sure how HP is doing now, but Compaq support was really good for my notebook I had from them. Broken screen. "Note to self: Do not leave on floor and put laundry over and then step on laundry."
My latest notebook is a compaq so I'll see how support is now when something actually breaks.
My experience with Dell has been horrible. When calling with a problem for a 20 inch monitor that was not sharp, they wanted me to reinstall Windows. Horrible. Business level support seems to be better than support for "home" buyers.
Ah, yes, Dell.
The people who I called about a bad LCD monitor, complaining that it randomly would lose video, and display a "No Signal" message. Of course I had gone through the usual troubleshooting routines - swapping a known good monitor in and out, ensuring that the video signal was, in fact, there.
The first tech I got informed me that I would have to completely reinstall Windows. The fact that I was on the phone, swapping the bad and good monitors in and out, with the expected loss/presence of video, did not seem to register with him.
The next tech informed me.... I would have to reinstall Windows.
The next tech informed me that the PC generated the "No Signal" message. Good trick, when I was staring at it while the LCD was connected to the PC - which was turned off. He then ignored my comment to this effect, and suggested I reinstall Windows.
I proceeded to inform him that I thought the monitor was about to fall off the desk and shatter ( we're on a corporate no-questions-asked replacement plan - ha! ), and he decided that, well, maybe I should send it back and they'd cross-ship a new LCD.
Total time on phone: Approximately 2-1/2 hours.
I dunno about DELL's 'other' support, but DELL's xps support is very good though, i must say. My DVD drive was writing DVD's really slowly and was playing movies quite choppily. So i called them up, arranged for them to COME find me during work to replace my DVD drive the next day. Still didn't work, turns out it was drivers problem, told me to install this and that, whoa lah.
The best thing was, during those 3 days they kept on calling me up and asking me if it was fixed. I pretty much just had to make the first call. they did the follow up themselves efficiently. great stuff.
I have a laptop from Hypersonic and have to say the support is awesome. I had a problem with the integrated mic not being loud enough, and with one simple email they quickly singled out that I needed to turn on the "Mic Boost" setting. No running me around, restarting the machine, checking that the Mic-in volume was all the way up, etc. They knew exactly what I was talking about and fixed it with one sentence.
Then again, when you talk to them, you're talking to the actual people who build the systems, not someone in a call center reading a script who's never opened a computer. No big company can beat the kind of service that you get from a boutique system vendor.
I agree with all those thick accent comments.
A friend of mine has a HP desktop. When I called support for her it was an American and his accent was really really thick. I mean I live in Canada so I'm used to people speaking English properly. The guy was probably from New York. Beside his heavy accent he used words like "aint" and "gotcha." I have no idea what such words mean, but they certainly aren't English. I don't want to sound racist or anything, but I really wish these companies would hire people who we can actually understand.
As for myself I use a mac, so I never have to deal with these service people.
peace
waddo
http://www.waddo.net/
Over the years I have supported many Dell PCs for various Banking Departments. For the most part, I've not had much trouble with Dell support. I do think, though, who you end up talking to (luck of the draw) makes a big difference. I also think it matters whether you are calling regarding PCs purchased by a company or PCs purchased for home use. It seems that if you call from home regarding a home PC, for the most part, they think you are stupid and can't do basic troubleshooting. You get the low-level tech support who are following a script and if your problem doesn't follow that script sometimes it is hard to get past them to the people who will actually follow what you are talking about.
I am an Apple retail store employee and while I do not speak for Apple, I give 110% to all of my customers. I am sorry for some of your experiences. The thing to keep in mind is that we are still one of the only places where you can make an appointment and have you computer looked at for FREE...AppleCare or not! We are consistently rated highest in customer service because we are all part of the culture that our products generate. People mean everything to us! The best tip i can give is this.... if you have a problem with your Mac or iPod and are angry..... take a step back.... take a deep breath... have a smile... and ask us to help nicely :) We will go to the ends of the earth within reason to help. We want you to enjoy your experience not loathe your product.
We are people too... we have had issues with electronics also...if we all have a little patience and understanding we can solve any issue together!
Thank you,
:)
Hasn't Toshiba been raping customers in regards to customer service for years?
Concerning Toshiba; I have had a Toshiba laptop since the end of 2003, and I have called them twice for help with problems. The first time, half my screen went dead on my way home on a long plane ride. I called as soon as I could, and I was never on hold. Within minutes of talking to them they decided that it was not something they can fix over the phone (duh), and it needed to be sent out to their repair depot. They had a box next day-ed to me, I packed it up, it was next day-ed to the depot, repaired in 1 day, then next day-ed back to me.
The second time I had some minor issues that I wanted to depot to fix. Called, same service, same thing happened. I am very happy with Toshiba Tech Support.
lol awesome post, waddington. i was gonna say sth about that but decided not to as i didn't know how to put my point forward.
u've hit the sweetspot well. very well, indeed. :)
Lenovo (IBM) answers the phone, in ENGLISH, and their support is always excellent. They even have service centers in larger cities when required.
Now, if I could just get Lenovo to sell their Gaming machines in the Asian market into the U.S., I'd be set!
Gateway may be alright with the basic issues, but god forbid you need a part from them. I first called thier sales department, where I was greeted by someone that spoke clear english and readily informed me that they did not sell motherboards on thier website. I was then redirected to tech support (at $3 a minute). There I was able to attempt to order the part I needed; after an hour of telling me to troubleshoot what I already had, they kindly linked me to where I could buy a gateway motherboard on thier website (wait... didn't they just say they don't sell motherboards on thier website?). However, they linked me to the wrong motherboard. When I informed thier 'tech support' about this error, they informed me that they do not make Celeron motherboards and linked me to an external site where I could buy one. After visiting that site (which linked me back to Gateway sales), I decided that the computer really wasn't worth repairing.
I actually work for Dell tech support. While I don't speak for the company I do want to defend at least my portion of the company. What people on this site don't realize is that 95% of the calls I personally get are from people who know absolutely nothing. I've had to teach people to left click, that the internet is not AOL, what the difference between the turning the monitor and turning the tower on. You get the idea.
It also really depends on your luck as well, what agent you get. If you call in the evening especially, you have to be prepared for a high likelyhood of being routed to India, Malaysia, etc... As soon as you pay for Gold Technical Support or buy something expect to pay for someone competent. Call centers especially ones outside north america are really not as willing to leave their scripts and help someone when necessary.
Anyone have any experience with gateway? I ordered a convertable laptop from them and experienced various delays of one kind of another with the my fufillment of my order. From my experience I found that there E-mail support rocks but there service sucks. The turnaround for my E-mail questions was 3-5 minutes on average!
http://thesoggycow.phonet.us
With Dell you get a completely different experience depending on what you pay for. My entire class in college was/still is coerced into buying Dells through a semi-decent educational deal. Nearly everybody in my class had the same laptop and we all had similar problems with them around the same time. Most of us didn't pay the $300 for extra service, and when they broke down, we were out of luck.
I called Dell many many times (of course at least a half hour wait), and every rep was rude to me. They told me twice "well, what do you want me to do about it?" and hung up on me (different people, they must be teaching that technique).
My friend who paid extra had incredible service. They even came to his dorm room to install new hardware. Over two years every single piece of hardware malfunctioned in his computer and each time they came and replaced it. Now he basically has a new computer in the same case. He's happy about it. I guess if they sell you crap, but fix every few months that's ok, but it's not for me. And they advertise award winning service. I don't know what kind of award that would be...
I've only had the need to service my Apple Powerbook once when the battery died and the Genius Bar was very helpful and quick.
PS. On a side note, my roommate spilled coffee all over his keyboard late at night one time, ordered a new one immediately and it arrived at our door 9 AM. I have no idea how they did this.
I've had nothing but good with Acer. And their prices rock. Try getting something like the Aspire 5112 for less than $1400. (CAD) (Although, I can see what you mean by missing documentation, since these "don't exist" on the Canadian or American sites...UK one has it, though.)
As a Dell warranty service provider I call them just about twice a day every day and let me tell you their support for us is quite possibly the worst garbage I've ever seen. Pure crap. Their reps wouldn't know how to trouble shoot someone not being able to find their ass. This isn't a trolling comment. This is the stone cold truth of the matter. My personal fav has been resetting the boot order of the devices because I'm getting a BSOD on boot even though the error code ID's it as a problem with memory. But no. I need to make sure that the HD is the first in the boot list. Waste my fracking time is what these idiots are doing. Just order the part I tell you and ship it you morons.
"Anyone have any experience with gateway? "
the only experience I've had with GW was back in 2000 when one of my relatives paid me to set up their computer . I picked it up at USP. Brought it over and proceeded to unbox the system. Inside you had the usual. PC, documentation, keyboard, mouse, and the all important empty cheetos bag. Don't ask. I don't really want to know myself.
I have used Apple equipment for 14 years and never needed tech support but have experienced tech support with HP, which I can say in my experience is very good. Although this was only for a printer which I purchased from PCWorld on the bargain shelf. When the printer started playing up it was still in the warrantee period but having phoned HP I found out the warrantee had started about 2 months before I purchased it, what PCWorld did'nt say was that it was a customer return. After providing HP with purchase info they provided a replacement with no problem, even though technically it was out of warrantee. Thumbs up HP.
Toshiba is by far the worst.
no online support whatso ever. and their laptops are horrible. i have a a75s206. and hate it
dell is alright, they replaced my printer for free when It wasn't even broken that bad.
I agree with Acer being bottom - they misdiagnosed the problem with my laptop over the phone (assuming it was definitely the DC IN port, rather than the AC adapter itself), refused to even consider repair under warranty (because I'd 'obviously' yanked the cord by accident and damaged the DC IN port, which they would have found was not the case if they ever looked at the laptop) and then failed to ever arrange a pickup date, despite my phoning back over several days and getting assurances they would. I eventually diagnosed the problem myself and bought a new AC adapter. I wouldn't buy from Acer again.
I had a very good experience getting my wife's iBook fixed at an Apple Store. She had dropped it and the power cord plug broke off inside the jack. We brought into a nearby Apple store to have it looked at, but didn't make an appointment before hand. One of the geniuses told us he'd have it fixed in an hour and voila it was done, no muss no fuss.
I bought a TC4200 from HP last year. No problems at first, but it has started falling apart this year. I paid for next-day on-site support, but HP has NEVER delivered on that. I have one issue that is still unresolved with parts that have been on back-order for weeks. I will never buy another HP product.
Tech support was one of the reasons I choise Apple for my laptop purchase earlier this year.
People have moaned about Apple's prices and the cost of the Applecare plan, but from the track record of their customer support I can safely say that the $300 spent was well worth it in the long run to get the support I get.
What the article failed to mention was the in store support Apple has with the Genius Bar. How many other manufacturers have a dedicated place where you can bring your computer in to be looked at, and where you can talk face to face with a person? None that I can think of off hand.
If with contractors repairing my PC like I had with Dell, there is something much more comforting about walking into a clean Apple store to have a guy look at your computer rather then having a mysterious Dell tech from some unknown company come to your home to fix your computer.
Fujitsu has always been amazing for me. The techinal support is top-notch and they make very high quality products. I purchased my last 3 Tablet PC's from them and haven't been dissapointed.
I use an iBook at home and have never actually called Apple for tech support; their support website and discussions have usually provided the answers. I have had the keyboard on the laptop changed a couple of times after some of the keys started to fade but it was done at the local Apple dealer from where I bought the iBook.
At work I have to deal with Dell and HP support (less with HP as we have only a couple of their laptops). Dell support is usually good - we have the Gold support plan plus 3 year NBD on-site service for our newer Dell laptops (Latitude D series). If I have isolated the problem they usually just send the replacement part (and someone to install it if needed) without any extra questions, and if we need to troubleshoot it's usually quite professional. No long waits on the phone, either.
Our older laptops in Latitude C series didn't have the business support plan so the calls routed to Estonia (our office is in Finland) which was sometimes a bit frustrating as we were speaking Finnish yet I wasn't always sure if the person on the other end was actually understanding all that I was saying. Longer wait times, too, although within reason.
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I've had great experiences with Acer, fairly short wait times and really quick shipping. They were always willing to hear me out as to what the problem was, which has saved all that time of going through the scripted troubleshooting BS that I always had to deal with over at Dell.
Dell has the worst possible support for the avg home user. They make em cheap, i personaly regect any warenties and support options they try and tack on.
The other end of the stick is quite nice tho. We had gold in for our school, they constantly had 1-2 spare machines over what we ordered for instant replacement, we had 1-2 replacements on hand at all times for nics and a few other components that caused problems in the past. We also had to have our techs go through a support certification. Which would probably explain the intelegent techs on the other end...
And for once i'll defend apple on this. Aside from the craptacular education support. Which has taken a complete overhaul in the last 4 years for the better. You get what you pay for. They have great voice support but its like pulling teeth to get anything defective replaced. Since Apple "doesnt have defects" attitude looming over damn near every employee.
I have only called once to tech support... one of my work's new Dell Latitude laptops infrared adapter was not working... it took me a little while to reach a tech support guy but he answered me in less than 5 minutes, the IR adapter was disabled by default in the BIOS!
I think dell should be at the very bottom of the list. I spent 100 minutes on tech support before they told me "oh, you need to purchase two ram sticks in roder for it to work properly" they did not help me at all. Dell deserves an F for tech support
I've owned a few Toshiba laptops in my time and when one decided to flake out, a short (20 minute) call to tech support had a return parcel on my doorstep the next day, and in 3 days, my fixed laptop back in my hot little hands.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at things), this is the only lappy I've had that ever gave me any grief. All the rest went to various college bound family members and were in good working order upon transfer of ownership.
So, yeah, I can say that Toshiba treated me very well when I had an issue with their product, they're also the only manufacturer with which I've ever had a need to call tech support and put them to the test.
Dell support is a sick joke. They outsource to India and unless you ask specifically what is on their script or prompter they can't help you. I have their support tell me that my problem is solved and hang up on me.
Gateway is even worse. Once your warranty is up you are SOL if anything happens to your equipment. I went back and forth with Gateway when a logic board went out on my LCD display and they told me because it was out of warranty they will not support it or repair it and I will have to buy a new one.
I am so happy to hear people comment on Acer support line. I called them 5 times this week and after at least 20 minustes wait, they were unable to help. One hangs up on you, the other eats while he talks to you, another (computer voice) tell you they are having their lunch, please call back after 1pm (sic...) I would never recommend an Acer laptop to anyone knowing that they are bunch of deaf people and probably the rudest I've ever came accross while calling a manufacturer hotline...
I've had nothing but trouble with Toshiba's support...including but not limited to the fact that they do not stay on top of the most current (or even close) drivers for the products they use in their laptops. In addition, because of the way the machines are made, you MUST use a driver from them and not from the manufacturer of the part. So you are stuck with whatever they choose to dole out. Their technical support is horrible as well. A lack of local forums (they toss it off to CompuServe) or a way to e-mail/form message technical support combined with the worst call center I've yet come across make them the worst possible candidate for purchasing a new computer (laptop or desktop either one), IMO. I know I will never purchase from them again.
Lenovo has really messed up IBM's reputation.
We've purchased IBM laptops since I've been with the company (3yrs) and never had any problem. Recently we bought three 2623DDU T60p laptops. At the time, they were the top of the line. We paid $2500 for the laptops and an extra $100 to upgrade the warranty to 9x5xNBD on-site. The first one shipped with a bad memory slot and when the techs came out to repair it they scratched it up and put the screws in before putting the case on, and didnt fix the problem. We called lenovo and they didnt have any parts to repair it so they had to send us a new laptop. Later the new one had a docking problem which they couldnt fix because they didnt have parts, so they're sending us a refund.
The second one's screen stopped working and they didnt have any parts for a couple of weeks. when they finally replaced the screen, they didnt connect some cables properly and the keyboard didnt work anymore. They were missing the parts to fix that and didnt know when they were going to be in, so they ended up giving us another refund. We're currently shopping for other laptop vendors because we're tired of waiting for parts to arrive from Hong Kong.
I am having the WORST experience ever with HP for my Pavillion Notebook. Thank God that my problem with the machine dosn't keep me from using it--distorted LCD and loose power socket. I have been trying since Friday--today is Monday---to send my notebook in for repair. It took half of Friday to get HP to recognize my $350 extended warranty and now I am still waiting for a return shipping box that was promised Friday-no email telling me the box is coming or phone call. I have been trying for an hour to find out the status of the return box and no one can help me. No more HP for me!!!
I don't know who wrote your article but Gateway didn't end up in the middle of the heap. It received the editor's choice. As a matter of fact, Apple tied Gateway. Gateway's tech support was at one time legendary. It has since started the rise and although they are far above the rest of the PC market, continue to strive for that legendary status. You should read the article before putting it up on your site.