'Consumer Reports': Apple tech support is aces
Apple has the best technical support in the PC industry, according to the most recent issue of Consumer Reports.
An Apple customer gets some help at the Genius Bar inside a store in New York City.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)The venerable magazine surveyed its readers to gather their experiences with technical support for personal computing, and Apple's organization far outpaced its rivals in the PC industry. Readers assigned the company a score of 83 for its notebook technical support, which translates to "very satisfied" on Consumer Reports' rating scale. You have to be a Consumer Reports subscriber if you want to access the articles and graphs on its Web site.
Lenovo and Dell ranked second and third, respectively, with scores of 66 and 60, or "fairly well satisfied." Hewlett-Packard, the current leader in the PC market, received the lowest score and the worst rating for its technical support staffers. Apple also led the desktop technical support pack with a score of 81, trailed by Dell and Gateway with scores below 60.
Apple has also ranked well on the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, a yearly measure of consumer taste in various brands. The company solves problems quickly, especially for customers who take their Mac to one of the company's retail stores for service. But if you don't live near an Apple Store, the company offers the shortest amount of free telephone support of any of the PC companies.
When it comes to the number of problems that appear, Apple's record wasn't as stellar. The company was ranked last in the number of defects that cropped up in its notebooks between 2003 and 2007, although the margin of error in that survey meant that all the surveyed manufacturers essentially tied with defects found in between 20 percent and 23 percent of their notebooks.
But Apple did much better in desktops, leading the pack with the fewest defects reported between 2003 and 2007. And since customers respond well to companies that can quickly fix the inevitable problems that crop up in PCs and consumer electronics, Apple's surging Mac sales might have something to do with its support.
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customer opinion and their own evaluations. This is an example
of the former. The fact that Apple users think highly of
AppleCare and the Apple Store "Geniuses" isn't surprising. I'm a
mac guy and long-time tech support provider, but I'm less than
impressed with them. Their customer service is fairly good, but
in my experience their tech knowledge is mediocre at best.
I'd be very interested to see a real-world test in their review. I
suggest that CR takes a sample machine from each company,
makes the same changes and calls each help desk to see how
fast a rep can diagnose and fix the problem. Do this with a
combination of hardware and software problems, and you'll soon
know who's really "aces" or just fanboy favorite.
Is it really just too much to resist?
that Apple does well is replace stuff at the Apple store. Keyboards,
keyboard keys, ipods, etc. They are really good about it, and this
likely impresses people.
being defective and they asked me if i had an appointment.I said
this is not a repair just an exchange.They looked at their
appointments for the day and said they coulnt fit me in! All booked
up even though noone was in the repair line.
I dont call this good customer service.
I challenge you to find one other proprietary manufacturer where
you can get same day service for an issue simply by walking into a
store. No other company offers that, and almost instant
gratification means alot to people these days.
location (or two if you went to different places). I'd say 19 out of
20 of my experiences with the staff were favorable. The one
exception was due to an employee who thought he knew it all,
and didn't want to be bothered with anything that might tax his
brain.
For the first poster, who had the problem, and the commute, I'd
suggest you make Apple corporate aware, provide your
information, and the stores. You might be surprised (I won't)
that they consider your experience poor customer service.
A friend just had to exchange an iphone because it wouldn't connect properly, but they did it without hassles and itunes restored it completely.
It's not that Apple products don't have any problems, its that they handle the problems better than other computer and software makers.
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by sanjayb
May 8, 2008 5:31 AM PDT
- At least Apple has a store you can go to. I was thinking about buying a Dell laptop but if I had any serious problems, I would have had to ship it back. No thanks.
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