[El Scorcho]

Last year, LAPTOP’s annual undercover review of technical support services saw remarkable overall improvement in Web and phone tech support. This year, we found a general decrease in service quality, with the lowest ratings going to, yes—you guessed it, Dell and HP; and the highest marks going to Apple (which also makes the most expensive notebooks). In addition to Dell, HP, and Apple, we checked in with seven other major PC vendors to evaluate (See “How We Tested”) their technical support prowess. Read on to learn how they fared.

Link: http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/te ... -2009.aspx

I'm sure no one here needs tech support, but it seems a lot of people in my life do. Just another thing I'll consider when guiding people toward a purchase.

[rogers3]

I've had harrowing experiences, but my latest purchases have been my best. I got sick of hearing Boortz plug Vision Computers in Atlanta, and went ahead and bought several- and they are now my primary (and most dependable) machines at work. The service is outstanding; while they don't always hit their claim of a tech support person in 15 seconds, the few times I've called, I have gotten a live American in less than a minute, without fail.... fwiw!

By the way Scorcho- thanks for the upgrade!

[flamesbball84]

I've only had to call dell customer service one, and that was because they charged me for something that was free (I had no choice to remove it, which I would have if I could). Obviously since I was requesting money back, they weren't exactly the most willing to work with me. I got the money back after about 30-35 minutes of talk time though, probably closer to to 40 minutes once you add time waiting on hold.

[rogers3]

If it weren't for employees that seem to have a penchant for computer problems, a single call would be my record, as well. One thing I haven't come through with yet is the money back service call- Congrats!

[flamesbball84]

If it weren't for employees that seem to have a penchant for computer problems, a single call would be my record, as well. One thing I haven't come through with yet is the money back service call- Congrats!

Yeah, they didn't really ahve much of an argument. The slip that lists everything I ordered (which basically included every single hardware component and every single program Dell installed on it like Adobe Reader) said right on it free. Their records said it was free. When you add up the cost for everything, it was $30 more than what it said when I ordered it, and $30 was the cost of the "free" thing I was charged for. Basically they really had no other choice, I wonder how many people they ended up charging for it when it was supposed to be free though...