Apple tops Consumer Reports satisfaction survey for computer technical support
Apple once again ranked highest this year on an annual Consumer Reports satisfaction survey for computer support services, the magazine has revealed in its July issue.
Apart from Apple scoring good reviews for its phone and online support options, four out of five Mac owners who used AppleCare said the service was able to solve their problem. Apple has maintained the highest score for overall satisfaction since Consumer Reports began surveying people on computer technical support in 2007.
In comparison, the help desk services for four of out of six Windows PC brands were only able to solve half of the issues they were presented with. The other two companies, Dell and Lenovo, scored a modestly better 61 percent rate.
Apple was also a leader in terms of retail support, though the company was rated "pretty much even" with independent stores, the publication said. Ranking behind those groups were Best Buy's Geek Squad and Staples' EasyTech. Outfits like Geek Squad and EasyTech charge people for any level of service though, whereas Apple will diagnose any of its products for free, even if out-of-warranty repairs can sometimes be expensive.
The survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center earlier this year, and polled over 3,200 computer owners.
One area where PC services did surpass Apple was in the length of phone and online coverage. Apple offers just 90 days of remote support with its default one-year warranty, whereas most PC makers provide a full year. Both remote support and warranty coverage can be extended to three years via an AppleCare Protection Plan, but that costs $249.
Apart from Apple scoring good reviews for its phone and online support options, four out of five Mac owners who used AppleCare said the service was able to solve their problem. Apple has maintained the highest score for overall satisfaction since Consumer Reports began surveying people on computer technical support in 2007.
In comparison, the help desk services for four of out of six Windows PC brands were only able to solve half of the issues they were presented with. The other two companies, Dell and Lenovo, scored a modestly better 61 percent rate.
Apple was also a leader in terms of retail support, though the company was rated "pretty much even" with independent stores, the publication said. Ranking behind those groups were Best Buy's Geek Squad and Staples' EasyTech. Outfits like Geek Squad and EasyTech charge people for any level of service though, whereas Apple will diagnose any of its products for free, even if out-of-warranty repairs can sometimes be expensive.
The survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center earlier this year, and polled over 3,200 computer owners.
One area where PC services did surpass Apple was in the length of phone and online coverage. Apple offers just 90 days of remote support with its default one-year warranty, whereas most PC makers provide a full year. Both remote support and warranty coverage can be extended to three years via an AppleCare Protection Plan, but that costs $249.
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One area where PC services did surpass Apple was in the length of phone and online coverage. Apple offers just 90 days of remote support with its default one-year warranty, whereas most PC makers provide a full year. Both remote support and warranty coverage can be extended to three years via an AppleCare Protection Plan, but that costs $249.
Kia has a 10-year/100,000-mile powertain warranty and a 5-year/60,000-mile basic warranty.
Honda has a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty and a 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty.
Would you rather have a product with a long warranty that needs lots of repairs or a short warranty and few-to-no repairs?
Quite simply, Apple products experience fewer hardware and software failures requiring repairs or technical support than other brands. Long warranties are a liability for manufactures. Reliable products don't need longer warranties - the reputation will sell itself without the manufacturer remaining liable for the product for long periods of time.
Doesn't surprise me either. I recently had a very weird glitch where the App Store updater app on my Mac Pro (Yosemite) was loading blank pages. It also effected visiting the Apple discussion page which wouldn't load and a few more symptom like not being able to log in to Messages with my Apple ID. It turned out to be a harder problem to solve than I thought, but I called Apple and even though it took 79 minutes to solve on a computer long out of warranty, they walked me through the steps and got my Mac Pro back in business.
Apple Support Rocks! My Experience with AppleCare
If your car / device is more reliable how is a long warranty a liability. If the product is more reliable it follows that the warranty should be longer, not shorter.
Nintendo has fixed second hand products.
Apple often replaces cracked screens.
Do Kia's require more repairs than Honda's? Do you know this?
1. Historically speaking, yes, though the reliability gap between auto manufacturers continues to close.
2. http://www.accountingcoach.com/terms/W/warranty-liability
They're more reliable than those expensive German cars.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1028009_german-cars-beaten-by-kia-in-reliability
Yeah, this kinda says something about those “Apple’s QA has gone to Hades” whiners. If the products are bad then no amount of customer service is going to change people’s minds. But the chronically disappointed and malcontented crowd screams the loudest so they get the attention. The truth is quite different.
My gripe isn't with their service, which has always been excellent. It's that in the last few years they've made self-service increasingly difficult. I don't need Apple to replace a hard drive that, out of warranty, is likely to be expensive. I need Apple to apply its creative brilliance to give us Macs with the same easily replaced hard drives and RAM that my white MacBook has.
And I shouldn't have to buy a new Mac to get more RAM or more storage.
Yes but fewer and fewer customers do that stuff when they could replace a HD or RAM themselves
I've got a 2013 Kia Cee'd and it's a superb car - I bought it approved used from a main dealer at 10 months old and they even extended the 7 year warranty out to give me a full 7 years instead of the 6 and a bit that was left from when it was first registered. It does feel rather good knowing that my warranty lasts several years longer than the finance.
Meanwhile back on topic I have to say all my experience so far with Apple Support (both telephone and in store) has been great and a pleasingly rare occurrence.
A few years ago my smart cover for my iPad 2 split in one corner... 5 minutes on the phone to support and there was a new one in the post and I kept and managed to repair my old one to boot.
A couple of weeks ago my iPad Air 2 started going mental registering false touches. I made a genius appointment in my local store, turned up and walked out 10 minutes later with a replacement iPad - no fuss, no bother, just straight up good service.
Gets pretty tiresome to read some PC people say not to buy Apple because you can't repair them or upgrade them and you can get something much cheaper.
They completely ignore PCs that cost the same, or often more, than an Apple computer.
This is not my first experience with AppleCare. I had a 2008 MBP model that went in for a keyboard replacement and it returned with some dust behind the display glass. They picked it up the same day. They called to tell me that the display panel was delayed and asked if I would accept a brand new MBP in place of waiting for the repair. They replaced my nearly 3 YO MBP with a new model that had twice the processor speed, twice the RAM and twice the HD size. Again, no charges and again 5 star service.
In both cases, I could not imagine getting finer service. My next computer will be from Apple.