Apple's PC tech support tops Consumer Reports survey yet again
Consumer Reports on Monday released the results of its annual reader survey that asked respondents to rate the nation's best PC tech support, and Apple topped the chart yet again, this time managing to beat its own score from last year.
The report, published on the Consumer Reports webpage (via Macworld), notes Apple scored 86 out of 100 points, putting the company's after sales service in the range of "very satisfied."
In contrast, the PC manufacturer that came closest to Apple's results was Lenovo, which managed to eke out a score of 63, or "fairly well satisfied" by the magazine's standards. Also surveyed were Asus, Dell, Toshiba, HP/Compaq and Acer/Gateway/eMachines.
Apple bested the competition with "Better" ratings for phone and online support, areas where other companies received low marks. Some 24 to 40 percent of survey takers gave PC makers a "fair" rating at best for similar support requests.
In-store support was also dominated by the Cupertino company's Genius Bar, a staple of Apple's brick-and-mortar outlets. According to those surveyed, Apple Geniuses solved 88 percent of issues, while Staples' EasyTech and Best Buy's Geek Squad resolved 73 percent and 70 percent of problems, respectively.
"Whatever way readers asked for tech help?by phone (the most common way), online, or in person?Apple was also able to solve more computer problems," the Consumer Reports said in the survey's summary.
Data for the survey was drawn from Consumer Reports Online subscribers in January, with questions pertaining to respondents' desktop and laptop tech support experiences over the previous 12 months.
The report, published on the Consumer Reports webpage (via Macworld), notes Apple scored 86 out of 100 points, putting the company's after sales service in the range of "very satisfied."
In contrast, the PC manufacturer that came closest to Apple's results was Lenovo, which managed to eke out a score of 63, or "fairly well satisfied" by the magazine's standards. Also surveyed were Asus, Dell, Toshiba, HP/Compaq and Acer/Gateway/eMachines.
Apple bested the competition with "Better" ratings for phone and online support, areas where other companies received low marks. Some 24 to 40 percent of survey takers gave PC makers a "fair" rating at best for similar support requests.
In-store support was also dominated by the Cupertino company's Genius Bar, a staple of Apple's brick-and-mortar outlets. According to those surveyed, Apple Geniuses solved 88 percent of issues, while Staples' EasyTech and Best Buy's Geek Squad resolved 73 percent and 70 percent of problems, respectively.
"Whatever way readers asked for tech help?by phone (the most common way), online, or in person?Apple was also able to solve more computer problems," the Consumer Reports said in the survey's summary.
Data for the survey was drawn from Consumer Reports Online subscribers in January, with questions pertaining to respondents' desktop and laptop tech support experiences over the previous 12 months.
Comments
I wonder if Consumer Reports has ever done a survey comparing reader satisfaction with consumer magazines, such as itself.
Which story? The one about the rumours Ive is taking over and making it flatter? AI has had plenty of articles on that. The only new info seems to be the codename Innsbruck.
Yawn.
You know what would be news? If Apple didn't come out on top.....
This is great and all, not really surprising, but the only time I look at CR is when buying a blender or vacuum cleaner. Their tech and car reviews are ridiculously skewed towards the elderly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Yawn.
You know what would be news? If Apple didn't come out on top.....
An amusing, and damn correct, point!
Quote:
In contrast, the PC manufacturer that came closest to Apple's results was Lenovo, which managed to eke out a score of 63, or "fairly well satisfied" by the magazine's standards. Also surveyed were Asus, Dell, Toshiba, HP/Compaq and Acer/Gateway/eMachines.
:O Samsung didn't even make the list. I wonder why
Good question.
But to be fair, the question really needs to be "which computer brand has the most support requests per 1000 machines sold", you'd probably find Apple to be the best, and HP to be the worst, with Dell probably somewhere in the middle but below Lenovo. Samsung I'd expect to be below Dell and under the Japanese brands.
Again this comes back to build quality. Based on experience, HP has the single worst build quality of laptops, and most of the problems with HP laptops are a a result of fragility and poorly engineered locations for ports. For example
- Power connectors located at the REAR of the laptop, BAD, located beside the heat vent outtake, WORST.
- Power connectors in a shape other than the 90degree barrel design, BAD. Worst offenders are ones that have square or D shapes that break the port inside the laptop. Apple solved this with the mag-safe connector.
- Any connector located directly beside the heat vents. Particularly the USB and Power ports
- Ports spaced too close together, or recessed too far into the laptop
All the HP laptops I ever had a customer bring in, half involved broken proprietary power connectors, cables, or bricks. Meanwhile all the other brands seem to be regular wear problems like the hard drive.
Oh yeah, there seems to be no rule against sniping a story that someone else has posted. Not that i blame them. AI can't have field reporters around the world looking for a scope.
That is my experience as well. The populace at large, including many technology "pundits" do not understand how critical and common power sags and power surges are for computers in addition to the importance of the thermal design point. The most important is the thermal design point which I woul argue is one reason for the entire case of many Apple computers being a massive heat sink. The second most important component of the computer is the power supply.
Laptop Reliability and Satisfaction: MacBooks Rule
1 in 3 Laptops fail over 3 years: Netbooks fail 20% more than laptops; ASUS & Toshiba the most reliable ["Sony and Apple also performed better than the average."]
2012 Computer Reliability Report: Lenovo Most Reliable, Acer Least Reliable
Tablet Reliability and Satisfaction: iPad Comes Out on Top
Smartphone Reliability and Satisfaction: iPhone Tops the List
"Apple paid for those surveys. Oh, every survey says Apple is better than average if not the best? That is why Apple's marketing budget is so large! Oh, Samsung's marketing budget last year was larger than the rest of the industry combined? Well, Apple sucks."
"All the manufacturers use Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., so Apple can't be any better. Apple uses the same parts in their MacBook Pro Retina Display [LOL] as my $100 netbook."
"For the price of an Apple computer I can buy a Cray Titan supercomputer with 18,688 AMD Opteron 6274 16-core CPUs
and 18,688 Nvidia Tesla K20X GPUs."
"You crApple fans are all iSheep."