Laptop magazine went through the painstaking process of calling the tech support of every major notebook manufacturer. And they timed their waits before asking one of two very basic questions. The results may not surprise you.
Apple scored the highest with an A overall (that’s a combined score of online and phone tech support). HP, Acer and Dell tied for lowest with C- each.
The good news: Most techs were able to answer basic usage questions after hold times within 5 minutes…with the exception of Dell, who maxed out at 19 minutes before connecting Laptop to a line that was “full of static and hissing” only to be transferred through one of those seemingly infinite tech support loops.
The bad news: While some problems across manufacturers varied, like Acer claiming that a computer was beyond its warranty date (despite not having even been manufactured by its alleged expiration), others were fairly common, like the low call quality from overseas lines.
Of course, we’re just skimming the surface of Laptop’s results, so hit them up and read the whole story on the current state of online and call-in technical support. [Laptop] [Image, it's actually a 911 call centre in NY]
SirMuffinMan
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 9:15 AMTo be fair, the question was pretty easy for Apple: “Macs don’t do that.”
Michael
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 2:37 PMTo be fair this review is probely based on consumer/home users support. I am a tech using Dell equipment and if you have access to Gold/Pro support you talk to someone in Sydney and they are fantastic.
Lachlan Heywood
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 7:42 PMYou speak to someone in Sydney for Acer regardless of your support level.
Their call centre is in Homebush. I can definately say that Acer have better support than this in Australia. They may have slightly long wait times (7-10 minutes) but they speak real english…