"Are you a PC or a Mac? If you're enjoying great customer service, chances are you're a Mac, based on some new data released by VocaLabs. They're one of those companies whose job it is to ask you at the end of your call with customer service how things went, and their survey results show that when asked how satisfied they were with their agent, 60% answered "very satisfied." Dell customers? Only 44%. Gateway followed with 37%. Not enough info is yet available on Toshiba and HP to be statistically significant."
In the end, this is nothing most of us here don't already know. My experiences with Apple Support have been very good over the years. Lita's story comes as a big surprise to PC users but not so much to us Mac users. I won't go too far into the results, but I can totally understand Toshiba being at the bottom of the food chain. I've never had a good experience with them in any way. And Gateway is a close second as far as my worst ever, so I tend to think this chart is pretty accurate. Anyone find these out of whack in any way?
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
The numbers look about right, though I was surprised Dell ranked so high. Most of my friends have Dells and they do nothing but complain about the Customer Service, at which point, I usually tell them to get an iMac. They roll their eyes and talk about expense, and I try to get them to figure out just how much time is wasted with customer support. My time, I think, is valuable, so I rank that in the cost of my devices. If I have to spend ages on the phone with customer service, then it isn't worth it. That's why I like Apple, and lately, Best Buy (whose customer service lately has been awesome for me.)
It really depends with Dell. I've had experiences on both ends of the spectrum, and frankly the more I get the Canadian folks the happier I am. Those Canadians sure know how to defuse a situation!
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
When I was a PC user, I never bothered with any of the manufacturers tech support. I just fixed the issues myself (PC tech and network engineer for 20 years, so I had the skills).
The only problems I've ever had with my Macs were with my Macbook (hardware issues) and as mentioned somewhere in another thread, I've had great experiences with Apple support, so I have absolutely no complaints.
Of course, if you read the Apple Discussion groups you might get a different take! I've been fortunate in not having had any major problems with my Macs. I'm still actively using a 5 year old Powerbook G4 that is chugging along like a champ!
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XBox 360 S, 16GB iPhone 4S, iPod Classic 160 GB, Dell Inspiron Mini 1018; Macs: Mac Mini 2.4 GHz 6 GB RAM; Macbook 2.0 GHz 3 GB RAM; MacBook Air 11", 24" Cinema Display
I own three Macs, but have never had a problem with them. I did have a very minor issue on my Macbook, and went to the Genius Bar just to see if they could fix it (I could not find a solution on the interwebs). They were great, but suggested the fastest thing to do was an archive and install, which I was trying to avoid. They even offered to do it on the spot, but I just took care of it myself when I had some more time - and that fixed it.
The one of two times I needed to call Dell support (from work), they were great. HP server support was top-notch (though I suspect that this is talking more about consumer PCs.) Toshiba always stunk - I vowed never to buy their stuff again. I've heard terrible things about Sony's Vaio support as well.
At home I owned a Dell desktop for years (it's actually still working), a notebook of my own, and my daughter's is now three years old. Never an issue with any of them. And that's *my* favorite customer support.
I've heard terrible things about Sony's Vaio support as well.
I had totally forgotten about them. You're 100% right. My experiences with Sony have been universally awful. Worse even than Toshiba. Then again, I think Sony as a company just flat-out sucks, but that's just me.
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
I'm actually having alot of trouble with Apple Customer Service. I've had an issue where they had to clear my iTunes purchase queue and for some reason they just cannot regrant the correct episodes. I've gotten almost 100GB in duplicates now and still not the correct purchased episodes even though I've given the exact episodes that I'm still missing.
I've asked to be escalated and now the customer service is just ignoring me. The case has been open for over 2 weeks and now I'm just being ignored. It's really frustrating.
Seeing as that customer service numbers are so high, I'm curious whether this survey covers only phone support or all channels.
On a side note, does anyone know how to escalate an issue? Can't seem to find anything on the support site.
I'm actually having alot of trouble with Apple Customer Service. I've had an issue where they had to clear my iTunes purchase queue and for some reason they just cannot regrant the correct episodes. I've gotten almost 100GB in duplicates now and still not the correct purchased episodes even though I've given the exact episodes that I'm still missing.
I've asked to be escalated and now the customer service is just ignoring me. The case has been open for over 2 weeks and now I'm just being ignored. It's really frustrating.
Seeing as that customer service numbers are so high, I'm curious whether this survey covers only phone support or all channels.
On a side note, does anyone know how to escalate an issue? Can't seem to find anything on the support site.
The truth is it probably does cover phone support, just not iTunes support. I honestly don't know how to escalate an issue, though. I've only had trouble twice and both times the problem was solved on the first attempt.
Hopefully if someone else knows, they'll drop a post in here to help out.
Good luck!
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
On a side note, does anyone know how to escalate an issue? Can't seem to find anything on the support site.
Well, you can try sending an e-mail to Steve Jobs. You read occasional stories from people for whom this has worked. I think if you are polite and explain things well (though briefly), somebody may get back to you. It's sure worth a try.
I believe that his address is first initial no space last name at apple dot com.
If that does not work I'd just get on the phone support and keep politely asking to talk to a supervisor.
Apple Customer Service Tops PC Makers
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