PC Magazine rates the best and worst PC vendors

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ttzd/20040722/tc_techtues_zd/132035

Readers chose Apple and IBM as the best, although in IBM's case "best" in laptop support and "worst" for desktops.

I've seen many DU threads along the lines of "I'm buying a laptop, what do you suggest"...looks like Dell can be a real roll of the dice (I own a Dell desktop and can attest to the fact that the outsourced tech support really does suck):

DELL. For a company whose users love it, it has some "now, about that … " issues to address. Its desktops received high marks for reliability, but when they do break down, Dell's tech support generates some grumbling. Part of the grumbling may relate to the company's outsourcing of portions of its tech support – some respondents in our survey complained about not being able to understand some of the help technicians. Whatever the reason, Dell scores slightly below average on tech support.

Its worst category, though, is notebook computers. These rank below average for reliability in general, with 25% of business notebooks needing repairs. On the plus side, when it does have to repair its machines, Dell does a very good job

Mac fans will be pleased with this rating:

APPLE. Apple always gets the love from its users, and nowhere is that more evident than in this year's top ranking for reliability. But there seems to be good reason for the admiration. After all, the company's control over both software and hardware helps make its systems more reliable. Apple sits alone atop the reliability charts, scoring a point than the overall industry average for both notebook and desktop computers. Moreover, for both notebooks and desktops, Apple clocks in with the lowest percentage of systems needing repairs, according to those who responded in our survey.

Other vendors in the survey are ABS, Sony, Gateway, Toshiba, and HP/Compaq (home of Carly "a job is no longer a God-given Right" Fiorina).

Enjoy.

[Booster]

1. I also have a Dell desktop and have never really

been very happy with it. I don't really remember what I had before (I'm not really into computers), but it was so much easier to use than the Dell, and, you're right, tech support on the Dell is lousy and I can never find what I'm looking for with the "help" feature. I won't get another one. I had a problem with it and spent a total of 9 hours on two separate occassions talking to everybody in India and they couldn't find the problem. one night, after 4 hours, the guy wanted to start from the top and I said "no, I'm really bored with this whole procedure" and ended the conversation. I don't know what happened but the damn thing fixed itself somehow.

[Ohio Dem]

2. I'm quite happy with both of my Dells.

A desktop and a laptop. Maybe I just got lucky.

[Pithlet]

3. I hated my dell notebook.

I had it less than a year, and 1/3 of the keys on my keyboard would just randomly decide to stop working now and then, and finally just quit all together. Calling the help desk with this problem was a nightmare. It was also a pain in the ass to boot up, because sometimes it just didn't feel like it. It was like coaxing an irate toddler to do something it didn't want to do.

Fed up, I junked it and bought an HP notebook. A few months later the battery stopped charging, and my computer turned into an expensive paperweight. I had to send it out twice to get it fixed. Now that it is finally working right, I like it.

[Gore1FL]

4. Feirends of mine nuked their Dell

and asked me to reload it.

There is so much stupid non-standard proprietary crap, that even using downloaded files from Dell, i can't get half og the hardware to work.


You'd think they'd carry drivers for their products....

You are better off building your own,. or having your own built by someone.

[Solon]

5. Nowadays, it is almost inexcuseable to not build your own...

I remember back in the day when you had to manually set each component so they can all work together properly. All those damned jumper settings and BIOS settings, those were the days. Now, you just plug the color coded wires into the right sockets, plug in the cards, hell even the CPU is plug and play nowadays, turn it on, and put in the Windows XP or BeOS(for computer illiterates); Linux or FreeBSD for us Professionals. :)

Even if you don't feel up to par, ask a friend or something, 9 times out of 10 you can find someone who will tell you EXACTLY what you need for the computer, and build it for you for free, or a small fee like around 10 bucks, that's my fee anyways. Plus you can get tech support, as long as you don't badger them, that will come to your house for crying out loud. Now that is service!!!

ON EDIT: This obviously excludes laptops, unless you know someone who knows electronics VERY well.