Brad Grimes
Tom Chimner is an engineer at Eaton Corporation in Southfield,
Michigan. He uses Dell PCs at work and at home, but admits he's had problems
getting good service. "When my home PC's CD/DVD-ROM drive stopped working,"
Chimner explains, "I called tech support and waited on hold for 30 minutes." A
technician read Dell's knowledge base and suggested installing an antivirus
program (which his PC already had) and cleaning the drive's optical reader.
Chimner followed the tech's suggestions, but the drive still failed to work.
"At one point the rep told me to reformat my hard drive, which I didn't want to
do," recalls Chimner.
After weeks of back and forth, Dell finally sent a tech to his house to install a new drive--that fixed the problem. "Getting a replacement may not have happened if I hadn't been persistent," he says.
Chimner is not the only customer at odds with a PC maker. Our most recent survey of 29,593 subscribers reveals growing frustration with computer service. Last year, PC World readers told us they were unhappy with technical support. This year's survey shows little--if any--improvement. Dell, for example, tumbled in service overall--especially in hold times. The other big news: Apple rated higher than any other computer maker.
Overall, just half the people reported hold times of 5 minutes or less; fewer people said their problems were resolved within five days; and in a new measure, only 53 percent said their problem was resolved the first time they called tech support.
Survey respondents also indicated that PC reliability may be slipping, which could prompt more calls to tech support. Customers of several companies, including Dell, Gateway, MicronPC, and the now-merged Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, gave their vendors lower reliability marks than in last year's results. The most notable worsening is in the percentage of PCs with a problem. For example, in our last survey, Dell received a Good overall score in the notebook category; this year it dropped to Fair. Meanwhile, 43 percent of MicronPC desktop users reported a problem in the past; this time it was 56 percent. Last year 40 percent of IBM notebook users reported a problem; this year 47 percent did.
What's going on? To find out, we visited call centers and interviewed support technicians from various companies. The quality of these centers affects customer satisfaction, but some factors are out of technicians' hands. Cutthroat competition and a sluggish economy have forced companies to watch what they spend. Though PC makers insist they're investing heavily in service and support, they may not be investing as much as they did in years past. "In a market driven by prices, it's not surprising that companies are getting low marks for service," says Rob Enderle, research fellow at Giga Information Group. "PC makers are under severe cost constraints. They may be spending on service, but they can't overspend."
Nearly every vendor we spoke to has shifted its support emphasis from short hold times to resolving problems on the first call. Companies have discovered that it costs more to field follow-up calls from customers than it does to take the time to solve their problems on the first try. Technicians like the change because they are not under as much pressure to push people off the phone. Getting problems solved on the first call also means fewer hassles for PC users. But callers may wait on hold a few more minutes before they get through.
Faulty Towers?
The technicians we spoke to blamed some of today's PC problems on Windows Me, which has developed a reputation for being an unstable operating system. They say that many users trying to upgrade from Me to Windows XP encountered compatibility issues. Support reps also said that buying PCs with extra hardware features raises the incidence of problems. Digital video and wireless networking issues have increased in every call center we approached. High-speed and analog modems were other common sources of PC angst.
"People are using their PCs for everything," says Valerie (most technicians are identified by their first names to protect their privacy), a three-year veteran at Dell's Nashville call center. "Problems are getting as complex as the products."
More features mean more parts that can fail. Overall, 31 percent of survey respondents indicated they'd had a component failure, up from 25 percent last year. Motherboards, hard drives, and modems are common problem components, but CD-RW drives and other new components fail, too.
Still, the majority of service calls are software-related. Techs recommend Windows XP for helping stabilize and troubleshoot complex PCs. "XP has great tools for fixing problems," says Valerie.
Before upgrading your OS, however, check with your PC maker: Doing it yourself could affect your warranty. You're not on your own--bad components should still be covered--but many technicians won't help you troubleshoot OS conflicts.
Dell's Fall From Grace
In years past, Dell consistently led the pack in reliability and service ratings. But this time around, Dell users didn't give the company top marks. Most notably, owners of Dell desktops and notebooks are likely to wait on hold longer than they used to. Just 42 percent of Dell desktop PC owners report a hold time of 5 minutes or less--one of the worst scores earned by any PC vendor.
Arthur Corbin, a salesman in San Rafael, California, has used Dell PCs since the days of the Intel 486 processor. In the past, he says, Dell's phone lines were answered by "trained, knowledgeable, techie types who knew PCs." But recently, he says, things have changed. When he had problems with his Dell, "support was about 50 percent helpful," and getting prompt service was difficult.
"One support rep wanted to wipe out my hard disk and reinstall Windows 98," says Corbin. "The tech realized it wasn't the solution, but by then we were halfway through the process, so it was too late to go back. Even though it corrected the problem, wiping out the hard drive was unnecessary."
Dell doesn't dispute the criticism. The company recognizes that its service has struggled, and says it is fixing the problems. "Our sales grew well beyond our plan," says Rick Chase, Dell's vice president of technical support. "We got caught with inadequate resources, and it affected things like hold times."
Timothy McLendon, a veteran technician at Service Zone, a
facility in Lake City, Florida, that handles calls for Dell, says one problem
is rapid turnover of staff: The average tenure there is three months. Many reps
are males between 18 and 25 who view this as their first job on the way to some
other technical career, says McLendon. In the first two months, he says, many
reps raise their hands, on average, once every three calls to ask for help.
"On a scale of one to ten, the technical skills here are about a five," says McLendon. "In many cases they're lower than that. Reps get two weeks of training, but there's no way they can learn everything about all of Dell's systems in that time. Adequate training may require two months."
John Bray, executive vice president of administration at Service Zone, would not comment on McLendon's statement or confirm whether the company supplies support for Dell, owing to confidentiality clauses in Service Zone's contracts.
In April 2001, Dell opened a call center in Bangalore, India, to field the volume of calls. Depending on the number of calls coming in and the availability of technicians, calls may be routed from North America to one of several distant facilities, including the Bangalore center. Though some survey respondents complained about difficulty comprehending technicians with strong accents, Dell says the level of technical expertise is outstanding.
Giga Information Group's Enderle understands the move. "You can probably find better English speakers in India who are more competent with computers," he says. "If Dell makes a move like this, other companies will consider doing it."
Merger Mania
Count Hewlett-Packard among the companies exploring overseas centers. But the company must first focus on merging its operations with those of Compaq, which it acquired last year.
"We're consolidating support centers and cross-training staff on the Pavilion and Presario lines," says Kenny Stephens, HP's marketing manager for services and support. "Going forward, HP will be committed to both lines and we'll offer the best of both service policies, including 24/7 phone support and a one-year warranty." Compaq Presario PCs previously came with 90 days of phone support.
We list HP and Compaq separately in our ratings because they were still distinct brands when our subscribers took the survey. But no matter how we slice the new HP, readers gave the company poor marks for service. Less than half of Compaq and HP users encountered short hold times; almost half said their problems took more than five days to resolve. HP's Stephens says the company has taken measures to ensure service doesn't suffer during the merger, but Giga's Enderle expects things to get worse before they get better.
The Debutantes
Because they received a sufficient number of survey responses, three companies that weren't in our ratings in the last few years have now made it on our desktop chart. Apple topped every system maker in the desktop arena. The company's customers said they received especially good service.
ABS also received good service scores, but its customers said they encountered problems when they first started using their PCs. A whopping 15 percent of ABS users said their systems had a problem at arrival--by far the worst number.
ABS, which sells made-to-order systems, has its own tech-support staff and offers toll-free support. "Because we're a small company, we can focus on building the best products with the best components and back them with attentive service," says Howard Tong, ABS Computers' vice president of marketing. He says the company is working on shipping issues to ensure that systems work when customers receive them.
Systemax, which became successful by supplying generic PCs to resellers (like its own subsidiary Tiger Direct), received poor service scores. Just 33 percent of Systemax users in our survey reported waiting on hold for 5 minutes or less, and only 40 percent said their problem was resolved quickly.
Systemax, which owns its own call center in Ohio, sees things differently. "Our technical support numbers are very good," says Systemax CEO Richard Leeds. Service and support improvements have led to higher customer satisfaction, adds Leeds. According to Systemax's own research, the company's technicians answer calls within 30 seconds on average, and resolve more than 85 percent of problems on the first call.
Enderle says, however, that "Systemax PCs have been designed with OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] in mind, not consumers. When you buy a Systemax, you're sacrificing something to get a great price."
Silver Lining
While satisfaction is down overall, there are glimmers of
hope. For example, Apple's desktops and IBM's notebooks were rated Good in both
computer reliability and service. Richard Violette, a field-support technician
for Cigna Systems in Hooksett, New Hampshire, says "[IBM systems] are very
reliable. When I need to call with a problem, 99 percent of the time I reach a
technician in less than 5 minutes." In one incident, "we had a ThinkPad laptop
with bad Hitachi hard drives. IBM sent its own drives within a day and paid for
shipping back and forth."
Emachines seems to be turning things around, too. In last year's survey, people had few good things to say about the company. This year it has moved into the middle of the pack in our service ratings; its reliability scores put it ahead of more-established companies such as Gateway and HP.
"Emachines used to employ a VCR strategy in selling PCs," says Michael Zimmerman, Emachines' senior vice president of customer care. "The company thought that if $399 PCs broke, people would throw them away and buy new ones. So we didn't put effort into service and support."
Emachines recently hired a new management team and support staff, invested $20 million in customer care, extended its standard warranty from 15 days to one year, more than doubled its staff of call center technicians, rolled out new troubleshooting tools, and introduced a new component replacement program. "If we didn't do this," says Zimmerman, "we'd go out of business."
Gateway seems to be improving as well. The company's desktop users expressed growing satisfaction with Gateway's service. Its customers said that they're waiting on hold less, that their problems are being resolved more frequently, and that they're more satisfied with the knowledge and sincerity of the technicians.
Behind the Curtain
We visited call centers and talked to technicians from several PC companies to get the scoop on what goes on behind the scenes. The techs we spoke to clearly wanted to do a good job. But their backgrounds and range of skill varied widely.
Call centers that are owned and operated by the manufacturer tend to have more-experienced reps. At Dell's Nashville call center, for example, the three techs we interviewed came into their jobs with significant technical and/or customer-service backgrounds. The support reps we talked to at IBM's center in Raleigh, North Carolina, had been with the company for more than three years.
In contrast, third-party facilities (which most PC makers--including Dell and Emachines--use) tend to have less-experienced reps. Dell customer Tom Chimner says that the unhelpful technicians he talked to worked for a third-party call center under contract to Dell.
Todd Penner, Dell's U.S. director of customer support, says his company screens third-party centers for the quality of the people they hire. "We train everyone [the trainers and the support reps] and give them the same tools and knowledge bases that Dell technicians use," explains Penner. "They must meet the same performance goals that we must meet."
What if you want to speak to a technician who actually works for the company that sold you your computer? Usually, it's out of your control. Calls are routed to technicians based on availability. But if your PC maker uses its own support reps plus third-party technicians, your chances of reaching a company representative are best during the middle of the day.
At Emachines' third-party support facility in suburban Salt Lake City, technician Daniel admits that when he was hired, he didn't know anything about PCs beyond how to turn them on. He says it took him 90 days before he felt comfortable offering technical assistance. Is this a problem? If you had drawn Daniel during his first 90 days on the job, it might have been.
"When we hire reps, we look for people with good customer-service skills first," says James Sherin, an account manager at Alorica, the company that operates the Emachines call center. "We can teach them technology," he adds. As we stroll past rows of cubicles where support reps in headphones stare at computer screens and knock back junk food, Sherin explains, "Everyone goes through four to five weeks of training and incubation before we put them on the phones." He also says that the techs must take a set of tests to identify gaps in their knowledge. Then they go through more training and, if needed, retake the tests. Experience breeds competence. Less than a year after his hire, Daniel is now a senior technician and handles the most challenging calls.
Learning From the Flip Side
Support technicians face their own battles. Understanding what happens on the other end of the phone can help PC users get the support they need. Reps told us that callers often are unprepared to work out their problems. Many aren't in front of their computers, and those who are may not have enough time to help the tech diagnose the problem. As a result, callers get frustrated and problems go unresolved. "I've had people say 'I'm calling from the highway. I don't have my PC with me, but I was hoping you can tell me what's wrong with it,'" says Dell technician Valerie.
We listened in on some calls at Emachines, and not one customer was prepared to identify the model and serial number of the problem machine. This information helps the technician identify you, your system, and any case history you might have.
Technicians use knowledge bases to help diagnose problems, but they also use a tool that anyone can access to help solve their technical issues: the Internet. Every tech we spoke to swore by Google as a resource for seeking solutions. "Google is great for researching error messages," says Tim, one of Dell's Nashville-based technicians.
Next Step
PC makers recognize that they must do better. So they continue to create new tools to improve support. Emachines, for example, provides a program called BigFix (a utility that downloads new drivers, software patches, and BIOS upgrades as they become available) on all its PCs. IBM has an Access Support feature on its Web site that performs diagnostics, such as a hard-drive fitness test, at the push of a button. "Nine of ten problems are now handled electronically," says Andrew Flanagan, manager of IBM's global service and support strategy. "Call volume is flat to declining." However, 57 percent of survey respondents who used online support said it did not solve their problem.
Future PC Reliability and Service surveys may show improvement, but in the short-term, a couple of forces could affect the results. The first is the vendors' shift in emphasis from reducing hold time to resolving problems on the first call. There has been a definite change in recent months at Dell's third-party call center in Lake City, Florida, says technician Timothy McLendon. "It's taking more than 15 minutes to resolve problems, but more problems are being solved."
The other factor is problems getting more complex. "Questions coming into call centers are difficult to answer and require more time on the phone," says IBM's Flanagan.
Perhaps the best solution is to produce a better PC. "As we look out to the horizon, we see a point where machines can diagnose and repair themselves," says Enderle. In the meantime, PC makers must handle the job--and handle it better.
Brad Grimes is a contributing editor for PC World.
Readers Rate Desktop PCs: The Mac Leads the Pack (chart)
| Company | Bottom-line score | Overall reliability score | Overall service score | Percent of PCs with problems | Problems per year | Problems on arrival | Dead on arrival | Component failure | Satisfaction with reliability | Short hold time | Quick resolution | No resolution | Knowledgeable tech support | Sincere effort by tech support | Satisfaction with service | Comments |
| Apple | Good | Good | Good | Outstanding | Fair | Good | Outstanding | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Outstanding | Outstanding | Outstanding | Good | Customers are very impressed with Apple's technicians. |
| IBM | Good | Good | Fair | Outstanding | Good | Good | Outstanding | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Fair | PCs are solid, but Big Blue gets only lukewarm satisfaction ratings. |
| ABS | Good | Fair | Good | Outstanding | Outstanding | Unacceptable | Poor | Good | Fair | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Good | Reliability all over the map; troubling number of initial problems and DOAs. |
| Dell | Good | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Fair | Outstanding | Good | Good | Poor | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Fair | Service tumbles; expect to wait on hold a while. |
| Independent shops | Good | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Poor | Good | Fair | Fair | Outstanding | Fair | Good | Outstanding | Good | Fair | Reliability is unpredictable, but techs pick up quickly and know their stuff. |
| Emachines | Fair | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Outstanding | Good | Fair | Poor | Poor | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Company builds very sturdy computers; service is dismal in spots, however. |
| MicronPC | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Outstanding | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Reliability is up and down; support is generally mediocre. |
| Gateway | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Fair | Middle-of-the-road ratings, but customers said techs try to do their best. |
| Sony | Fair | Good | Fair | Outstanding | Poor | Good | Good | Outstanding | Fair | Fair | Fair | Poor | Fair | Fair | Poor | Several high scores in reliability, but some customers were left in the lurch. |
| Hewlett-Packard | Fair | Fair | Poor | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Fair | Poor | Poor | Poor | Fair | Fair | Poor | Customers reported so-so reliability, and service that's even worse. |
| Compaq | Fair | Fair | Poor | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Fair | Fair | Poor | Customers give a thumbs-down on satisfaction. |
| Systemax | Poor | Fair | Unacceptable | Fair | Fair | Poor | Fair | Good | Fair | Unacceptable | Unacceptable | Poor | Fair | Poor | Unacceptable | Service ratings way at the back of the pack. |
Readers Rate Notebook PCs: IBM Comes Through (chart)
| Company | Bottom-line score | Overall reliability score | Overall service score | Percent of PCs with problems | Problems per year | Problems on arrival | Dead on arrival | Component failure | Satisfaction with reliability | Short hold time | Quick resolution | No resolution | Knowledgeable tech support | Sincere effort by tech support | Satisfaction with service | Comments |
| IBM | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Outstanding | Good | Good | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Good | Machines are pretty darn solid; customers are content, too. |
| Toshiba | Good | Good | Fair | Good | Outstanding | Good | Outstanding | Good | Good | Good | Poor | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | You can count on these systems; fixing problems might take some time. |
| Gateway | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Outstanding | Fair | Outstanding | Fair | Fair | Fair | Poor | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | You're less likely to end up with a DOA, but service is inconsistent. |
| Dell | Fair | Fair | Fair | Poor | Good | Good | Outstanding | Fair | Good | Poor | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Some troubling scores for the former leader of the pack, notably in hold times. |
| Hewlett-Packard | Fair | Good | Poor | Good | Good | Good | Outstanding | Outstanding | Fair | Fair | Unacceptable | Poor | Fair | Fair | Poor | Very reliable machines, though getting problems sorted might take ages. |
| Sony | Fair | Good | Poor | Good | Good | Good | Outstanding | Outstanding | Fair | Poor | Unacceptable | Poor | Fair | Fair | Poor | Solid PC hardware, pity about the service. |
| Compaq | Fair | Fair | Poor | Poor | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Poor | Poor | Poor | Fair | Fair | Fair | Spotty reliability; support is even worse. |
Report Card: The Best and the Rest
Not a single PC company earned an Outstanding score in this year's survey, but Big Blue received high marks for both its desktop and its notebook computers. Apple took the top spot in the desktop category, while ABS and Dell were both rated Good overall. Dell did decline on several reliability and service measures, especially in the notebook category (see scores), even though the company retained its Good bottom-line rating. HP and Sony desktops slipped from Good to Fair. On the bright side, discount PC maker Emachines improved its rating to Fair--up from from last year's Poor rating.
Ratings Guide: What's Behind the Ratings and the Survey Methodology
Word scores awarded reflect the companies' relative rankings. Each measure listed here and in the charts relates to a particular question (or set of questions) we asked PC World subscribers in our survey. For the numbers underlying each word score, see the chart on the next page. We provide the detailed breakdown of the scores for the computer companies on our charts.
Reliability Measures
- Percent of PCs with problems: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one problem needing repair.
- Problems per year: Average number of problems per PC per year of age.
- Problems on arrival: Percentage of PCs that did not work properly when they were first turned on.
- Dead on arrival: Percentage of PCs that were nonfunctional when first turned on.
- Component failure: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one faulty component replaced.
- Satisfaction with reliability: Percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or neutral with their PC's reliability.
Service Measures
- Short hold time: Percentage of service recipients who waited for 5 minutes or less.
- Quick resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose most recent problem was resolved in 5 days or less.
- No resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose problem was never resolved.
- Knowledgeable tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the technician's knowledge as Excellent or Good.
- Sincere effort by tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the tech's sincere effort as Excellent or Good.
- Satisfaction with service: Percentage of service recipients who said they were satisfied or neutral with the service they received.
Survey Methodology
Our survey was conducted in conjunction with Research Results of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. We invited subscribers to take the Web-based survey from March 1 through August 1, 2002. We received 29,593 responses. Survey respondents described their PCs' reliability and their experiences (if any) in getting service. We limited reports to PCs that were three years old or newer. PC World editors and research experts analyzed the reliability and service performance of each vendor's desktop and notebook PCs. We rated each company's performance on 12 weighted measures and then used those results to determine the company's overall ranking.
Ratings Guide (chart)
| Measure | Desktop PCs | Survey average1 | Notebook PCs | Survey average1 |
| Percent of PCs with problems: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one problem needing repair. | Outstanding: 43.8 to 48.7 percent Good: 50.4 to 53.5 percent Fair: 56.2 to 58.9 percent | 53 percent | Good: 43.1 to 44.7 percent Fair: 47.1 to 48.5 percent Poor: 51.3 to 52.1 percent | 45.9 percent |
| Problems per year: Average number of problems per PC per year of age. | Outstanding: 0.63 to 0.71 problem per year Good: 0.76 to 0.80 problem per year Fair: 0.95 to 1.02 problems per year Poor: 1.41 problems per year | 0.91 problem per year | Outstanding: 0.53 to 0.57 problem per year Good: 0.74 to 0.86 problem per year | 0.70 problem per year |
| Problems on arrival: Percentage of PCs that did not work properly when they were first turned on. | Good: 3.7 to 4.7 percent Fair: 5.6 to 7.8 percent Poor: 8.3 to 10.5 percent Unacceptable: 14.8 percent | 6.9 percent | Good: 4.3 to 5.6 percent Fair: 6.3 percent | 4 percent |
| Dead on arrival: Percentage of PCs that were nonfunctional when first turned on. | Outstanding: 0.53 to 0.97 percent Good: 1.14 to 1.95 percent Fair: 2.47 percent Poor: 3.13 percent | 1.4 percent | Outstanding: 0.51 to 0.9 percent Good: 1 to 1.2 percent | 8.4 percent |
| Component failure: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one faulty component replaced. | Outstanding: 15.2 percent Good: 21.7 to 31.5 percent Fair: 36.6 to 42.3 percent | 29.7 percent | Outstanding: 18.5 to 19.4 percent Good: 22.7 percent Fair: 28.5 to 31.9 percent | 25.1 percent |
| Satisfaction with reliability: Percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or neutral with their PC's reliability. | Good: 97 to 96.6 percent Fair: 95 to 91.2 percent Poor: 89.8 percent | 93.7 percent | Good: 96.4 to 95.8 percent Fair: 94.1 to 92.9 percent | 94.6 percent |
| Short hold time: Percentage of service recipients who waited for 5 minutes or less. | Outstanding: 81.8 percent Good: 66.7 to 61.2 percent Fair: 52.4 to 50.3 percent Poor: 48.7 to 42 percent Unacceptable: 32.8 percent | 52.6 percent | Good: 61.1 percent Fair: 56.9 to 51.6 percent Poor: 43.9 to 36.8 percent | 49.6 percent |
| Quick resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose most recent problem was resolved in 5 days or less. | Good: 71.2 percent Fair: 68.8 to 61.2 percent Poor: 57.7 to 52.6 percent Unacceptable: 39.7 percent | 60.4 percent | Fair: 62.9 to 59.7 percent Poor: 57.4 to 50.4 percent Unacceptable: 48.3 to 46 percent | 54.3 percent |
| No resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose problem was never resolved. | Outstanding: 1.4 percent Good: 4.7 to 6 percent Fair: 8.4 to 9.1 percent Poor: 12.1 to 15.1 percent | 8.9 percent | Good: 6.2 percent Fair: 8.3 to 9.3 percent Poor: 12.4 to 12.9 percent | 9.9 percent |
| Knowledgeable tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the technician's knowledge as Excellent or Good. | Outstanding: 90.1 to 88.2 percent Good: 84.6 to 76.6 percent Fair: 72.1 to 63.9 percent | 77.2 percent | Good: 85.1 to 83.8 percent Fair: 78 to 70.9 percent | 78 percent |
| Sincere effort by tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the tech's sincere effort as Excellent or Good. | Outstanding: 91.5 percent Good: 87.4 to 82.7 percent Fair: 78.9 to 74.5 percent Poor: 69.4 percent | 80.4 percent | Good: 86.1 to 85.5 percent Fair: 81.3 to 73.1 percent | 80.7 percent |
| Satisfaction with service: Percentage of service recipients who said they were satisfied or neutral with the service they received. | Good: 93.2 to 90.6 percent Fair: 89.8 to 84.7 percent Poor: 82.3 to 80 percent Unacceptable: 76.7 percent | 86.1 percent | Good: 92.4 to 90.5 percent Fair: 87.5 to 86.9 percent Poor: 84 to 82.6 percent | 87.8 percent |
Desktop Results: Office vs. Home PCs
Our PC Reliability and Service survey invites subscribers to specify where they use their systems--at home or at work. In previous reports, we separated scores for work PCs and for home PCs. This year, the desktops chart combines the ratings from office and home machines. This allowed us to report on more companies--including Apple and ABS--in our ratings.
According to our survey, home PC owners have a higher likelihood than work PC users of running into trouble. Respondents with office PCs generally had more dependable machines and better luck with tech support. Of course, this won't always be the case. Here's what our survey revealed:
- 57 percent of home computers had at least one problem, compared with 45 percent of systems used at work.
- 33 percent of home PCs had defective components, versus 27 percent of work machines.
- 51 percent of problems with home PCs were resolved the first time around, compared to 60 percent of problems with work PCs.
- 8 percent of our readers with home PCs rated their technician's computer knowledge as Poor or Unacceptable, versus 4 percent of work PC users.
During the manufacturing process, some vendors (including Dell) make a distinction between office- and home-bound PCs. On the tech-support front, some companies have one service operation that handles support calls from all customers. Others, like HP, have separate call centers: One pool of techs specializes in the company's corporate PC lines, and another deals with its home PCs.
--Aoife McEvoy