Apple Tops Customer Satisfaction Surveys

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Apple still tops the list as highest in customer satisfaction for personal computers. Apple's customer satisfaction score reached a record 85, which was 10 points higher Dell, its closest competitor."We haven't seen anything like this before, where a company scores 10 points over its nearest rival," said Claes Fornell, the head of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), conducted quarterly by the University of Michigan.Fornell believes that part of Apple's climb in customer satisfaction has been due to a particularly poor response to Window's Vista, which may have contributed to drops in the satisfaction of rival companies.



Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/19/app-tops-customer-satisfaction-surveys/)

[Tallest Skil]

In other news, sun to rise tomorrow. :p Also, in before people complaining about localized events in customer service problems.

[jk000]

and so they should be

[plumbingandtech]

Keep them away from these forums!

Oh wait. They are smart enough to know that people tend not to post if everything is going peachy.

[11800506]

It's good news that Apple's rank in customer satisfaction hasn't dropped. It is amazing how different Apple support is from other companies. My experiences with HP and Dell support have been pretty bad however, so it isn't surprising.

[motulist]

That's actually a slight bit surprising given the increase in users complaining of problems around here. But I guess if Apple is still the top in customer satisfaction then the increase in complaints is probably more a sign of Apple's growing marketshare than it is a sign of changing quality.

[Mr Maui]

I wonder how Apple would fare in customer satisfaction in the phone category. :rolleyes:

[Small White Car]

That's actually a slight bit surprising given the increase in users complaining of problems around here. But I guess if Apple is still the top in customer satisfaction then the increase in complaints is probably more a sign of Apple's growing marketshare than it is a sign of changing quality.

% vs. #

There ARE more complaints simply because there are more Mac users. The overall percentage can remain 'good' but doesn't mean you won't see more and more problems around here every year.

[thecartoonguy]

In other news, sun to rise tomorrow. :p Also, in before people complaining about localized events in customer service problems.

Wait the sun WILL rise? huh, I guess I will have to go to work after all.

[JfcA09]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

is this before or after mobileme?

[FJ218700]

looks like all the whiners are localized here

[dgcaste]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

is this before or after mobileme?

this was an exit poll from the mojave experiment, after the actors received their paycheck.

[cubedweller]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

is this before or after mobileme?

And the iPhone 3G? And the MBP graphics card issues? And the MagSafe problems. And the battery problems. Keep climbing that hill Apple! :eek:

[bmcgrath]

Fair play Apple but I still don't think your perfect even if you took care of my problem and even replaced my machine with a shiney new one.

[kironin]

Does it have anything to do with user support in the stores?

My old Titanium Powebook was mysteriously crashing on boot up that had not yielded to my efforts at diagnostics and my Macbook was in serious need of a new battery so set an appointment at one of the local Apple stores on a Saturday. Even though we ended up erasing the disk and reinstalling 10.4.11, it was actually quite a pleasant experience and walked out of there with two nicely functioning computers.

While I was there, I saw many mid-aged people that I would not describe as tech savvy by a long shot getting problems solved or just getting educated about their devices, be it, Macbook Air a lady brought in for help, others picking up macbook pros, several older iPods, several iPhone's (one was about the 3G issue, apparently a local ATT tower was down though I wonder now given other reports about software issues, one was simply the guy need to better understand the settings), and the class for new iPhone users behind learning how to use their iPhone (all were definitely mid-age to older non tech types). You came out of there with the impression that it was a pretty lively successful store with a lot of people getting help with their technology.

Where are the Dell or HP stores like this ?

[IJ Reilly]

There ARE more complaints simply because there are more Mac users. The overall percentage can remain 'good' but doesn't mean you won't see more and more problems around here every year.

Hey, anecdotes rule. Everybody knows that!

[MultiFinder17]

Not surprising to me, and I'm an iPhone and MobileMe customer! Here's some of my views if anyone is interested.

iPhone and the 2.0 update: I've honestly had no real issues with 2.0 on my 4gig EDGE phone. I had the SMS keyboard lag for a bit, but that seems to have cleared up. My backups don't take bloody ages, but that's prolly because I don't have 598743 apps on my phone. Signal is just as good as it was under 1.x.x, so I'm good there. Either 2.0 really was good for a majority of people, or His Steveness just smiles upon me :)

MobileMe: Yeah, Apple *really* dropped the ball on this one. The launch left me with nonfunctional e-mail, a dead homepage, no access to my iDisk, and nonfunctional syncing for a couple of days. That *REALLY* sucked. However, after about a week of spotty bringing services back up, it's been pretty stable. Every once and a while there were some minor issues, but they had been mostly taken care of. I was still kinda peeved at Apple for keeping mum on the subject, but I soon got over it when they admitted their failure and gave me a free month of service for my troubles. It has been pretty solid since then, with very few exceptions (mostly just e-mail being funny for a few minutes a day). I was just as pleased with it as I was with .Mac, and last night, I get *another* e-mail saying that I'm getting another two months for free! So yes, they really flubbed the launch, but they made up for it. It's all working incredibly smoothly now, and they gave me a quarter-of-a-year for my trouble. At least Apple admits when they make mistakes and tries their best to fix them and then make it up to the customers.

[amac4me]

Way to go Apple. :D

Here's some background about the Professor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claes_G._Fornell) who created the ACSI index.

[ivladster]

Like i said before: Apple spoils us too much

[Mac21ND]

Does it have anything to do with user support in the stores?

My old Titanium Powebook was mysteriously crashing on boot up that had not yielded to my efforts at diagnostics and my Macbook was in serious need of a new battery so set an appointment at one of the local Apple stores on a Saturday. Even though we ended up erasing the disk and reinstalling 10.4.11, it was actually quite a pleasant experience and walked out of there with two nicely functioning computers.

While I was there, I saw many mid-aged people that I would not describe as tech savvy by a long shot getting problems solved or just getting educated about their devices, be it, Macbook Air a lady brought in for help, others picking up macbook pros, several older iPods, several iPhone's (one was about the 3G issue, apparently a local ATT tower was down though I wonder now given other reports about software issues, one was simply the guy need to better understand the settings), and the class for new iPhone users behind learning how to use their iPhone (all were definitely mid-age to older non tech types). You came out of there with the impression that it was a pretty lively successful store with a lot of people getting help with their technology.

Where are the Dell or HP stores like this ?

Certainly part of the reason Apple opened it's own retail stores and prefers to staff it's own employees at Best Buy, etc;. I know people (especially in forums) can complain about Apple Retail stores, but it's still a pretty good option considering what could be and what most PC users expect from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc;. Trying getting tech support from Walmart where you bought your $500 Dell.

[dual64bit]

With producing the hardware and software, it's easy for one to hate the overall interaction with their computer unless they hated it from the beginning. I think apple offers the overall deal, the 100% package. It's a good thing, people appreciate it.

[Decrepit]

Long hold times, useless phone support. Not a chance.

I shouldn't have to drive 60 miles to get a part for my Mac because tech support doesn't understand how to troubleshoot.

Then, when I drive 60 miles to find a "genius" I have to wait 7 days for a replacement part that is under warranty. That part? The power brick. Something that they could have taken out of another package or even from a floor model.

Apple's warranty and service are awful. It's a good thing the computers tend to run so well so you don't find out how bad the service is.

[BRLawyer]

In other news, sun to rise tomorrow. :p Also, in before people complaining about localized events in customer service problems.

And the 45 million dollar question is: where are the PC-fanboys and whiners that populate this forum now?

5 years in the lead and going...so how can anyone REALLY challenge Apple's ABSOLUTE domination in terms of overall reliability, customer satisfaction and post-sales services?

Apart from Rob Enderle and his followers here in MacRumors, of course... :rolleyes:

MICROSOFT IS DEAD. DELL IS DEAD. GO APPLE!

[chicagdan]

Keep them away from these forums!

Oh wait. They are smart enough to know that people tend not to post if everything is going peachy.

I think people are complaining on these boards for good reason. Apple is still the best in the business, but their peak for product quality was three or four years ago. I've found Leopard buggy, all the iPhone 2 software extremely frustrating and MobileMe a near disaster.

I don't go nuts on these boards about every little issue because I understand that Apple has been very ambitious the last two years and needs some more time to tie everything down. But my patience is running thin.

[cnorth3]

I wonder how Apple would fare in customer satisfaction in the phone category. :rolleyes:

Well, I've had a Gen 1 iPhone since day one. Never had any problems until one day, recently, I noticed a dead pixel on the display. I happened to be in the Apple Store for something else, so I took the iPhone to the Genius Bar, thinking there's no way they're going to do anything for me. Guess what, 10 minutes later I had a brand-new iPhone! Color me satisfied.

[fourthtunz]

I wonder how Apple would fare in customer satisfaction in the phone category. :rolleyes:

Actually this is what makes the survey even more unbelievable!:D
Apple is selling stuff that pushes the envelope, like ipods and phones
dell just makes crappy pcs!
Granted Apple has had some problems as of late but
that's what we get if we want to live on the bleeding edge.;)

[Michael73]

There is only 1 Apple store in the state of Indiana. That store is not too far from my house and where I work. I used to love going there, now I almost dread it.

Don't get me wrong I love Apple and it's products but I used to be able to casually walk into the store and get showered with Apple lovin'. Now it seems like it's always mobbed by college students on break, the iPhone crowd and people either buying or having issues with their iPods. I don't begrudge these people at all. I think it's a testament to Apple they strive to give a high level of service whether customers buy a $49 shuffle or a $3,000+ MacPro. I'm just not sure they've scaled their support to match their success.

[SchneiderMan]

sorry but I dont think apples customer service is all that great, and I have had alot of experience with other companies too.

[wordmunger]

I took a glimpse at the dark side a couple weeks ago when I was visiting my sister. She had just bought a Dell laptop that was barely functional. "Sleep" nearly always crashed the computer. The instrux said to press the "wake" button to wake it up. There was no "wake" button. 9 times out of 10 if you shut the computer it stayed awake with the fans blazing. Dell had loaded the computer with crapware that compounded the problems of Vista. There was no obvious way to do a clean reinstall of the system because you had to use Dell's startup disk. Apple, with all its problems, is at LEAST 10 points better than that.

[plumbingandtech]

I think people are complaining on these boards for good reason. Apple is still the best in the business, but their peak for product quality was three or four years ago. I've found Leopard buggy, all the iPhone 2 software extremely frustrating and MobileMe a near disaster.

I don't go nuts on these boards about every little issue because I understand that Apple has been very ambitious the last two years and needs some more time to tie everything down. But my patience is running thin.

And the only problem I have experienced is long backups with my iphone and that includes mobile me & leopard & a macbook air all which works great for me.

YMMV.

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

I love watching people whine and complain about a lack of features, only to receive a mountain of new features, and turn around and whine and complain when they have to shuffle around the bugginess introduced by the inclusion of said new features. Apple has been running at an extremely fast pace with recent iPhone and OS X updates and they've got some cleanup to do. Hopefully this is the direction they're headed with software version 2.1. We know this is what they are doing with Snow Leopard, and for that reason I look forward to the OS more than almost any other Apple has released.

Oh, and Apple has had a long history of various odd problems cropping up in hardware and software since the beginning. That happens when you're the one blazing trails. They tend to affect very small groups of people and Apple tends to handle them extremely well, though. Massive problems plague other manufacturers, they just don't have an online outlet where they can voice their opinions so well -- and people don't care anyway. It isn't news if HP releases laptops which overheat with near certainty after a year of use, but if even a small Apple problem crops up, it is headline news. That's just because the word 'Apple' draws attention and interest.

I wonder how Apple would fare in customer satisfaction in the phone category. :rolleyes:
Oh, at or near the highest tier. ;)
Search the web or the history of sites like this one.

For every person frustrated with their iPhone there seem to be mountains of people who absolutely love it. I've never had problems with my own -- just some of the general speed issues everyone experienced in areas like the contacts app. And that seems to have been completely cleared up for me with the latest update. Reception works great in most cities I visit.

[Lailoken]

I had a DELL Inspiron 9000 top of the range laptop, at about the same time I had a Apple iBook PPC G3 13".

Admittedly I would have to say DELL came to my place of work (I traveled around a lot) and serviced my problems (my replacing anything that I had problems with) right there and then (next day service). The Mac on the other hand, had a crashed hard drive, and I had to drive many miles to take it in.

That said I still did prefer using my Mac. Not to confuse love of the OS for customer satisfaction. Or perhaps it was just I who was in a not-really-fully-apple-supported country?

Anyway, I've since stopped using the DELL... The Apple was so darn nice. I've subsequently bought a first-gen Intel MacBook Pro (had many, many still unresolved problems... overheating/Gfx/crashes/battery) as well as a newer model now. (VERY pleased with this one, only one battery replacement).

So for me I think DELL deserves some credit on their side. But that said, it was a few years ago now and I've not had to deal with DELL again.

[kironin]

Certainly part of the reason Apple opened it's own retail stores and prefers to staff it's own employees at Best Buy, etc;. I know people (especially in forums) can complain about Apple Retail stores, but it's still a pretty good option considering what could be and what most PC users expect from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc;. Trying getting tech support from Walmart where you bought your $500 Dell.

Yeah, and I should point out that this was refurbished Titanium from a 3rd party and with a 3rd party hard drive and memory I had installed and after spending time with me going over what diagnostics I had done and using a firewire drive to do some more, I off loaded some critical stuff that may or may not have been already backed up. Without any questions, he pulled out a 10.4.6 disk no questions asked. This support cost me nothing on stuff I did not buy from Apple.

The local private apple tech guy that caters mostly to repair work at the local universities would have charged me $80 just to look it over.

I did note one person came in asking them to install a 3rd party hard drive into a macbook pro and they refused to do it. I suggested he go online and look up step by step instructions. I thought that was a little silly to draw the line there.

[jeremytehjerk]

i saw a survey somewhere that had people rate the tech support of a few of the big guys and separated them based on whether they had had to USE said tech support or not. It had dell as the highest rated for tech support amongst people who hadn't ever contacted their tech support but was way lower than apple and several other PC companies in how people rated tech support after needing it. :P

I guess that makes sense though they do talk a lot in their commercials and ads about their "great, award winning customer support" a lot more than other computer manufacturers. but that doesn't really translate into happy customers after they've been told XXXXX in your laptop is broken and it will cost you half the price of a new laptop to fix it or we can just connect you to our sales department....

[kironin]

Admittedly I would have to say DELL came to my place of work (I traveled around a lot) and serviced my problems (my replacing anything that I had problems with) right there and then (next day service). The Mac on the other hand, had a crashed hard drive, and I had to drive many miles to take it in.


sorry, just looking for clarification. Dell came to your place of work for free?
You had not paid anything extra for such service?

that indeed would be pretty good service.

[gr8bob]

That's actually a slight bit surprising given the increase in users complaining of problems around here. But I guess if Apple is still the top in customer satisfaction then the increase in complaints is probably more a sign of Apple's growing marketshare than it is a sign of changing quality.

Sounds like inconsistencies in the survey, and the # vs. % factor too.

As for the customer respond agents, they're pretty similar across different company since they're just 'a bunch of yes-men' for their respective companies (to a certain extent). I've met equally dumb Apple service agents comparable to what Dell users describe theirs are. :D

[Decrepit]

sorry, just looking for clarification. Dell came to your place of work for free?
You had not paid anything extra for such service?

that indeed would be pretty good service.

If you buy a corporate PC, the corporate warranties from companies like Dell and HP cover onsite service for 1-3 years, parts and labor.

And usually next day. If you're too far out of town, you get 3-5 day onsite service. Too far out of town is like 3-4 hours away from any decent sized city. So that's still a hell of a range.

[Niiro13]

I only have good things to say for Apple's customer service.

Apple store waived my restocking fee when I wanted to return 8 GB iPhone for 16 GB.

Needed keyboard and USB port fixing on MBP with 3 days fixing time...they ended up fixing in a few hours and not only did they fix that, they replaced my entire screen (before: screen burn...after: no screen burn).

[dgcaste]

If you buy a corporate PC, the corporate warranties from companies like Dell and HP cover onsite service for 1-3 years, parts and labor.

And usually next day. If you're too far out of town, you get 3-5 day onsite service. Too far out of town is like 3-4 hours away from any decent sized city. So that's still a hell of a range.

Also, if you have CompleteCare, they'll come and visit.

My Inspiron 9300 is almost 3 years old and that thing plays the Orange Box and COD4 at near-highest settings at 1920x1200. I dislike Windows, but the laptop has served me well.

But to stay on topic: customer satisfaction. I'm satisfied with the hardware, and the warranty has good coverage, but talking to those outsourced India techs is a terrible pain in the ass. For example, I was on my computer and spilled a beer on it. Insta-fry. Logged into Dell support through a chat, and the parts were on the way 20 minutes later. Another example, my battery lost its ability to hold a charge, and 3 hours of talking to annoying techs on the phone and they still wouldn't own up to the issue.

Real hit and miss with them.

[137489]

I am not surprised..... while I never had to actually use Apple support, my overall experience with apple and there products have been good. The guys in Durham are a great help, but I wish CompUsa in Greensboro, NC never closed and apple would hurry up and build the Greensboro location. Man that Apple guy at CompUsa was the best.

Fornell believes that part of Apple's climb in customer satisfaction has been due to a particularly poor response to Window's Vista, which may have contributed to drops in the satisfaction of rival companies.

I am a little perplexed by the above statement and how it rates with Dell (other than dropping Dell's satisfaction even more; because they run Windows). Dell does not make vista, the only assemble random pieces of hardware into a unit. However, Dell's customer service does stink - and if you read any of my posts on other threads you will no why (i'lll save you all the re-hash)....

But truthfully, anytime I had to talk to someone at an apple store they were more than helpful. I even went into an Apple store onetime and the store was jammed back due to having a seminar (man the Durham store needs to expand its floorspace or move their seminars into the the old Sharper Image bay next door, now that they are out of business). I kinda just peaked at what they were going over. An Apple rep saw me, ran and got a chair and siad "here have a seat". I told him nah, I already use what he is going over. The rep then told me this seminar is going on for an hour and he will be covering a lot more.

Everytime I deal with the Durham Store, I have a good experience. My only complaint is they need more store space in order to stock more software and also turn the A/C down a bit. there are so many people in the store and so many coming and going, it is always hot and humid in there.

When was the last time you saw Dell or HP having seminars, giving personal shoping experiences, taking time to go over an entire machine with you before you buy, and then supporting you well afterwards.

Now that I switched and have 2 macs. I very very highly doubt that I would ever use Windows as my main OS ever again (there are still a few specialized apps that I need for work that only run on windows). and I will only use Apple Hardware.

Oh, and all my Dell complaints - I was on XP SP2. I never went with Vista, the vista capable machine I had, well. when I ran MS's Vista compatibility check, it came back and said I was lacking 3 key hardware pieces. So much for Dell selling me a machine that they claimed I could upgrade to Vista. Thank God that machine is Dead and I never have to deal with Dell again.

[xix]

It's called copyediting, look into it.

[nick9191]

Keep going Apple :)

[137489]

If you buy a corporate PC, the corporate warranties from companies like Dell and HP cover onsite service for 1-3 years, parts and labor.

And usually next day. If you're too far out of town, you get 3-5 day onsite service. Too far out of town is like 3-4 hours away from any decent sized city. So that's still a hell of a range.

Well, I work out of my home and have a corporate machine supplied by the company I work for. It blew a bunch of parts at different times.

Here is what occured.

1. Dell shipped the parts to a 3rd party contracted company.
2. the 3rd party company shows up and installs the parts.
3. The 3rd party sees the machine will power on and leaves (they do not take into account software issues).

after he leaves and the OS start loading; I start getting a bunch of other problems - more bad components. Dell ships the parts to the same 3rd party company and they dispatched the same rep. He come back replaces those parts, sees it is powering up and leaves. More errors - this time due to he forgot to plug in the CD drive power, and the IDEE was going nuts trying to access it. Also, he forgot to do something else. I had to open the case myself and reseat some stuff - I could've done the install my self and saved the hassle.

In the mean time I had a few conversations with the guy. He tells me.

1. Dell just shipped him the parts. they (DELL) outsource all their service so he does not work for Dell, he works for a company contracted by Dell.

2. He is not even Dell certified. Turns out since they are the only company in the area that agreed to take on a Dell contract, they don't have to be. all they have to know is how to assemble PC's and A+ is optional, as the customer works with Dell on the diagnosis, Dell ships the parts to someone who just puts them in. Their only job is to make sure the machine powers up after (ie gets past bios) and they are out the door.

So, what is the point of having corporate PC if you have to end up doing it yourself anyway, and the 3rd party is not responsible for the total outcome.

[franzmueller]

And when is my Mobile.me going to work properly ?:mad:

[gcmexico]

apple customer support is good..but I must say some geniuses are straight up morons:D

[137489]

And when is my Mobile.me going to work properly ?:mad:


Umm your post needs to be on about 2 threads down the page from this one.. :p

[morespce54]

...Apple's warranty and service are awful. It's a good thing the computers tend to run so well so you don't find out how bad the service is.

You got a point. I guess it all depends on whom you're being transfered to. Some techs are good, some are bad. I had mixed experiences with Apple's warranty. One thing for sure 'tho, for me, the Apple's hardware (used to be) rock solid!

[BRLawyer]

You got a point. I guess it all depends on whom you're being transfered to. Some techs are good, some are bad. I had mixed experiences with Apple's warranty. One thing for sure 'tho, for me, the Apple's hardware (used to be) rock solid!

Apple hardware is not only rock solid; I've used Apple warranty services a couple of times and they were EXCELLENT, as the report can confirm.

[Antares]

I'm not surprised. Apple has always impressed me, still to this day, with their customer service. Whether by phone, by the internet or in person at an Apple store. Having the top spot is definitely deserved...at least based on my own personal experience.

[kironin]

apple customer support is good..but I must say some geniuses are straight up morons:D

is that humor?

I don't think that's exactly fair. I don't expect these guys to be engineers. They are mostly fairly young. I have been messing with computers since the 70's and the first Apple I played with was an Apple IIe in a lab. I am not their typical customer and from what I have seen they do a pretty good job considering. I have seen some pretty idiotic customers and they seemed to take it pretty well in stride and stay in a very helpful mode.

that said, yes calling them geniuses has always been PR crap.

but it's harmless compared to assuming M.D.'s can't be morons.

[Vulpinemac]

*Long hold times, useless phone support. Not a chance.
*I shouldn't have to drive 60 miles to get a part for my Mac because tech support doesn't understand how to troubleshoot.
*Then, when I drive 60 miles to find a "genius" I have to wait 7 days for a replacement part that is under warranty. That part? The power brick. Something that they could have taken out of another package or even from a floor model.
*Apple's warranty and service are awful. It's a good thing the computers tend to run so well so you don't find out how bad the service is.

While I don't dispute your claim, I really have to wonder why you went about it the way you did. Honestly you say nothing about the product or the symptoms, much less how you went about troubleshooting it.

Apple service has several levels of phone support based on a number of factors. Your first call is usually to a "Tier 1" support tech; usually simple diagnostics leading to a recommendation to visit the Genius Bar at your nearest store if they can't help you. At this point you can request a Tier 2 support tech; much more knowledgeable and will walk you through in-depth troubleshooting if possible. This is the tech who could have ordered your replacement power brick if he determines that as the cause of the problem. On the other hand, if he couldn't fully diagnose the issue, he would have either recommended taking the unit to the Apple Store or shipping it direct to Apple for repair or replacement. Of course, this assumes that the unit was still under warranty as you claim. If, however, Apple's records for the unit say otherwise, they would have either recommended purchasing the AppleCare extended warranty or a simple outright purchase of your part.

In most cases, they will NOT insist on you going to the store unless you express a willingness or the store is within a certain radius of your home. 60 miles seems a bit far to insist on a store visit if you consider it that much out of your way. Of course, where I live I have 2 stores within 60 miles and at least 5 within 100. Such a drive is hardly an issue unless I'm driving it during rush hour.

In my own case, before we got our local Apple store (only 15 miles away) I had an iMac (one of the CRT 'bubble' iMacs) die out of the box. A simple phone call where the Tier 2 tech recognized immediately what the problem was had me cross-shipping mine back for a brand-new replacement, the new one arriving the day after I shipped mine out.

Apple has earned its reputation for service and works hard to maintain it. Admittedly no product is going to be 100% perfect in all samples; but Apple has excelled in making the percentage of failures lower than their competitors' and even now proves that they will go out of their way (individual techs aside) to give you the best product for your money.

[Trajectory]

Good for Apple. I wonder how the results would have differed if the poll was taken in the past 2 weeks, after the iPhone 3G and MobileMe launch.

[Vulpinemac]

sorry, just looking for clarification. Dell came to your place of work for free?
You had not paid anything extra for such service?
that indeed would be pretty good service.

Actually, that's not all that unusual. In some areas DELL has contracts with local computer shops for service and if a unit is under warranty DELL will send a tech to your workplace or home (or at least, they used to.) The biggest issue with DELL then, and I think still now, is that the quality of their components is questionable at best. This immediately made for an inordinately high number of failures which DELL apparently found acceptible. They were still making enough profit off their machines to pay for at least one full warranty visit on-site. Usually if the unit failed again, I have been told that DELL will either try to claim some sort of abuse or other warranty-breaking problem in order to force you to pay for subsequent repair.

As a former computer consultant for PCs, I was frequently asked to diagnose problems and would discover quick and easy fixes, but because the unit was under DELL warranty, the customer would have to go to DELL to fix it; often with the DELL contract tech 'discovering' something off the wall that would require a costly parts replacement and not fix the actual problem. One customer had such issues that she was happy when the warranty finally expired, so I could fix it properly. She never had another issue with the machine after that.

Since then I have quit consultancy; I just got tired of fixing the same old issues day in and day out. I went Apple and now take pictures for a living.

[Trajectory]

apple customer support is good..but I must say some geniuses are straight up morons:D

Agreed, which is part of Apple's problem with the Stores. Most of the time the "geniuses" are helpful, but, sometimes you get a very cranky, bitchy one that ruins your day. When that happens, register a complaint with the store manager.

[mdriftmeyer]

from all the complaining about MacMobile and other issues.

[BklynKid]

Link to the survey results for anyone interested:

http://is.gd/1KID

[twoodcc]

yeah, i bet Vista had a lot to do with this. but still great for Apple!

[firewood]

That's actually a slight bit surprising given the increase in users complaining of problems around here.

Irrelevant. What's important to be #1 is that your increasing zillion complaints are still less the the even more zillion+ complaints for any competing products.

[howiethemacguy]

"Fornell believes that part of Apple's climb in customer satisfaction has been due to a particularly poor response to Window's Vista, which may have contributed to drops in the satisfaction of rival companies."

So, it can't possibly be that Apple just makes better products and gives better service after the sale could it? It has to be because of Vista.

[Sideonecincy]

One of the things I am most satisfied with Apple is their customer support on the phone. Every time I've called there, I've always been helped in a short time and they did everything they could to help me.

[adderz]

I have only good things to say about Apples service. My Aluminum imac's hard drive failed, so i went to the Sydney Store, 5 days later they not only replaced the HD but the glass panel which had 1 small scratch in it.

To the people thinking Apples golden period was 4 years ago. What drugs are you taking? Apples hardware is more consistently reliable now than it has EVER been. Over 50% of ibook G3's had faulty logic boards. Failing Tibook hinges is folklore. Almost a whole Gen of emacs had capacitor issues, and thousands of the original eMacs had rastor shift issues. OSX up until Tiger was featureless and frustrating (juggling safari windows anyone??)

The worst issues i have seen with modern day Apple are discoloured palm rests in Macbooks and mooing Macbook Pros. Hardly what you can call serious.

[winterspan]

And the iPhone 3G? And the MBP graphics card issues? And the MagSafe problems. And the battery problems. Keep climbing that hill Apple! :eek:

You thinks that compares at all to the list of major Dell PC issues? The support ticket system is probably larger than Google's web index!

[darijoe]

Fornell believes that part of Apple's climb in customer satisfaction has been due to a particularly poor response to Window's Vista...

Ah I can tell this is a Mac page. Who else would put an apostrophe in "Windows".

[RogueWarrior65]

Sure, for the consumer I'd agree with the survey. But if they surveyed developers I'm sure it would be far less rosy. How many times has Apple screwed over the developers? Choosing to bag 64-bit Carbon when they said they'd do it is probably the most evil. Beyond that, Apple's online API docs leave a lot to be desired. Here's one case where they should take a cue from, dare I say, Microsoft. Their system is excellent. Want to know about a function? They don't just tell you about it. They give you example code and link lots of related stuff. Oh, and Apple's Radar system is useless to the outside world. If you submit a Radar issue and someone else has already submitted something on that issue, yours is not only canceled but also you can't go and look at the other submitter's Radar entry to see what the progress or resolution is.

[bpl323]

Apple has been getting worse in my experience. Good, but not as good as before.

[TommyLee]

I don't know who they bought off. The Apple I know has the...

WORST

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

EVER!!!1

[TommyLee]

Irrelevant. What's important to be #1 is that your increasing zillion complaints are still less the the even more zillion+ complaints for any competing products.no u r irrelavent... jk

[The Tall One]

Its just better. Apple computers work. One set of hardware, one OS, onelove.

[Mackilroy]

I read about this at Apple's site a few days ago. Nice to see they're doing a good job. :)

RE: hardware quality. All the Macs my friends and family have owned since 1996 have been rock solid. No weird issues with any OS upgrades or hardware (and the Leopard problems were partly because people had third-party haxie programs installed – what do you expect?) at all.

RE: Apple repair. My last iPod (a 4th generation 20GB) died on me one day. I had AppleCare for it, so I went to Apple's website and filled out a little page describing how it had died and such, then Apple sent me a box to mail it back to them and gave me a brand-new one. All in less than a week. For $49 that's a real good deal.

[alchemistmuffin]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

is this before or after mobileme?

This is before AND after MobileMe launch

Fair play Apple but I still don't think your perfect even if you took care of my problem and even replaced my machine with a shiney new one.

Long hold times, useless phone support. Not a chance.

I shouldn't have to drive 60 miles to get a part for my Mac because tech support doesn't understand how to troubleshoot.

Then, when I drive 60 miles to find a "genius" I have to wait 7 days for a replacement part that is under warranty. That part? The power brick. Something that they could have taken out of another package or even from a floor model.

Apple's warranty and service are awful. It's a good thing the computers tend to run so well so you don't find out how bad the service is.

sorry but I dont think apples customer service is all that great, and I have had alot of experience with other companies too.

For all those people who are CONSTANTLY COMPLAINING ABOUT THE CRAPPY SERVICE APPLE DOES, GET A LIFE!!!

Just to let you know, Apple is a company run by humans, and humans makes mistakes....

If you have anything bad about how Apple does in terms of customer service, tell me, when was the LAST TIME YOU GOT A DECENT AND EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT....

You see, Humans are not perfect..... customer support is run by humans, and Apple is run by humans....

Be patient, when you take the effort to wait in line for a customer support, or drive miles to get support, or even if you wait 7 days to get your computer back, YOU WILL GET IT FIXED EVENTUALLY...

Being patient goes the long ways, you will be rewarded in the end....

And when is my Mobile.me going to work properly ?:mad:

Eventually, it will be up and running, Apple is human, and Mobile Me is made by humans, not everything humans does is perfect, even as technology or robots are made, they have to be programmed by humans...

Be patient, MobileMe will run perfectly and harmony in the end.... Just wait, it will eventually pay off....

You got a point. I guess it all depends on whom you're being transfered to. Some techs are good, some are bad. I had mixed experiences with Apple's warranty. One thing for sure 'tho, for me, the Apple's hardware (used to be) rock solid!

Apple's share has grown.... therefore, they have to meet more demand, and that leads to mass production.... Compared to other hardware, Apple's still has the rock solid performance. Dell and Lenovo, have turned into nothing but Tuna Can...

I don't know who they bought off. The Apple I know has the...

WORST

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

EVER!!!1

Get a LIFE, go cool off in the shower, customer support has problem, but customer support is run by humans, and humans can't be perfect....

have u done something that others have felt is the worst service ever? Think about that before you type something like that....