Apple Gets Top Marks on 'Tech Support Showdown' List

[MacRumors]

Apple continues to dominate when it comes to customer support, according to Laptop Mag's annual tech support showdown, which is designed to help customers determine which companies are offering the most reliable customer service in the tech industry.

Apple received an aggregate score of 91, earning 54 points for its web-based tech support and 37 points for its phone-based tech support. Laptop Mag says that Apple's support staff are among the "fastest and most knowledgeable," offering up "accurate answers" to Mac questions across live chat, social media, and the phone.

In a more in-depth breakdown of Apple's score, Laptop Mag says its editors queried Apple about Dark Mode in macOS Mojave, disabling automatic updates, and turning off the webcams (something not possible).

Live chat was determined to be the best Apple support experience, and it took between 4 and 9 minutes for live chat staff to walk Laptop Mag through answers to its queries. Phone support was also quick, thorough, and helpful.

Larry was surprised when I told him I wanted to disable the MacBook Air's webcam. After saying he typically just puts tape over his webcam, Larry asked me to wait for 3 to 5 minutes while he checked to see if anything else were possible. Two minutes later, Larry was back on the call to walk me through the System Preferences app and show me how to disable webcam access, app by app. He also noted there might be a "fancier" way to disable the webcam via the Library (it's actually in the Terminal program), but that this was easier.

Few companies even came close to beating Apple's score of 91 in the Tech Support Showdown, but Razer, the number two company, scored an 88 and Dell scored a 73. Apple competitor Samsung earned a score of 73, while Microsoft got a 64.

As always, Laptop Mag arrived at these scores by posing as everyday PC and Mac users to get answers to three questions from major laptop manufacturers. Both the online and telephone support systems were tested. 100 points total were possible, 60 from online support because it's a more popular way to get help, and 40 from phone support.

Article Link: Apple Gets Top Marks on 'Tech Support Showdown' List

 

[apolloa]

I presume this is for the US only. Because some of those companies, like Razer, don’t offer support outside the US.
So I’ve been told.

 

[kemal]

Then there is the cost of what should be reasonably priced repairs.

 

[alpi123]

Dell doesn't deserve to be in the top 100.

 

[TheBing1980]

I would have to say, I agree with this 100%.

I have only reached out to them a few times ....For some reason I prefer searching thru forums to fix things myself.

But when I have contacted them, they have always been pretty knowledgeable and very polite.

 

[Classie]

The few times I’ve reached out to Apples support they’ve been very professional and polite; always solved my issues.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Then Apple customer service should be required training course for all Customer service reps. Especially Comcast.

 

[ImpulseDOM]

Ah yes the three As and Northstar criteria. Those were the days.

 

[Jsameds]

Considering that’s the top 11 and the lowest drops all the way down to 30 points, how bad is most of the rest of the industry?? Jeez.

 

[justperry]

and turning off the webcams (something not possible).

Larry was surprised when I told him I wanted to disable the MacBook Air's webcam. After saying he typically just puts tape over his webcam, Larry asked me to wait for 3 to 5 minutes while he checked to see if anything else were possible. Two minutes later, Larry was back on the call to walk me through the System Preferences app and show me how to disable webcam access, app by app. He also noted there might be a "fancier" way to disable the webcam via the Library (it's actually in the Terminal program), but that this was easier.

Huh, first it says it's not possible which I wanted to reply to since it's not that hard and next we get the quote it is possible, Odd.

You can disable the camera easily through the terminal or removing an extension (SIP needs to be off for this).

 

[TMRJIJ]

I don’t know if I trust these statistics. Dell is claiming third place. If there’s one thing that Dell hasn’t improved in, it’s Tech Support especially on the phones

 

[Dave-Z]

Laptop Mag says that Apple's support staff are among the "fastest and most knowledgeable,"

Wow... Just a week ago I was on with Apple support and the guy couldn't even figure out which country I was in... This after I provided my account info... nor was he able to provide any actual help. I was put on hold repeatedly. Once for upwards of 10-15 minutes. At the end, he provided a web address to Apple's support site for my country because he didn't know the out of warranty cost for the product.

But sure, best-in-class.

 

[Harthag]

Razer at #2...LOL.

 

[Breaking Good]

Apple certainly deserves first place. Personally, I'm happy to see Dell and Samsung place so high.

Both can certainly do better. But my experience with both has been very good. I know that isn't always the case.

Microsoft certainly needs to step up its game.

 

[CrysisDeu]

Seriously? Personally I felt the customer service has went way down these years.
I had an iCloud storage issue(miscalculated storage size), and it took me 6 months, went through 7-8 reps(because most of them cannot do anything), and about 40 hours on phone. In the end, I helped them to solve the problem, and they will not refund the money I wasted on iCloud storage plan because of the miscalculation.
And I feel the Apple store is also getting worse. Recently I bought an iPad pro 11 inch with apple pencil and keyboard, they gave me an 10.5 inch keyboard..
These are just few cases, the problem I have met using Apple product recently has increased a lot.

P.S. I heard razor’s quality control is pretty bad, have no idea of customer service. Anyone with experience with razor would maybe tell me is their customer service really that good?

 

[JetTester]

Well deserved IMHO. Congrats Apple.

 

[Woyzeck]

Actually I think this is more of a bad sign for tech support in general than Apple's achievement. Thinking back to the old days of IBM's Thinkpad support, next business day on-site for less than 150 dollars for three years, even Apple's 'world class support' looks tired.

 

[ericinboston]

Kudos to Apple! HP has a poor standing on this list and it doesn't surprise me. 12 years ago I asked HP for support on a brand new $129 printer and they treated me terribly unprofessionally. I returned the printer to the retailer, got my full refund, and vowed to never, ever, EVER purchase another HP product (anything from HP) for the rest of my life...and to also never recommend HP in any shape or form. To this day I still refuse to promote HP and all because someone on their phone told me I was wrong even though the outside of the box said "Windows XP Drivers Included". This person was supposedly a Manager.

 

[bbeagle]

Razer at #2...LOL.

What does Razer even do? I've never heard of them.

 

[TheBing1980]

Seriously? Personally I felt the customer service has went way down these years.
I had an iCloud storage issue(miscalculated storage size), and it took me 6 months, went through 7-8 reps(because most of them cannot do anything), and about 40 hours on phone. In the end, I helped them to solve the problem, and they will not refund the money I wasted on iCloud storage plan because of the miscalculation.
And I feel the Apple store is also getting worse. Recently I bought an iPad pro 11 inch with apple pencil and keyboard, they gave me an 10.5 inch keyboard..
These are just few cases, the problem I have met using Apple product recently has increased a lot.

P.S. I heard razor’s quality control is pretty bad, have no idea of customer service. Anyone with experience with razor would maybe tell me is their customer service really that good?

Sorry to hear about all your trouble.

As the article stated, this study was specifically about laptop support. That’s what all the questions were based on.

It would be interesting to see how they scored on a services or accessory based test.

My guess is that they would still do well compared to most companies.

 

[Harthag]

What does Razer even do? I've never heard of them.

They make gaming accessories, laptops, and external GPU enclosures. They are best known for mice and keyboards. They used to be shadier than they are now re: QC and components used. Their CEO is a tool. They only recently implemented a web chat feature and offer an extended warranty on laptops. I had a Blade laptop in 2017 and it was fantastic. I had to return a defective one and they sent me a new one that I never requested as an exchange, and had to threaten to dispute with my bank. Customer support was a total joke back then.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Razer is a company that continues to impress me with their taking of Steve-era Apple concepts and applying them to the PC world.

Their hardware is well-thought out, and the most Mac-like of PCs (although lately they've been moving away from Apple's design aesthetics).

To hear that their customer service is good is one more thing to tempt me away from Apple, since their laptop hardware is top-notch, repairable, expandable, powerful, and reasonably priced for what you get.

Too bad they're Windows only, but I think I can live with that nowadays, even if I don't really want to.

 

[nvmls]

Hilarious chart, Razer and Dell? epic troll. Also, Apple's service is very inconsistent when outside of the U.S.

 

[justperry]

Wow... Just a week ago I was on with Apple support and the guy couldn't even figure out which country I was in... This after I provided my account info... nor was he able to provide any actual help. I was put on hold repeatedly. Once for upwards of 10-15 minutes. At the end, he provided a web address to Apple's support site for my country because he didn't know the out of warranty cost for the product.

But sure, best-in-class.

I can do that too
Just because one person had a bad experience

Seriously, you might have had a bad one, might work to call again, nothing is 100%.

 

[Niko Todd]

Microsoft have support?