I would be curioius to see what responses are from a corporate environment. My company is a large Dell shop and I've been continually impressed by Dell's tech support and service but as a large company doing lots of business I'm sure we get a higher level of service than an average consumer. It seems with any company if you can get in corporate queues, the service is always far superious if you get in normal queues.

Yeah their service is wonderful - try and get them to fix an ipod while still under warrantee. A scratch or any dent no matter how tiny and they refuse to fix them.

I have always been impressed with Apple's support. Not only is their online database vast, but also phone support is prompt, without waiting. I had to send a laptop back because the cover was not staying shut. Apple had FedEx at my door the next day with a box to put the computer in, and then four days later I had my laptop back in perfect condition.

Paddy, why the hell should Apple fix a scratch or dent on you're iPod?? Buy a clear cover to prevent scratching and DON'T DROP IT to prevent denting. Every time my iPods have died (and they do, they are portable devices with spinning hard drives, duhh)Apple has promptly (and I mean within 2 days) had a box appear on my doorstep to ship it in. And every time they have sent me a BRAND NEW iPOD. Love Applecare!

I can tell you from a low-volume side that Dell's service STINKS! I went over to help my uncle with major problems he had with a Dell he bought. I was on the phone for hours, and they refused to honor the warrantee because they couldn't figure out the cause over the phone. Furthermore, at the time they were doing the service at your location if there was a problem, and they also refused to send out the technician.

Once of the problems was that his Dell was supposed to have a CD burner, and it didn't seem to work. After a trying to get them to help, which they wouldn't, I unintentionally discovered that the reason the CD burner didn't work was that they had two drives, one CD player, one burner - but the burner was covered by the plastic placeholder!

Furthermore, I had to fight with them over the fact that the harddrive was bad and needed to be replaced, and they would not believe me, and still refused to replace it or send their promised technician. Once I worked my way up the food chain, they finally agreed to replace the broken harddrive, but they still would not send the technician out to make the switch. We had to go out and buy another drive to backup the important businss documents, and I then had to come back to do the switch for him.

As far as Dell goes, yeah you can buy a really inexpensive PC, but you get what you pay for!

Recently I have made 3 order for Apple notebooks battery racall. We are based in Spain and thing here a damn slow. I have 2 MacBookPros and 1 PowerBook. When ordering exchange online from Apple.com waiting time was 2 week for MacBookPro and 3-4 WEEKS for Powerbook. As a result I gor MacBookPros next morning and PowerBook in 5 days. This is how Apple treat their customers!

Is Paddy for real? Apple won't fix your iPod's scratch or dent?

Uhhh, I'd like to see Paddy try to take back his car to the dealership to have them fix a scratch or a dent, warranty or no. I'm sure Cingular and Verizon would gladly replace your phone because of a scratch.

What planet is Paddy living on?

This is how stupid people can be when it comes to battery orders.
However the former comment about the delivery time of the batteries was
meant: Apple clearly states it might last 4-6 weeks.
https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/?
Information is actually from today and subject to change.
If it was meant as a complaint then I would suggest to read AND understand
before sending such a comment. If it was meant as a compliment that Apple
raises expectations and is better than that, then go on like this because
from my experience I can say it's better to keep the expectation low and present a better result then. Like Apple did during the Intel transition...
It's still nearly 3 months to go what they said would be the deadline for the last Apple product to ship with an Intel cpu.
At the end of the day: Apple is realistic.
And by the way: the support sometimes solves issues which are caused by 3rd party hard- or software and customers are more than happy about it.
That's some reasons why Apple deserves to be #1.

You read stories a lot in the media, usually long-time PC users who reluctantly tried switching, about their horror stories with massive breakdowns, multiple repairs, and headaches dealing with Apple support. I don't know if they're making it up, massively exaggerating, or are simply among the few who have problems and get more angry because they thought Apple would have to be perfect to measure up. Probably they get published more for that last reason--while the same stories about Dell would be ignored, stories like that about Mac likely seem more surprising.

My own experiences with Apple's tech support and repair are excellent, going all the way back to my first Mac, an LC III, when I got the motherboard swapped out for free a few months after the warranty had expired. Just this year, Apple agreed to swap out my 15" PowerBook's LCD screen because of a VERY slight darkening around the edges which I couldn't even reproduce for the technician at the Apple Store Genius Bar. No problem. They even gave me a warranty extension--I couldn't do without the computer during my school's semester, so they let me get the repair done two months later, well after the warranty expired.

But an event from last year surprised me the most. One of my students had an old 500 MHz PowerBook G4, two years out of warranty, and the motherboard got fried. I told him to take it to the Apple Store's Genius Bar, but to expect an expensive repair. But when he took it in, they repaired it for free--and even gave him an 800 MHz motherboard to boot! This is not the norm, but it is not unheard of from Apple, either.

Bad products and bad service can come from any manufacturer, including Apple; you might get unlucky, but chances are, Apple's support will exceed the service from any other maker.

I must say that the first tier of support is exceptional. The problem occurs when they transfer you to a specialist. They can be some of the rudest support service specialists that you may EVER have to deal with. I iwllnot carryon with my experience that I had to deal with pertaining to the pspecialists, as it will take forever I will say that I purchased a new Quad Mac Pro and it STILL does not work after 3 weeks of calling my vendor, calling Apple.... it still continues.

In support of Paddy's comments, I believe what he was talking about was the fact if there is a scratch or dent on the equipment Apple automatically assumes then that the issue has to do with abuse, and therefore will not honor their warranty.

My experience with Apple has been good to medicore. There are other's out there that really out shine these guys.

The mighty Apple does it again. It seems the company isn't making too many mistakes. Everything they touch turns to gold. From least number of repairs, to superior tech support, Apple deserves to be in the top spot. I for one prefer that all my gadgets were Apple if only I could afford it.