Which? is best? PC or Mac?

Posted on 3 Nov 2000 at 15:45

A survey by Which? Magazine into computer reliability and after-sales support provided some good news for Apple.

The company was rated top by nearly 14,000 participants who responded to questions regarding ease of use, reliability, support and brand recommendation.

Apple's best performance was in ease of use, topping the league tables for both desktop and laptop computers. 72 per cent of desktop Mac users, and 66 per cent of PowerBook and iBook owners, said their computer was very easy to set up.

73 per cent of users were satisfied with the reliability of their Apple laptop, again beating all the other brands, although for desktop computers, Apple was beaten by Dan and Dell.

Dan also came out ahead of Apple when users were asked if they would recommend their desktop computer, but once again, Apple's laptops were on top with an impressive 83 per cent of users saying they would definitely recommend their computer to someone else. In second place was Sony, whose laptops only scored 57 per cent.

Apple didn't score so well in questions about its after-sales support. Only 31 per cent of users got through to its telephone helpline immediately, compared with an impressiv 66 per cent for Dan. Apple only came fourth in the league table for overall quality of helpline service, although it received the highest rating for quality of online help.

'Customer satisfaction is extremely important to Apple, so we work hard to enhance the overall customer experience with our contact centre, and new initiatives like Knowledge Base, which allows customers to find answers to their product questions via the Web,' said Sina Tamaddon, Apple's senior vice president of service and support.

Author: Mike Hirschkorn