Reliability and Service: Readers Rate the Manufacturers

Who builds hardware you can count on? How does tech support stack up? We asked 42,000 PC World readers about their PCs, cameras, printers, and more--and boy, did they give us an earful.

What the Reliability and Service Measures Mean

Reliability Measures

Problems on Arrival (All Devices) Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who reported a problem when they first received their device.
Any Hardware or Software Problem (All Devices) Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who reported one or more problems during the life of the device.
Failed Component (Desktop and Notebook PCs) Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who reported replacing one or more original parts because these failed.
Severe Problems (Printers, Cameras, Gateways, Audio Players) Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who said they had a problem serious enough to cause them to contact tech support.
Failed Core Component (Desktop and Notebook PCs) Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who reported the failure of a CPU, a graphics card, a hard drive, a motherboard, a power supply, or RAM.
Product's Ease of Use (Printers, Cameras, Gateways, Audio Players) Based on the brand owners' rating, on a seven-point scale, of the ease of working with the device and any accompanying software.
Satisfaction With Reliability (All Devices) Based on the brand owners' rating, on a seven-point scale, of their satisfaction with the device's reliability.

Service Measures (Desktop PCs, Notebook PCs, Printers Only)

Phone Hold Time Based on the average time a brand's owners reported waiting on hold to speak with a tech-support rep.
Phone Rating Based on the cumulative score from a question in which we asked brand owners to rate, on a seven-point scale, several aspects of their experience in phoning the company's tech support. Among these were whether the information was easy to understand and whether the support rep spoke clearly.
Failure to Resolve Problem Based on the percentage of a brand's owners who said that their problem was not resolved to their satisfaction.
Service Experience Based on the cumulative score from a question in which we asked brand owners to rate, on a seven-point scale, aspects of their service experience. These included whether the vendor fulfilled its commitments and whether it showed concern for the situation.

Laurianne McLaughlin is a freelance writer based in Massachusetts. PC World's Edward N. Albro, Grace Aquino, Kalpana Ettenson, and Lisa Huck also contributed to this article.