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Home PCs

Few home PC makers received high report card grades: Only Dell earned the top rating of Outstanding, and only IBM got a Good. The other companies--Acer, Compaq, Gateway, HP, Micron, and Quantex--ranked Fair. For Gateway, Micron, and Quantex, that's a step backward.

In our six reliability measures, the average result for four measures showed no change from last time, while two of them got worse: Readers report 50 percent more problems per year among the rated companies than they did in our last survey. And users aren't happy. The percentage of people who say they're very satisfied with their home PC's reliability slid almost 10 points, from 73 percent in January to 64 percent this time.

In our six service measures, ratings in the three subjective ones (where we ask for an opinion instead of a hard number) got worse. The technicians seem to be less attentive and less knowledgeable--the percentage of readers who rated the sincere effort and knowledge of the person who helped them as Excellent or Good dropped from 84 to 77 and from 78 to 72, respectively. Most significantly, the percentage of respondents who were very satisfied with the service they received from their PC maker sank 12 points, from 59 to 47, among rated companies. But at least you don't have to wait longer to talk to the support technicians. The percentage of people who got help within 5 minutes remains about where it was last time--55 percent. Fewer users say their problems were resolved quickly, and more say their problems were never resolved.

Why should home computers be more troublesome? Part of the problem lies with the home computer itself, and the other part can be traced to the limited expertise of the people who buy them, says Randy Giusto, vice president of the desktop and mobile division at International Data Corporation. "Think about it: [Home PC owners] have less experience using PCs and no IS department," explains Giusto. "Troubleshooting a problem is always a nuisance because they have to do it at odd hours." And since most home machines cost less than corporate systems, he says, PC manufacturers have cut back on component quality, service plans, and warranty offerings, in order to achieve an attractive price.