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Slow Comeback?

Over the years, our readers have continually given Packard Bell poor to middling scores for its PC reliability and service. The good news is that the company's efforts to repair its reputation for unreliable PCs seem to be paying off. Investments in quality management and in state-of-the-art production facilities helped it earn a Fair reliability rating, along with a handful of other companies.

The bad news is, Packard Bell's service still has a way to go. Respondents tell us that the company leaves a high percentage of problems unresolved and that its technicians aren't so knowledgeable.

Why hasn't Packard Bell's service improved? Mal Ransom, Packard Bell NEC's senior vice president for marketing, claims that it has. Still, he concedes that one reason for the company's low service scores could be its high proportion of inexperienced users. Over 22 percent of Packard Bell users in our survey rated themselves as novices (13 percent of all home users called themselves novices). Because they're inexperienced, greenhorns may call service centers more often, slowing down service for all users.

What's more, only 77 percent of service contacts about Packard Bell home PCs went to the company directly, and only 37 percent of Packard Bell users actually had their problem solved by the company. Others turned to authorized repair centers, such as those in the stores where Packard Bell computers are sold.

Eric Rocco, principal analyst at research firm Dataquest, is not surprised by low service scores for retail PC makers like Packard Bell. "Some of the bigger manufacturers, like Packard Bell, have thousands of service partners, and it's very difficult for them to have quality control over service," he says. That's why Packard Bell wants users to call its support line in order to get the best available help.

"We are aggressively trying to attract users with questions to contact our support staff first," says Ransom. "We've tried to make contacting us easy with clearly marked 'box toppers' [instruction sheets for assembling new systems] and quick, one-button keyboard access to all our contact telephone numbers, online help resources, and service policies."