Best and Worse tech support

Call 12 for Action is looking into the dismal world of tech support. It has improved even if only a little bit but who's best?

Of all the products in your home, one of the most likely to run into problems is your computer. Consumer Reports says around 40% of laptops and 30% of desktops either have to be fixed or replaced within 4 years of purchase. And tech support is pretty bad to boot!

Consumer Reports just surveyed owners of 10,000 computers about their experience with tech support. The survey found the worst ways to get tech help were from manufacturer's websites and their email support. Tech support in general wasn't very helpful. In the survey, manufacturer's tech support solved the problem only about 60% of the time.

Compaq and HP's tech support was generally worse. The best by far was from Apple-- although it's only free for 90 days. For laptops, Lenovo's tech support was also quite good.

With most companies, you can pay extra for "premium" plans that extend both tech support and the repair warranty, but Consumer Reports says it's usually not worth it.

However, the survey did find an exception to this. With Dell and Gateway, the premium priority service was a lot better than their regular tech support.

If you have a MAC, check out the tech support in Apple stores. It's free for Apple computers whether they're in warranty or not. Consumer Reports survey shows that MAC's help in its stores has been excellent-- solving problems 90% of the time.