Customer Satisfaction Ratings Tough on Tech

Love your iPod, iPhone, or iMac? If you're an owner of any of these popular devices, there's a good chance you've been impressed with Apple's products in the past. For the last few years, it has experienced almost unrivaled satisfaction from consumers.

Unfortunately, that seems to have changed.

According to the University of Michigan's annual rankings (cited through the American Customer Satisfaction Index, or ACSI), Apple dropped some five percentage points in its overall customer satisfaction ranking. That's a plummet from an impressive 84 to a still-stellar 79.

Also dropping in the rankings was computer retailer Dell, which also saw its popularity tail off five points. Although the company's rating has been on the "up and up" for a few years now, reports of "continuing customer service problems" have placed Dell behind much of its competition. It now holds a rating of 74. (Source: appleinsider.com)

Another company in some trouble is Google, the web's most powerful entity. The "Borg" of search engines fell almost as far as Dell and Apple, dropping 4 per cent to 78. Despite slackening customer approval, Google clearly remains the most Internet's most-used search engine. Just don't tell that to Yahoo, who actually improved 4 per cent in customer satisfaction to 79, one ahead of Google. (Source: vnunet.com)

Despite Apple, Dell, and Google's problems with popularity, theirs is not the most concerning drop. That sobering award goes to America Online, or AOL, which suffered a painful approval rating drop of ten per cent over the last year. AOL now holds the worst score in the industry, a 67.

All in all, it seems Americans simply aren't as happy with their technology as they were a year ago. The study finds that overall customer satisfaction with the personal computer systems industry to have slackened 3 per cent, down to a very average 75.

Vista nagging, battery recalls, heck even faulty Xbox 360s -- is it really any surprise?