For Matt Schaidle of Goodfield, Illinois, reliability trumps usability. He once owned an iPod, but when his second-generation model with a 20GB hard drive stopped working about a month after the warranty expired, he switched to a Creative Zen Vision M instead. "I like the look of the iPod, but I wanted something [other than] an iPod after it died on me like that," he says. And though Schaidle doesn't care much for the Vision M's bundled software--he uses Windows Media Player to sync the device with his PC--he appreciates the Creative player's reliability during the two years he's had it.

Any Hope for Phone Support?

Year in and year out, most of our readers' support-related gripes center on poor phone support. The story's the same this time around, though customers do appear more tolerant of foreign accents as long as the tech reps know their stuff. All too often, however, that's not the case. "You can do good service via phone, but frankly it's just so horribly, horribly done," says James Governor, an industry analyst for Redmonk, a technology research firm. IDC's Healey agrees: "Device manufacturer support, because of all of the pressures they're under for [profit] margin, has traditionally not been exceptional."

Soon after Matthew Davis of Lincoln, Nebraska, bought his Acer laptop, the machine's power cord started to fall apart. The rubber split and the wires frayed. "You would have to hold the wires in a certain spot to get the computer to charge," he writes via e-mail. (His fiancée's Acer portable had a similar problem.) Davis, a tech support analyst, contacted Acer support, which told him that his one-year warranty didn't cover the power cord. As a result, he had to spend $99 for a new Targus adapter. His next laptop will be a Dell or Sony, he says.

"The bottom line is that customer service as it currently stands has failed," says Governor. Vendors cut costs by outsourcing support, but too often the result is disgruntled customers. "Low cost is not a benefit in customer service," he asserts. "You may think that way, but it is short-sighted, and it will come back to bite you. In my experience, outsourced customer service is just nowhere near as good."