[PCWorld]

Post your comments for The 10 Most Annoying Habits of Technology Companies here

[flightstick]

Why on earth would anyone waste money buying Apple products? They look stylish but are fragile and easily broken, and Apple is notorious as a consumer-hostile company. Millions of us since 1980 have been using the IBM PC-XT, AT, 286, 386, 486 and Pentium and have never felt the need to touch an Apple.

[mine]

Bam! Your VERY FIRST paragraph of this article says it all!

Long gone are the days when it was actually not bad to deal with both the big boys and the shareware sector. Even Microsoft was almost a pleasure to deal with (although their stock answer to everything was,' "ee, we haven't heard of any problem like that before now."

Today, neither phone nor e-mail tech support really ever addresses your problem no matter how detailed & complete your presentation. It really _me off when some young fart replys with one of the companies stock BOILERPLACT replys that only substantiate that they are there to handle number of calls (or e-mails) rather than work through a customer's problem

Worse is these front line techies who will not bump you up to their supervisor as requested, and will put a buddy on the phone so it doesn't go higher uo.

Worst is the company, whose product you bought, has a documented ( your tec lab and those of other mags)flaw that they refuse to stand behind.

[free2speak]

I find it very annoying when you visit a "Support" site which dumps you into a forum with other people with the same problem. That is not support; that is a company that doesn't want to pay for support.

[detta]

Hi, Your article says it all.
Today, neither phone nor e-mail tech support really ever addresses your problem no matter how detailed & complete your presentation. It really _me off when some young fart replys with one of the companies stock BOILERPLACT replys that only substantiate that they are there to handle number of calls (or e-mails) rather than work through a customer's problem
thank u

detta

[George1979]

Thats why I build my own computer. But actually if they did not get millions of dollars from companies to install this junk, your $600 laptop would cost you $900. Something to consider, is it worth the extra savings?

[tx28]

What I find really annoying are tech magazine sites that spread an article that could fit onto one or two pages over 13 pages to maximize ad space. Do you really think I'm going to read an article using a drop down menu? No thanks.

[bear90039]

flightstick. One day you'll get tired of asking that question and just buy one. I have been using their products since 1982. I've had a few problems, but none since 1997. That was with a laser printer. It was already a couple of years old. That is why people pay extra for them. Put your money where your mouth is. You plainly said you have never tried an Apple product. You are curious or you wouldn't ask that question. Have you ever wondered what it was like to drive an SL series? Go for it. You're might find you're worth a little extra.

[torkeson]

You nailed it. The 13 page article for a top 10 list IS the most annoying habit. I don't read them just on the principle of the thing. It's not good for the reader, it doesn't add elegance to the design... the sole reason for using it is to increase ad revenues.

[freelock]

Wow. Look at all the reasons to ditch proprietary software. I don't have any of these complaints.
This article is great marketing for Linux and free software!

[fullwhitebeard]

1. Try using Linux
2. Use Open Office instead
3. Make Data copies of your music so you cn load them after a crash
4. go back to using windows 3.2

[Kilme]

torkeson said:

You nailed it. The 13 page article for a top 10 list IS the most annoying habit. I don't read them just on the principle of the thing. It's not good for the reader, it doesn't add elegance to the design... the sole reason for using it is to increase ad revenues.

True, it is pretty annoying. But remember that you're reading this article for free.

These are all things I expected to read about, until I saw the one for shipping boxes. I thought I was the only one who thought Newegg's boxes were too big! They don't pack them well either; the product sits on top of the packing material, with no material between it and the top of the box. Talk about asking for the product to be broken, especially if UPS is involved. Although I will admit that I have had one or two boxes properly packaged.

Also, I am waiting on a few rebates myself. It's been about two months now, so I suppose I should begin my inquiry as to how the process is going along. I hope they don't ask me to send in what I already have...

[roydesimone]

I've been using AVG for about a year and a half now, and I have to say, they've never sent me spam of any kind. It was, however, a bit annoying in int the older versions that it would always throw out a pop up every time I turned on my system to tell me that it was downloading updates.
But now with the newer 8.0 edition, I never get pop ups at all. a small notification in my system tray (about the size of a outlook new message preview) when a scheduled scan starts, and then again with a three-line overview of the results when the scan is complete. Its very user-friendly, and not invasive at all!

[Mediocrates]

"They never stop nagging you to upgrade to a bigger, better version or to renew your subscription (even though it doesn't expire for another six months)."
Now THAT'S funny coming from PC World, which starts in with the renewal notices 10 months before my 12-month subscription expires. That's why I no longer subscribe, folks!

[kellyg]

How's this for annoying? A leading computer magazine publishes a Top 100 Products of 2008 and it's only May 2008!

[kellyg]

Amen! Sometimes the Print Preview button (next to the Email Article link) will show the entire article all on one screen.

[JohnRivkinsky]

I believe thanks to them companies such as SupportSpace (and FireDog?) are doing really well. But yes it shouldn't be this way. Those companies don't even do the manufacturing anymore (they OEM from Taiwan) so AT LEAST they shld give us good service.

[trevor97007]

Apple products are not that fragile. I've dropped my iPhone many times and it still works, but the casing is a little damaged. Well,people could have waited for the format war to end, but if nobody buys anything, neither format would have been any closer to a victory.

[fastbullet]

Speaking of annoying, how about having to scroll through half a page of garbage to finally get to the content you were after, and then having to repeat this crap for EACH page? PC World, you are a huge pain in the butt. I cannot believe you can't find a better way to market your wares than this.

[JBlank912]

RE: The nag to update, why is it that the Antivirus companies, afetr you renew your subscription, make it so hard to actually update to the latest version of the software? ALL of the companies, even if you have the latest definitions, leave you with an old software package that the viruses defeat. Yeah they "LET YOU" update to tthe current version if you figure out how or are tech savy enough to know you need to.

How about volunteering the info and making it easy to do, considering the people just spent the money on the updtae that would have been cheaper in the store?