I've rarely had customer service trouble, with any company. Dunno why. Maybe because I'm careful in my dealings with them and rarely do returns? Having been on both sides of the CS scenario, customer attitude has a large bearing on how things go. Many times at the ISP customers called with a problem, with an accusatory attitude and complete unwillingness to cooperate with diagnostic efforts. Same for billing issues. If a check is sent but gets lost in the Post Orifice, how is that *my* fault?
One of the last calls I took before the office was shut down, about three weeks after the last day dial-up service was available, the customer complained he hadn't been able to connect for several weeks, what's the problem? I explained the business has been shut down, you didn't get the postal letter and e-mails we sent? He doesn't use the e-mail service (go figure). I confirmed his postal address, which had changed due 911 re-addressing (apparently we didn't get a bounce on this one, as the *few* bounces that did come in were handled separately). I gently pointed out that he hadn't advised us of the change, he got belligerent, said it's not HIS responsibility to do that. Uhhhh, OK, then who exactly is responsible?
I can say Hewlett-Packard is problematical, at least in regards to scanners. I tried for several months to get an RMA for repairing my scanner (not under warranty so I knew there'd be a charge involved). The reps kept directing me to go through diagnostic routines, which I kept telling them I had already done, tried both the USB and SCSI interfaces, etc. I gave up. Anybody want a nice scanner with document feeder?