Apologies, if it wasn't clear given context, I was explicitly talking about hardware support. Dell doesn't do vertical integration of hardware and software, so I doubt they'll send someone to your parents home to help them configure Windows (or Ubuntu).

That said, your parents will still be subject to having to check for appointment slots each day, hoping to get one two weeks out, or waiting in store for hours for the next slot.

They'll also be subject to lots of random bugs in Time Machine, which has become a decidedly second class citizen as far as support within macOS goes. I cannot reliably do a time machine backup over wifi anymore, and am now subject to doing it via USB only instead. This is a much bigger problem now that my USB disk is still stuck in the office, and I've been unable to get into the office for over 2 months.

> Dell doesn't do vertical integration of hardware and software

That's a good point. It's a reason why comments like the one at the top comparing a Dell to an Apple computer don't make a lot of sense. They aren't apples-to-apples comparisons.

BTW, your Apple store experience sounds terrible. We have a handful of Apple things in my home and have used in-store support probably ten times over the years and have never had the experience you describe.

It's the experience I've been facing in London, UK for the last 5 years.

I'm 'fortunate' to have those options when I'm in London. Friends and family in other parts of Europe don't have a store near them, and their only support option is to send their faulty unit away for 2-4 weeks, which often results in me doing their support for them, as I'm (or I suppose, was) often flying through and could do it as a favour.

> That's a good point. It's a reason why comments like the one at the top comparing a Dell to an Apple computer don't make a lot of sense. They aren't apples-to-apples comparisons.

Yes, and no. This is a technical forum. The software support Apple offers isn't (and probably shouldn't be) useful to the vast majority on here, as any software support you can get from an Apple store, you can get on Google significantly faster.

Within that context, I think the comparison is reasonable. We can all fix any software issues we run into (within limits, those limits vary by platform, arguably more limited in Apple land) ourselves, and those that we can't we're at the mercy of our upstream supplier anyway.

From my experiences dealing with Apple Support regarding software bugs that have come about through software updates, I have no positive things to say. They did offer me $200 worth of accessories to make up for all of my time they wasted after ~18 months of one incident, but that's a poor amount of compensation for the amount of my real time they wasted.

For what it's worth, my experience closely mirrors oarsinsync's, as far as Dell vs. Apple consumer-level hardware support goes.

The Dell tech who came to my house (next day) had people skills as good as any Apple Genius, and better tech skills to boot. He was in and out in less than 45 minutes, and I think he finished less than 24 hours after I called Dell (though that isn't promised as part of the contract).

I'm still happily in the Apple camp, mostly because I do appreciate the integrated ecosystem. However, there's simply no comparison when it comes to after-sales hardware support--Apple has a lot to learn from Dell.

I don't doubt that you've had a better Apple Store experience than some of us, but:

1. I've had poor Apple service in several cities across the US, so I think good service is the exception rather than the rule

2. Many small/medium cities only have one Apple store (which is inconvenient) and rural places have none (which is worse). As far as I know, there are no geographical restrictions, within the lower 48, on where Dell will travel for next-day at-home service.

3. Dell at-home support costs about the same as AppleCare+.