Some famous companies actually live up to their well-earned reputations, some don’t care.

By Richard M. Sherwin

When you are “in the business” or have a brother-in-law “in the business”, purchasing, using and getting

support with consumer technology products can be an easier experience than if you have no contacts.

So it was to my utter surprise recently when my own experience in getting help with a Mobile GPS, a vacuum cleaner, an all-in-one printer/ scanner/ fax machine and a satellite radio installation, resulted in a renewed trust that some companies really care about their customers….and some couldn’t care less.

Since the Internet has actually hindered the quality of tech support (try and find a phone number on almost any major brand or product support website), it is more important than ever for manufacturers to build a reliable product and support it.

On the plus side, I have been finding that, in certain stores, some retail sales people actually do their homework and their recommendations are often far superior to those product analysis magazines or industry wags you watch on TV.

A few cases in point:

• Several prominent consumer product review websites had been singing the praises of Eureka, Hoover and Shark lightweight vacuum cleaners. But after buying and trying, I was sorely disappointed. So back they went to my local Walmart and Target and I looked again to see what else I could try. Twenty years ago I had written a nice review about a Bissell floor cleaning product and this time the erudite Walmart employee revealed that, while he didn’t know exactly what technology went into the different vacuum cleaners, he knew he had the least returns and least complaints about Bissell. I got that model (more about it later) and was very happy. What was really disappointing about Hoover, Eureka and Shark, was their triple negatives: I found their products hard to assemble, it was hard to get tech support and they performed badly. Bissell, on the other hand, had a product that, while looking similar to the other lightweight portables vacs, was easy to assemble, performed well and answered quickly when I called tech support for a minor question.

• One of the first printers I ever purchased for my family was an Epson and recently, I thoroughly enjoyed borrowing one of their front projection TVs. The brand name has survived, their extensive product line, not so much. It once included laptops and stereos and conventional TVs and now it only includes projection TVs, printers and office accessories. Frustrated by the almost non-existent Brother Printer tech support and utterly surprised and frustrated over the non-user friendly support for award winning HP printers, I took an Epson printer that the company loaned me to try and finish a big scanning, copying and printing project. I had to call the company on the weekend when my “inside” guy wasn’t there because my Epson unit refused to talk to a new Sony laptop I was trying out. I thought it might be a Sony problem because the laptop could see the printer, but nothing happened when I hit the Sony software. Sony support maintained that any outside device connected to a Vaio computer was under the jurisdiction of the device manufacturer. I called Epson and even though they claimed that it “was a known Sony problem”, Epson support fixed the Sony software issue and in less than thirty seconds had the printer working properly, even giving me some extra instruction on scanning and editing pictures.

Here’s the kicker, I didn’t have to give my serial number, mother’s maiden name, proof of purchase, etc. to get this free support. So in essence, Epson may have changed their own business plan over the last twenty years, but they have never ever lost their customer first approach to whatever product they sell.

• MY GPS issues: Here’s a case of role reversal. Magellan was the leading name in portable GPS devices for quite a few years until Tom-Tom won over almost every new sale of mobile GPS units by introducing higher quality, higher featured and most of all, easy to use, devices. Magellan paid for its poor management by nearly going out of business. But then a strange thing happened the last few years. The Dutch owned Tom-Tom had some serious road bumps that rendered many of their GPS devices almost unworkable and then compounded that by making the alleged free fix so difficult, many consumers couldn’t get their units back to 100%. While this was happening, Magellan was sold to a Hedge Fund investor that just about ran the brand into the ground. Then a private Asian based company made a concerted effort to restore the brand name Magellan and the product’s quality. This story hasn’t ended yet. We think Magellan has easily surpassed Tom Tom with superior customer and tech support. But try to call Tom-Tom and get a straight answer to a tech issue, then call Magellan and you decide which company cares about its reputation.

XM-Sirius Better Than Ever

Yes, the formerly beleaguered satellite radio service should never have merged and never paid Howard Stern more than the profits for both companies. Yet, with all that, I still find their customer service, tech support and general treatment of their customers as good as any tech company on the planet. I had a problem with an outdated receiver and, while they could have told me to buy a new one (a few hundred bucks), I needed one that fit exactly where the old one fit in my car, and they exchanged my old unit with a reconditioned unit that works perfectly. More importantly, their tech and customer support team answers questions 24/7 and my installation and activation was quick and flawless.

In addition, while XM-Sirius music-programming can change a bit (usually from customer input), they have never strayed from the brand’s original mandate to provide commercial free music radio and varied content across all demographics.

Bytes and pieces:

The LC CHOCOLATE THE iPHONE

So Samsung has to ante up some one billion $ to Apple for patent infringement. The real loser here is LG. LG’s Chocolate Phone (see similarity with iPhone) was a big seller, and their tablet that was previewed by the press but never released in the U.S. Both predated anything Apple or Samsung ever produced and both have striking similarities to the iconic Apple products. I am still not sure why LG didn’t sue Apple and Samsung. No matter who was right about this legal entanglement, Samsung must have had the worst law firm ever to allow a judge and jury to hear the complaint right in Silicon Valley…that would be like the Red Sox suing the Yankees in the Bronx.

Complaints to us: those who followed our recommendation and chose McAfee anti-virus over Norton for the last 12 months wrote in about the McAfee software incorrectly alarming customers about safe web sites with a “warning” popup. In addition, a cache cleaning portion occasionally freezes. McAfee claims they’ve adjusted their software with the latest free update.

Please try the vastly improved Webroot all device security suite. We’ve been trying that out for a month. It runs in the background better than McAfee or Norton, it safely removes harmful viruses, spam, surfing issues with one button and it doesn’t slow down your system.

If you’re over the age of 40 or very near sighted, you have trouble reading the icons and tiny prompts on the Sony Playstation 3 and their standalone Internet enabled Blue Ray players. Sony promised a fix, but so far hasn’t increased the type size.

Own a Cadillac that uses Microsoft Bing as the search engine on your $60,000-$100, 000 all in one dashboard GPS and operating systems? Sorry, you’re out of luck; you can’t change to Google or Yahoo, or any other search engine for that matter. Bing is still the worst search engine and browser on the planet indoors and outdoors,too.

Are they kidding? Those of you with a Barnes and Noble Nook or an Amazon Kindle Fire, are rightly annoyed. These two rivals still do not offer Apps that would enable you to buy books from both companies no matter which device you use. And both companies have stated you won’t see opposing Apps on their opposing devices any time soon.

Have a first generation Coby Kyros Tablet? Sorry, the only way to get Apps for those devices now is to completely reset your Tablet and go to the Coby website, www.cobyusa.com. There’s a blue tab by the Kyros info that calls out to tablet owners with units furnished with AppsLib so they can download GetJar. Yeah, I know, it sounds like something from Star Trek. It’s an absolute pain the butt, but it does work and restores your Tablet to some functionality.