Buyer Poll: HP Advances, Dell Stumbles

Consumers are increasingly turning to Hewlett-Packard and away from Dell for new personal computers, according to a survey by ChangeWave Research.

The survey shows purchases of HP desktop and notebook PCs by U.S. consumers up considerably in the last six months, and purchases of Dell consumer PCs down significantly.

“Dell’s leading position in the U.S. PC market could be in trouble,” the ChangeWave’s researchers concluded, adding that Dell already lost the worldwide PC sales crown to HP last fall.

“Dell built its brand reputation on customer service and when that slipped, the company suffered,” says ChangeWave founder Tobin Smith.

The Dell customers’ complaints included long wait times on the phone, unresolved technical problems and hard-to-understand customer service representatives working in India. Also, major recall of notebook PC batteries last year and online photos of flaming Dell laptops had negative impact on company’s PC sales, according to the report.

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