“Your call is important to us. Please hold.”

If your eyes just rolled toward the back of your head,  you’re not alone. Just check out the tsunami of customer complaints about poor technical support at ConsumerAffairs.com. And, you’ll probably want to do this before—not after—you purchase your next notebook.

Last year, more notebooks were sold in the U.S. than desktop PCs, according to the research giant IDC. This year, make that more notebooks than desktops sold worldwide. No doubt this is partly a result of cut-throat price reductions, and the overwhelming popularity of low-cost netbooks. The implications of this phenomenon on technical support are simple: The more notebooks out there, the greater the demand for tech support services. And PC makers are finding that customers of inexpensive notebooks are expecting the same quality tech support as high-end customers. But, given the economies of scale, and the economy itself, something has to give.

Virtually no computer vendor—or retailer, for that matter—is immune from the wrath of users who have become intimately familiar with the Blue Screen of Death, and other PC foibles. But, it’s how manufacturers handle their customers’ hardware and software problems that ultimately determine their true reliability, and, you would think, future sales.

Try telling that to Dell or Hewlett-Packard. When Forrester Research asked nearly 4,600 consumers about their interactions with a variety of companies, PC manufacturers—with one exception—averaged poor to just barely okay. In its April 2009 report, Forrester calculated its customer experience index, based on the “usefulness, usability and enjoyability of their experiences.” With a score of 65 percent or less considered poor, Dell ranked lowest in consumer satisfaction with 58 percent. HP and its associated brand Compaq also received poor rankings of 64 and 63 percent, respectively. Gateway squeaked by at 66 percent. Apple was the lone vendor with a good 80 percent satisfaction rating.

Further corroborating this trend, more than 4,500 laptop owners who read Consumer Reports also held court regarding tech support. Apple claimed a gratifying reader score of 83 percent, with Dell at 60, and HP at 48. It is no coincidence that the sellers of the most laptops have the lowest marks for technical support—but that’s no excuse, either.

Last year, LAPTOP’s annual undercover review of technical support services saw remarkable overall improvement in Web and phone tech support. This year, we found a general decrease in service quality, with the lowest ratings going to, yes—you guessed it, Dell and HP; and the highest marks going to Apple (which also makes the most expensive notebooks). In addition to Dell, HP, and Apple, we checked in with seven other major PC vendors to evaluate (See “How We Tested”) their technical support prowess. Read on to learn how they fared, then share your tech support experiences on our blog.