Apple again took the top prize in Consumer Reports‘ survey of technical support providers, thumping rival personal computer makers by a large margin and edging out third-party local support.

The publication posted the results of its poll of 3,200 computer owners Thursday. Those users had contacted a company’s technical support in the past 12 months, or taken their problem to an in-store support tech during that period.

“Apple tech support is by far the most effective of any computer brand’s,” said Consumer Reports.

The magazine pegged Apple’s technical support with a score of 83 out of a possible 100, easily trumping competitors like Lenovo (64), Dell (61) and Hewlett-Packard (55), the three largest sellers of Windows-powered PCs.

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