Whither tech support?

Tech support for any given company sometimes seems to wax and wane with the lunar cycle, but I need some up-to-date skinny on what kinds of experiences people are having with TS calls right now. Dell always gets dumped on, but the last two calls I’ve made to them for my spouse’s laptop were over-the-top great. So I’m pretty happy with them right now, but I have a client who wants to purchase a basic laptop and her children have warned her against Dell. As she says, if she gets one and it has problems she will be subjected to endless I-told-you-so’s. This is a senior home user, not a pro. Any thoughts on alternatives?