by , 4:45 PM EDT, May 5th, 2006

Consumer Reports' June issue, which hits newsstands May 9, gave Apple's tech support the highest rating when it comes to assisting users with problems. The magazine surveyed over 20,000 of its subscribers and found that 76% of the time, Apple successfully solved issues posed by desktop and laptop users.

Lenovo, which now owns IBM's computer business, came in second with a 64% success rate. Beyond that, however, the publication's press release said that "most manufacturers provided dismal free tech support," with Compaq among the worst at 38%.

Consumer Reports also said that 15% of users with problems said they don't even bother to make a call because of poor experiences in the past, and 90% of that group had success solving their problem by paying a third party to handle it.

The Mac Observer will provide more details when the June issue comes out.

Thanks to Macworld UK for the heads-up.