Everyone is going to have had a bad experience with one brand or another. I, for example, had a Compaq laptop that was nothing but trouble. The two Dell laptops I have now have been virtually trouble free.
For a consumer desktop, I'd go with Dell or HP/compaq. Dell's have always been pretty good and HP's have been improving.
For a laptop, if you can find one to suit your needs and you have the cash, I'd go with Lenovo (Thinkpad/IBM). The Thinkpad's I've worked on have all been built like tanks. Otherwise, I'd keep an eye on the Dell outlet until you get a good deal on a laptop.
Support is universally mediocre, since we, as consumers, have chosen price over quality and service. At least IBM, Dell and HP give you enough online resources to fix many problems yourself.