Sent to the editor of the _very useful_ website http://consumerist.com

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Hi Ben

So many people share their woes of poor customer service. I figured I'd share my experience with Apple as a counter-balance.

I am the owner of a 2.5 year old white MacBook.  During the last 60 days or so, it started misbehaving.  Things like stuttering when trying to watch youtube or play iTunes while browsing.  It wasn't major but annoying.  The behavior started getting worse ultimately randomly shutting down and throwing kernel panics.

The rundown of events trying to get my MacBook repaired went like this:

- Took it into the Genius Bar.  They saw the many kernel panics and diagnosed it as a bad logic board.  I had to return once the parts arrived.
-A few days later the parts arrived and I dropped it off.  They turned around the repair very quickly and I got it home.

-As soon as I got it home, it had a new problem.  White noise coming out of one of the speakers.  I was annoyed that they gave it to me like that and made another appointment.
-I take it back to the Genius bar and they want to ***replace the Logic Board***

-I wait a few days for the parts to arrive and take it back AGAIN.
-I get it home after a lengthier stay and plug it into the monitor I always use.  No more external video. It wont hook up to any external monitors now!

This time I told the Apple Store I wouldn't be bringing it back since every time I brought it in, something else went wrong.
Instead, I called Apple Customer Care and explained my situation [hat tip to @usermac on twitter .] 
In 5 minutes, the helpful rep, said "seeing your problem, we wont ask you to bring it back,  would a new computer work for you?"

What a shock.  I was gobsmacked.  Apple sent me a brand new MacBookPro for my 2.5 year old MacBook [since I needed the firewire that my old Macbook had]. 

For me this makes the 'Apple Premium' well worth it.  And of course, AppleCare!

Signed one very happy Apple customer,

@sean808080
http://sean808080.com