Consumer watch-dog website Consumerist has an informative article about things every consumer that shops in an Apple Store should know.
My favorite part:
1. If you fill out the survey and rank us 6 or lower, a manager will call you the same day or the next, corporate policy.
They usually will ask why you had a bad experience, and offer to make it better, usually by discounting something or another for you.
Check out the other 6 confessions over at Consumerist, and be sure to bookmark their site. It’s one of my favorites that I read from time to time.
I can also tell you, as a former hardware technician that dealt with Apple a lot, your Apple Care does NOT cover accidental damage. If you trip and fall and break the screen, you’re out of luck. If you accidentally spill coffee on your MacBook, you’ve just lost a lot of money. If you accidentally knock over your Mac Pro desktop and something comes loose and hits a logic board component and now it won’t boot – too bad. Apple Care only covers hardware failure by faulty part.
My recommendation: if you do buy a Mac laptop, put it under your home owner’s insurance, and make sure you keep back-ups with Time Machine or some other back-up app.