I think you are wrong when you say that the relationship has failed because the customer service staff have let Steve/Apple down. If the staff have not been trained adequately nor been given sufficient discretion to act in cases like yours then that is clearly a management or policy issue. The after sales service policy needs to be designed in as part of the product specification and costed as well. You are therefore completely correct to lay the blame at Steves door.
However, I think it unlikely that you will find significantly better service levels from PC vendors.
My answers
Stuart,
I think you are wrong when you say that the relationship has failed because the customer service staff have let Steve/Apple down. If the staff have not been trained adequately nor been given sufficient discretion to act in cases like yours then that is clearly a management or policy issue. The after sales service policy needs to be designed in as part of the product specification and costed as well. You are therefore completely correct to lay the blame at Steves door.
However, I think it unlikely that you will find significantly better service levels from PC vendors.
Mark