Those who know me even a little bit will be shocked that I say this, but for the first time — and the second — I’ve been disappointed in Apple.
Gripe #1:
I bought a new computer, a small MacBook (white model). There’s a lot to like — it’s fast, it looks great, and I got a good academic price along with a free iPod Touch. I was even prepared to grit my teeth and accept that the Snow Leopard OS (10.6) might not run my favorite program, AppleWorks, but it still works.
I realize that for Apple this is a low-end model, but I was really disappointed that they skimped by leaving out a FireWire port. Normally the USB 2.0 ports can handle many tasks. But without FireWire, it told me to run Migration Assistant over an Ethernet cable to my older laptop running 10.4. This didn’t work; after 12 hours it had only ported over about 20% of the files.
In the past Migration Assistant on FireWire has only required an hour or so to completely and thoroughly transfer files and applications. Fortunately I had a backup hard drive with both types of port, so I used FireWire to transfer from the old machine, and USB 2.0 to update the new. But it took several hours to complete the extra steps.
Almost as bad as a Windows installation.
Gripe #2:
I needed QuickBooks for Mac. I wanted the CD and printed manual, so I went to my Apple store and picked up a copy from the software shelf. There was no register to ring up sales. I assume they took them out to make room for the crowds coming in top see iPads and iPhone 4s.
After wandering around trying to figure out how to actually, you know, buy something, I finally caught the eye of a sympathetic employee who explained that to make my purchase I would need to register and when my name came up an assistant could help me. He could not, because someone was ahead of me. And there was no way for another employee to know who or where I was. I waited 10 minutes while the other guy dithered around.
I finally said to myself, “This is nuts,” put the software back on the shelf and left. I went to the Intuit site and bought QuickBooks online. It was the worst consumer experience I’ve ever had with Apple.
Yikes. What the hell are they thinking?
cleve callison’s blog 
I will say that I have always been impressed with the Genius bar at my local Apple store in Cincinnati. I’ve consistently had great service and great advice. It looks to me as if on the retail side the local management is simply overwhelmed by the number of people coming in to check out iPads and iPhones. I was in on a weekday afternoon and it looked like the week before Christmas.
The Altamonte Springs, FL Apple Store is awful when it comes to repairs. I brought in an iMac Aluminim with a bad optical drive for warranty repair. They never called to give status. I had to keep up with them and they finally (after almost 2 weeks) that it was ready. I came in to pick it up and they then told me is was not ready. I was very unhappy and asked if there was some sort of in-store credit. The manager looked bewildered but came up with the ‘last’ $10 iTunes gift certificate. Sad. When it was finally fixed, I got it home and the optical drive worked but the built in video camera never worked since. I will NEVER go back to an Apple store except to touch merchandise.