I buy about $20,000 worth of Apple gear annually, and I have noticed they are beginning not to honor AppleCare events.
Like the iPhone Upgrade Program, it's probably best for businesses to lease devices from Apple than to deal with all the nonsense around repairs.
Heh. Apple's stance on control and repair starts to make a lot of sense when you think of it as apple's transitioning phase to a device-renting business model. They want to make truly owning and repairing your device as inconvenient (and illegal) as possible so that people are more inclined to pay monthly for access to a device.
I just hope other OEMs aren't capable of following in their footsteps.