Apple's customer service is really unrivaled in the computer repair space. I had a similar experience with my MacBook Pro in the past, my display stopped working, dropped it off at a store and picked it up a couple days later. They had replaced basically the entire laptop sans the plate on the bottom.

Tried getting HP to fix a monitor with a defective port and was going to have to ship it to them at my own cost with no estimates of the repair time or cost. I just went out and bought a Samsung.

If you have the time and knowledge to repair your own computers like the author it can be a fun hobby, I also have two custom built PCs, but I don't do work on them for a reason.