What's really disappointing is that there are educated, smart, logically-thinking people who refuse to believe that there is any hype behind the quality and customer service of Apple. Both are okay, but not exceptional.
I'm on my second MBA. I had the 2010 model, then traded it in for the 2011. The first model was good; never had a problem, but only owned it for a year. This latest version is having trackpad issues: I use real click, not tap-to-click. But my trackpad has become so sensitive to pressure that you can hardly rest your finger on the pad without a click registering. When doing anything more than web-browsing, it's nearly unusable, requiring me to carry a mouse around.
Now this sucks, because to me the Apple trackpad is the biggest reason for owning one of their laptops. I have Apple Care, but they seem to think that everything is fine. So I'm out of luck...until I get a new laptop. The next one can't be an Apple.
As the author writes, it's hard to understand being told you have no issue, when there is clearly a problem. And this tarnishes Apple's reputation for HIGH quality and GREAT customer service.