I have a business trip on Sunday.  My Apple Mac Book Pro was having the notorious left-fan noise.  And by noise they mean mind-melting whirring and scraping sounds.  I had to take the Apple in to get fixed and I was almost 100% sure that I was going to have to take my trip with a substitute computer.  I signed up for the genius bar (their live tech-support/help center) three days ago and went in last night.

1) They fixed my computer on the spot

2) They did it kindly

3) They suggested I go shopping or walking around the mall if I wanted to and that they’d call my cell phone when it was ready.  I declined

4) They gave me a laptop to play with while I waited so that I could surf the interwebs

5) This was all under warranty and they gladly repaired it for free – saving me $175 U.S. dollars.

Sure, you could get this level of service from… oh, wait, I’ve never had another computer company offer that level of service.  Thanks, Apple!