A long post is from a reader what had quite of a hazzle with an Apple store:

I am going to tell you about my “day at apple”. It started with an hour long drive from my home town to the apple store. My appointment was at 1:15 PM i left early at 12 to be there on time. I hit major traffic due to an accident while driving to the store. I was late and arrived at 1:45 PM and waited a good 20mins to be helped by an Apple associate because of the “riot” that was the apple store. I had to find out that I had been dropped from my original appointment and had to reschedule to 5:45PM which meant that i would have to leave my nephew’s birthday party early to make another trip to the Apple store. OK fine. I left early got there on time and was helped. My phone had a minor crack since September. I thought it wasn’t a big deal so i continued living my life. What I thought was a big deal, was when your antenna does not work and you receive zero reception and your battery life cannot even last a day. God forbid if your “GLASS” screen as any sort of crack because apparently that gives Apple the right to refuse to fix your phone because they feel customer is a retard. The phone is made of GLASS?!?! The phone worked fine for months. Now that the screen is cracked there is nothing that Apple can do to fix their faulty product that is my iphone. The Apple associate Sean, told me that the problem could have been dormant within the phone since you dropped it and i would just now start to see issues with my phone?!? That makes no sense at all. Sean, after taking a diagnosis of the phone, realized and agreed that the phone is definitely not working properly. He said that it may be a software issue, so he completely wiped my phone and told me everything is fixed because my phone was receiving great reception at the time. From the time it took to walk from the store to my car the reception failed again and I’ve had no reception since. He told me to drive an hour back to my house, test the connection and drive an hour back for another appointment. I can’t revolve my life around Apple as it was already a pain to get there in the first place. Now i have an iphone that acts as an expensive paperweight. It sits there with no reception due to terrible hardware problems. I hope that someone at Apple will read this. I have called the Store since yesterday to be informed that there is nothing Apple can do. I have called At n T to receive the same information. All i can do is fork out 200$ for a refurbished iphone. I just want my old one fixed! It worked last month, now it doesn’t work. Its that simple. Apple treats their customers like children and has given me a reason to complain.

This user reports some trouble with the warranties Apple offers and decides to switch to the Palm Pre:

It was a bad business decision to purchase this phone which requires a 2 year contract but only a 1 year warranty and no insurance program but I trusted Apple’s reputation.
My phone quit working after six months.
Apple agreed to replace it with a “refurbished” phone, not a new one.
The “refurbished” phone does not come with a warranty, so I had to purchase an extended warranty for the remaining (6 months) of the original one year warranty for an additional $69.00.
My SECOND ipfone stopped working eight months later (two months past the original one year warranty)
I now have a non-working iphone and still have seven months left on my two year contract.
Apple has refused to do anything except offer to allow me to purchase a NEW 3-G iphone at a discounted price but I would have to sign another two year contractant , and again only a one year warranty and pay an additional $20.00 per month for the 3-G network.
Do they think I would ever make such a mistake again? I am currently without a phone while I await the new PALM PRE.
At leas the PALM will offer an insurance program.
Thank God I did not switch my business computers to MAC’s which I had contemplated.
Screw me once…shame on you…screw me twice…shame on me !

I HATE my iPhone! Dropped phone calls. Horrible customer service from the iPhone store in Lynnwood, Washington….very rude people. I am just over my 30 days, so can’t return my phone. I have asked them to replace it with the new 3G S, but there is just no way that Apple can do that….what a joke. I highly recommend that no one buy an iPhone they will not take care of you as a customer. They just take your money and run as fast as they can.

As a family, we own thousands of dollars worth of Apple products (including two imacs, 3 iphones, 1 powerbook, and countless ipods), so we’re what you should consider “heavy users” and mac devotees. Yesterday my daughter cracked the screen on her iPhone, so I immediately made a genius bar appointment because I know how great the service is. She went there and it was simply a 2 minute operation to replace the screen. For which we were charged $199! $199?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? The entire phone cost that when we bought it nearly 2 years ago. I know Apple doesn’t discount and they adamantly maintain higher price points, but this strikes me as highway robbery. It’s outrageous, actually. It’s a small sheet of glazed glass that takes 2 minutes to swap out. What’s the margin on that — 90%?. I can deal with paying a bit more for design and quality, but this is way over the top. I can even deal with a little penance for clumsiness and breakage — but $199 for this? HIGHWAY ROBBERY. Now that the Palm Pre is a worthy competitor, this kind of gouging is going to make me rethink my allegiance once our contract is up.

My oppinion: Selling subsidiced iPhones for 199 $ makes the people think the device is worth this price but the actual real price is much higher. This confuses customers and eventually makes them angry as this case proves.

This iPhone user reports dropped calls and decides to leave AT&T after 12 years:

Bought the 1st gen I phone and right away noticed dropped calls. So frequently that it is frankly a joke. This is hands down the worst phone I have ever owned. If good business is to overcharge initially, release a cheap operating phone in an otherwise good design(remember its first function is a phone), then ignore every attempt the customer makes to retify the problem. NOT ONE REPLY. Nonsense!!!! This will be the last Apple product I ever purchase. And we are leaving ATT after 12 years. This behavior will eventually catch up. No company last when problems are not resolved.