I bought a G5 at the SouthPark (really) Apple store a couple of days before the Intel version came on the market. I'd driven there (some 85 miles) because my laptop had gracelessly expired in the middle of a project. When the guy at the Genius Bar (sneer not) who worked on it for nearly two hours (no charge) couldn't fix it (but he did get the data off, bless him), a new Mac was in order (which explains the idiocy of buying a new system with Macworld about to start). Needless to say, I quickly found myself with what felt like a brand-new dinosaur. It took me three weeks to call the Apple Store, and about one minute of conversation with the fellow who answered to realize I was out of the return period and out of luck. Except I wasn't. Without my even asking, he graciously offered two more days to repack the system and bring it on up. Which I did.

Then I lost the rebate receipts. Called the store and a new set arrived two days later.

This has long been my experience in dealing with Apple (20 years' or so worth) - and one of the chief reasons I never buy anything but.

In contrast are my conversations today with the folks at Sprint. Having a few weeks ago called customer service to be sure that my contract had expired (the customer service rep assured me it had), I switched to another cell carrier. Imagine the surprise when a bill arrives this morning with cancellation charges. The customer-service rep I spoke with this morning - and her manager - said the first customer-service rep was mistaken, there is a contract, and about those cancellation charges? Too bad.

I may sound cranky but I'm not alone here, as reviews on my3cents.com (here's another) and an article in The Detroit News show.

What's the moral? That technology is only part of what you're buying. The ongoing element is apt to be the vendor's customer-service policies. If the customer is an afterthought, even the best technology (which in my experience Sprint's is not) is apt to prove inadequate. No mass-market company can afford to be high-handed with customers - especially if it wants to keep them or maybe get them back in the future. Those unhappy customers are apt to talk - or blog.

Those people at Apple's SouthPark store could give lessons. - zander