Had similar experience with Apple in 2011. My one of my twin's iMac had an issue that the Apple Singapore service center could not fix and I had the run around from them, including a vertical line on both their iMac screen (assuming both were from the same bad batch).

Frustrated, I wrote the below email to Steve Jobs on a lark. Was not expecting a reply. Surprisingly got a call next day, and Apple arranged for both the iMacs to be replaced with new one.

Not sure if Steve actually read my email, or his EA. But the fact that their APAC regional service head was dealing with me personally to resolve this and replace the units, was quite surprising.

From: xxx <xxx@me.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Smtp-Server: smtp.me.com:xxx
Subject: Your after-sales support sucks in Singapore
X-Universally-Unique-Identifier: 8f59f421-365f-4434-81dc-dd73a17d13e3
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:53:49 +0800
Message-Id: <57BEE16B-94E5-4240-8D2A-568E860439CC@me.com>
To: sjobs@apple.com
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1082)

Steve.

I'm a big fan of Apple products. Have always been one. I have constantly =
bought Apple products since the early days, from the Apple IIe to all =
manners of Apple products since. Heck, I even have a Lisa and a Next =
Cube.

But lately, I have been noticing that while your after-sales support in =
the US is great (what with your Apple stores and the Genius programs), =
but your after-sales support program outside the US sucks big time.

I reside in Singapore and I bought for my 3 kids, an iMac each. One of =
the kids iMac have been having intermittent problems since day one. For =
some reason the iMac shutdowns down itself spontaneously. Originally =
(being a propeller head myself), I thought there was an OS X system =
corruption. So I re-installed the system. But alas, no dice.

I then send it to one of the Apple authorized service centers here. They =
claimed that they fixed it and they send it back. Within 2 weeks, the =
iMac started having the same issues, repeated shutdowns spontaneously. I =
then send it to another Apple authorized service center (there are 2 =
independent apple authorized service centers in Singapore). This time, =
the service personnel claimed that it was a faulty drive and they =
installed a new drive. Again, after receiving it back, the problem =
persists.=20

A few things that I note:

- The Apple 3rd authorized service centers seem to be paid to fix the =
symptoms, but not the root cause
- These service centers don't seem to have any quality control in their =
repair process. They don't seem to be testing the iMacs overnight for =
extended periods to check is if the system fails. They only want to get =
the Macs out the door and charge Apple for the service (i have an =
extended warranty).
- The service personnel seem not to understand simple diagnostic steps. =
If an iMac fails repeatedly, surely you would want to check the power =
supply or the main board as the usual culprit. Instead they focus on the =
drive. Flabbergasting.

I have wasted almost 1 one year trying to get this fixed, while my son =
has been deprived of his precious iMac. I have even bought an extended =
warranty, but to no avail.

I'm writing to you as a last resort to find resolution to get this =
fixed. If I don't hear from you, I will just have to throw the damned =
iMac away and get a new one for my son.

Just to show you how rabid an Apple fan boy that I am, here's a list of =
the Mac products that I own:

3 iMacs (2009 version)
1 PowerMac
2 Mac Mini (one Intel and one PPC version)
1 AppleTV
1 2010 MacBook Pro
1 2009 MacBook Pro
1 1st Gen Macbook Air
1 Cinema display
1 original 1st Gen iPhone
1 iPhone 3G
2 iPhone 3GS
3 iPhone 4
3 iPods (various)
2 iPads

regards,

xxx