I finally made the permanent switch from a PC to a Mac — specifically, a sleek and juiced up MacBook Pro — after years of waffling over the convenience of compatibility (my previous 9-to-5 didn’t supply a laptop and required usage of Windows-only software) and the coolness of Apple’s experience.

Having drinks with a Mac-compatible friend one evening, I informed him of my imminent switch, and he warned me that Apple’s user experience doesn’t carry over to customer support. Perhaps suffering from the “That can’t happen to me!” syndrome, I wasn’t deterred and ordered up a shiny new laptop. What followed was a series of communication breakdowns, buck-passing, and ineptitude of a magnitude far greater than any I’ve ever witnessed with any product company.

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