I'm no fanboy, but I've had excellent service at my local Apple store. Earlier this year, my son's 4 year old Macbook Pro started flaking out (screen glitches, random hanging, etc). Did not have Applecare. Took it to the Apple store, was told it was a known problem with the video card. They said they would repair it for free (!) but needed to ship it to the central repair center in Texas. We dropped it off on a Saturday, and had it back in our hands on Tuesday, all at no cost to us.

Then, just this month, the same laptop's power supply cord started fraying and even sparked a little. Took it in to the Apple store; gave them the serial number, and in 5 minutes, I walked out with a new power supply. Again, no cost to me.

I couldn't have asked for better service.