Yeah, customer service of the excellent kind is becoming more of a rarity these days.
In MS' case, they are selling an excellent product at a premium price but not offering premium customer service to go with it. That is a huge disparity between what MS thinks is great service and what Apple provides every day. I think it will bite the Surface line in the ass over time.
To be honest. I didn't get a great service with Apple. In fact, the service is horrible over the phone, and nothing is "in warranty" based on what is broke on the Apple device that you have.
You HAVE to go to an official Apple store to get good service. In my case, where I lived, there was no official Apple store where I loved when my iPod broke (famous white screen issue), under thw warranty period. Ended up buying a Zune 120. Still works today.
Anyway, now there is an Apple store, so now they just replace your device, and everything is great and smooth. A friend had his iPhone broke, called, got horrible service, and refused to fix it or replace it. He went to the Apple Store, instant replacement.