It’s not just software. It’s hardware and service. Here’s my anecdote. I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro with AppleCare second hand. The AppleCare doesn’t expire until September 2018. So, I brought my laptop in because my webcam wasn’t working all of a sudden. This is where the proverbial shit hit the fan:
1. Required a full display replacement, and the Apple technician dropped my laptop and left scuffs on the bottom. This was noted, and they replaced the bottom without even bringing it up to me (but it took an extra day to wait for the part to arrive). Upon picking it up, I noticed there was a dent, an obvious dent, on the corner panel that they didn’t fix. The apple store was so crowded, and the tech was unwilling to reason with me (cosmetic damage isn’t covered, this is the way it was brought in... ya da ya da)so I left.
2. Emailed Tim Cook. No response (obviously). Escalated (maybe Cook deferred my case to them and they left a note on my account?) to customer relations and they said to bring it in for repair.
3. Brought it in for repair, and when I got it back, the headphone jack and thunderbolt ports weren’t working because the side panel was shifted to the point where the peripherals couldn’t be plugged in properly, unless I really jammed it in there (and even then it didn’t work).
4. Emailed Tim Cook again, bringing this to their attention that their 5th Ave. flagship store is really cutting corners on repairs. At this point, I just wanted a full blown replacement... call me entitled, but I wanted to exercise my insurance, which was purchased just in case shit broke. Well, shit broke and they mess up every repair. So, am I wrong to want a replacement? No response again, but customer relations said “we spoke to the manager of the store, they said to come back in.” Went back in, and the manager says “sorry, we can’t replace it. But we can fix it again.” I was like, ok... you couldn’t tell me that over the phone? I had to subject myself to the madness of the 5th Ave location for no reason?
5. The deemed the issue as a logic board issue. Replaced the logic board. When I came to pick it up, the Genius says “... idk why they replaced the logic board... your left ports are misaligned and damaged- it has nothing to do with the logic board.”
My left ports still don’t work, but I don’t want to deal with Apple anymore.
Granted, they shipped me a pair of AirPods as a compromise since my headphone jacks don’t work... but this was the worst experience I’ve had with any warranty/insurance process. Including car accident, and home insurance. Health insurance is still the absolute worst, but that’s a tough bar to pass- point is, Apples quality everywhere has deteriorated to the point where they’re almost trying to cut corners on purpose, rather than excelling at hardware + service, like they used to.