I just found out a Taiwan website, "AppleNeverCares".

It seems like many people hate the Apple customer service in Taiwan. Long waiting for repairing a Mac, sales men don't have enough knowledge about Macs, service people unfriendly, nobody replies customers' calls and so on...

There are many articles about what Apple Taiwan has done to them. One example is written in English. I quote a part of it as the following
...
And I had purchased 3 years of Apple Care! No luck. Even though I had asked the head of Apple Care to contact me, I got NO call from him, no customer service, no satisfaction. I wish I had purchased my machine in the U.S. I think the Apple Care service would be better there. They should call it Apple-Taiwan-Doesn't-Care! That would be more accurate than Apple Care.
...

The website is at http://help.mac.to/blog/
Maybe we should let Apple US knows the issue, otherwise, it may keep hurting Apple market in TW.

[Ichiban_jay]

Just bring it to the factory there, don't they make them?

But seriously, since my family all came from taiwan and I have gone there before, it's not a new thing for bad customer service... Major department stores don't even offer 30 day return guarantees, it's you buy it, that's that..

meanwhile, here in the US, I have a Fujifilm camera that needs its USB port on the camera repaired, I called and apparently they have had supply issues this year, there is a 9 month waiting period for the part... NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL INSANE!

Also, I have a Casio Exilim camera that my bro cracked the screen... Stupid 2.5" screens, the screens are so large and the camera's so thin that the screen cracked easily like a wafer. Contacted Casio and it costs more to repair the screen than it does to buy a new one.... Companies never make sense... I'm dropping the camera off a 7 story building. Was good for, eh 2 months and 400 dollars down the drain?

but I thought Applecare is #1 customer service. Maybe it's #1 rating in the US, not in other countries...

[*Joe*]

Originally Posted by msazone but I thought Applecare is #1 customer service. Maybe it's #1 rating in the US, not in other countries...

that would reflect my experience, I have tried calling up AppleCare here in the UK and they are totally useless. Also they are very fussy about what is and is not covered etc...

When I got my new PB I didn't bother with extended applecare, the retailer I used offered their own 3yr plan for much less, and it was a direct replacement policy in the first year, with collect and repair for the next 2 years.