Thats crazy about the long waiting times for support. A good friend of mine got the “beast” 24″ Mac and hers had some problems too. She called support but got the run around and being that she paid 3Gs for it I was surprised they didn’t try harder. What she did was she went online and searched for Steve Jobs email (I know what a long shot) she got like 6 different addresses but emailed them all. A week later she got a response from Mr. Jobs assistant and he wanted to fix her problem personally. Because it was exams she couldn’t have no computer so they sent her a new one without her sending the busted 1 first. Once she switched all her files at her pace, she mailed the original back and all was well.
I was just impressed about the level of commitment to make sure she had what she paid for.
However that was after she got the run around from regular support.
I do agree about some people pushing apple like a cult. But then again all giant retailers do the same with PC. They just promote apples ipods cause they have a larger profit margin than the laptops. @ Best Buy for example their profit margin on apple laptops is around 1%.