One bad experience does not shape an entire companies customer service experience. That genius or tech that told them that was probably coached and/or fired, perhaps he didn’t know or is just a general dumb *edited*. I don’t know and I don’t care, but just because this one person had a bad experience doesn’t mean all experiences with Apple Support are bad.
I had a bad experience with Microsoft Tech a couple years ago, does that shape my opinion on Microsoft and Windows…. no it does not, it just means that I had a bad experience with that particular support person.
Also again though with the message boards, I agree with you that they are great and I have used them myself, but response time is very slow and most Apple Customers are pretty narcissistic sons a *edited*es… Maybe this is where your “elitism” comes from, not from Apple the company but from Apple fan boys? So that just “WILL NOT WORK” for an Apple customer, if they have a problem they expect to chat/call/drive in to a store a receive immediate help and resolution to their problem. This is what people have come to expect from Apple, why do you think that is?