Tech Support Hell

I've learned to dread calling for tech-support.  It's hard to get through and, in the Windows world where no one manufacturer is responsible for my entire computing environment, I usually wind up getting the old 'it must be the other guy's fault.'  A lot of my experiences are made more frustrating by the fact that, even when I don't face the it's-the-other-guy's-fault shell game, I have to deal with some guy who is just reading off of a punch list of obvious problems, often a guy located in a distant country.  Sort of like this.

That's another reason to buy an Apple computer.  I've called their tech support a number of times (never with major problems, but just to help answer configuration questions) and I've always gotten a helpful and intelligent person to deal with.