I recently visited both a Microsoft store and Apple store for device repairs and my experience was wildly different

Short Backstory:I am the IT Manager at my company, so I deal with a lot of repairs on all kinds of devices... I normally get pretty good service from most of the manufacturers that I deal with but every now and then I get really good service or really bad service, and I try to put my money where my mouth is and spread the good or bad experiences I have.​Microsoft:At my job, I use a Microsoft Surface Book 1 as my daily driver machine. It gets a lot of use, and when I purchased it, I decided to go the extra step and get an extended warranty just in case. About 6-9 months ago, my Surface started acting wonky as a result of the battery in the screen no longer functioning. A few months ago, I noticed the bottom of my Surface was becoming detached from the chassis... It looked like the adhesive that was holding it together was wearing out. Not thinking too much of it, I checked my warranty status and I was literally 6 days beyond my warranty date... FML... so I figured I would just use the laptop until it died and replace it.​Apple:We have a "heavy user" that goes through phones pretty fast... most of the time they get lost, but usually if there is an actual problem with the phone, it's pretty obvious what caused it (broken screen, etc.). So I purchased this person an iPhone X in June of 2018... In maybe the end of July, early August I get the phone back from him saying that it no longer turns on. I try a couple different recovery methods and get nowhere so I ask what caused it, and he says he thinks it may have got wet, but he says it was like splashed or dropped in a puddle or something to that effect... (He has no reason to lie, it's an owner of the company, it's his money, and he has confessed to WAY worse damage to phones and laptops)​​Trying to get help and Visiting the store(s):Microsoft:The mall near me has both a Microsoft and an Apple store, so I made my appt at the genius bar for the phone and figured I may as well bring my laptop to the MS store and see if they can give me an estimate for repair, since if it's only a couple hundred to repair, it will save me the trouble of buying a new one and setting everything back up. I go to the store, tell the dude I am here to look at new laptops since mine is pretty much toast unless they can fix it cheap, and he asks to see it. We go back to the workbench, and a lady comes out and tells me that I have a bulging battery in the lower part of my Surface (they have 2 since there is a detachable screen) and that they will need to replace it.I ask how much that would be, and she told me it's a safety issue and it would be free of charge. I explain to her that I am out of warranty, and she tells me that is ok since it's a safety concern. I also ask her about the other battery in the screen, and what that would cost... She tells me that there will not be a cost... I repeat that I am not under my warranty, and she tells me that she is going to simply replace the entire laptop, free of charge.... I was literally speechless, and after a moment, she asked if that was ok, and I jokingly told her I was prepared for a fight... Not only did they replace it, but she did not have my exact model in stock, so they gave me one with a better GPU in it. Filled out a single form, signed a piece of paper, and went on my merry way with a new (refurbished) Surface Book... I was dumbfounded...​Apple:I brought 2 iPhone X with me. One was clearly damaged.... the other simply would not boot. He told me it's a flat fee of ~$600 to replace the one with the broken screen which I had no argument against.... No problem. I then showed him the ~4 month old phone that no longer powered up. He hooked it up to his diagnostic tool and got nothing from it... No surprise. He then took it in the back and came back out with a bunch of pictures showing me water damage.... I then asked how that could be, since the iPhone X is IP67 rated... which is not waterproof, but it clearly states that it can be splashed and submerged up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes ... He then gives a blanket statement of water resistance is not waterproof, which I argued again that it can get wet... He then tells me that Apple will not cover water damage, and it will be a $600 fee to replace it. He then tells me that the user is too hard on their phones, and it's their fault. After trying to talk to him more, he basically just stood up and walked away, not wanting to talk any further... I left without repairing either phone.​This phone had NO damage to it, no cosmetic wear, no broken screens, broken charger ports, broken speaker/mic ports, etc... It was less than 90 days old when it got wet. I am FULLY AWARE of Apple's policy of water damage not being covered under their warranty, but manufacturing defects are... If a phone has a rating that states that is protected against X, and then X happens and the phone breaks.. It should not matter what the warranty states... The certification states that it will be protected, and anything short of that should be considered a manufacturing defect/failure. The only thing that would have saved me was Apple care.. Another ~$200 for that, plus the ~$150 or so deductible... so half the cost of what they told me would be to replace it. It was truly despicable.​​I am no big fan of either company to be quite honest. I will say that I strongly prefer most products over anything Apple does, but I do see their value and understand why many people enjoy their products. However good or bad a product is, where companies really earn my business is support and customer service. I was actually ready to completely write off Microsoft as a hardware provider entirely due to saltiness from my expired warranty, but they completely turned me around with a simple act of good customer service.... They earned at least one return customer for sure... And, they didn't even pretend to try and sell me extra stuff, and I probably would have been convinced to buy something simply to thank them for not trying to fleece me.​Apple is no stranger to bad customer service. Their genius bar that day was full of salespeople pretending to be service techs.. Basically every other person with a problem at that store was being told they needed to purchase new things instead of trying to fix anything... Apple care was pushed hard on everyone, and I just felt my skin crawling the entire time I was there. We are a company with a large iPhone user-base. We provide every employee with a phone, and I have been pushing people away from iPhones and iDevices as much as I can... I used to try and provide an unbiased opinion of what device they use, since supporting one device over another is not that much different.. We have a few Apple Zealots in our company, so we get a good amount of their products... With the money we shell out monthly/yearly for Apple products, though, I would expect a bit more confidence in the products I support, and I have little to no confidence left in them, especially after reading so many other "right to repair" and other scammy stories about Apple service all over Reddit lately.​​Call me a hater, a shill, a whatever-the-opposite-of-an-Apple-fanboy-is, etc... But I have a responsibility to the people I work for to make sure they get the best bang for their buck, and Apple is not on that list in any capacity for me, especially not after this.​I really just wanted to share that not all companies are like this. Microsoft could have very easily just said "sorry, your battery is not covered, and also you are past your warranty date... the new laptops are over here, let's go pick one out".... The same is true for Apple... they could have said "hmm, well these are not waterproof, but since it's only 3-4 months old, it should not have had water damage from a simple spill/splash/whatever... let's get you a replacement."​Thanks for reading (if you made it this far).I would be interested in your good/bad stories from these or other similar companies! via /r/technology https://ift.tt/2yL2lWO