Pros: Gorgeous, elegant minimalist machine. Average reliability.
Cons: Unresponsive and unintelligent customer service and tech support, problems with warranty and rebates
The bottom line: I would avoid their products. My mac does offer some advantages but they have been heavily outweighed by the headaches caused by their staff and policies
I was searching for a new laptop. somebody I knew suggested a mac powerbook. I researched some, found a few reviews and was really undecided. My last few PC's havent lasted all that long. Had 3 in about 9 years and I was liking what I was hearing about the mac's operating system. I couldn't make up my mind without seeing them so I went to the closest mac store. As soon as I saw the imac G5, I knew I had to have it. If you've never seen one, go walk in to an apple store. It is an impressive sight. I think they know that. Needless to say I purchased a G5 17 1.6ghz combo drive version with the apple care extended warranty, The OS is....how say i say it.....fun or refreshing at least.

It worked fine for about a week then one day I went to update my ipod and it wouldn't recognize it. I called tech support, they diagnosed as a faulty ipod...WRONG! They told me to send it off to them for repair. Shortly after, the combo drive stopped working. They diagnosed that as a faulty drive, time would tell their tech support people would be wrong again. I had to load up the machine and haul it about an hour away to the repair shop. Turns out both problems were caused by a piece of software that didn't load correctly. So since the warranty does not cover such things, the repair man is wanting to be paid and apple is saying they can do nothing for me. He grumbles a little and i take my machine and go home.

Upon calling back, I found there are multiple layers of tech support. The first layer of people are as dumb as a bag of hammers, hard to understand and caused me much more pain than good. But I finally got hold of an imac specialist at apple. He fixed me up in 10 minutes. Now my ipod was working, my combo drive was working and I was happy again but still in disbelief how much trouble the first layer of tech support caused and how apple can feel they help anyone. Worst and least knowledgable tech support I've ever had on anything!

Bout a week later I got a letter from apple saying my rebate I applied for when buying the printer with the computer had been denied. Of course there were a bunch of subjective reasons. I did everything they asked and confirmed with the salesman. There are holes in my box where i cut out UPCs, invoices were sent and everything was sent in the specified period but they still denied me the rebate they promised. I called the number. Nothing but rudeness and apathy. I've had this problem on a few rebates before but seldom. Now mac has entered my personal list of bad guys when it comes to not making good on promises.

Now I cant get the computer to recognize my digital camera. I called tech support. Again as big of a joke as before. the person helps me for about 20 minutes, can't figure it out and then has to resort to finally telling me it is a software problem and I would have to contact HP for help. Well why didn't he tell me that to begin with?? I explain that the software loads fine but I just dont know how to add the camera to the list of devices on the computer. But he just tells me in his foriegn accent to contact HP. No luck getting through to the imac specialist yet.

So I tried using their online chat help. Well they now tell me my warranty has passed and they refuse to talk. Remember I bought the 3 yr apple care warranty and am about 4 months into ownership and they are telling me my warranty is up. Nobody will help me on the phone or computer. I keep sending emails and they keep sending me apology emails back but 3 weeks now and they havent fixed it. I paid extra for this service and they deny me the service.

In short, if you own a mac and are efficient with it, by all means go for it. If not, don't be enticed by the pretty looks and friendly demeanor of the company. From a customer service standpoint, in my opinion they are the worst I have ever encountered, have denied me services that I paid for and did not honor the rebate I sent in.