I bought a MacBook on May 26, 2006. I bought the black one, with standard specs, at the Apple Store in the Mall of America, in Minnesota. About a month later, I had superdrive problems, the superdrive wasn't reading DVDs, so I brought it to the Genius Bar and they repaired it in-store and it took about 4 days. When I got it back, the thing was scratched up, and had various scars and bumps, and I was upset. I decided not to do anything about it, because I am not anal about the looks, I mean, after all, what is a laptop for? Around November, I lent my computer to my mom because her Powerbook G4's screen had the white spots, and was getting repaired. She borrowed it for about a month. When I got it back, all was working, until about a week before Christmas. The superdrive wasn't reading CDs. So I sent it back to the Apple Store, and also noted that I received case problems from my last repair. They replaced the whole case and superdrive for me. Everything worked out great until July 2007 when I was having the hair-thin crack case issue on the palmrests. I got that repaired from the phone support, where I send it in, and as soon as I got it back, the superdrive was scratching disks, so I sent an email to
sjobs@apple.com to get a replacement, and they called me basically saying bring it to the Apple Store and see what they think. I didn't have time for this, so I decided to just live with it.
Sjobs@apple.com wasn't helpful at all. In october 28th, 2007, I called Apple Support to try and fix the scratching disks problem because it was getting worse, I sent it in and when I got it back, the Superdrive wasn't working at all, so I called and they said they would replace my MacBook, Core Duo, with a brand new BlackBook, Core 2 Duo (not santa rosa, didn't come out yet). I was happy, so we set it up. On the way to my house, the new MacBook order was cancelled, and I received a call from Apple Support saying that the new Santa Rosa ones just came out, so they are sending the new ones to my house with no extra charge. So, 2 days later I get a new BlackBook, Santa Rosa, and all works out great. I got iLife 08, Leopard, both for free with my replacement.
Morale of the Story: Be persistent. Be polite. Be patient. Be satisfied.