Oh, Apple…

I really love Apple products – I’ve owned loads over the years – but their service hasn’t got a great reputation and now I’m beginning to find this out first hand.
Recent events got slightly out of hand and, to cut a long story short, I had to jump into a swimming pool with my iPhone 3G in the pocket of my shorts. It hasn’t survived the experience well and now won’t charge up.
So, I called Apple who told me to take it to one of their retail stores.
I don’t live particularly close to any of them (the nearest is about 40 minutes away), so I waited until I was going to be nearby and tried to book an appointment at the Genius Bar.
No appointments were available, but I went to the store anyway, only to be turned away by the Concierge.
I have now tried twice more, but there are (I kid you not) no appointments available in the entire week at the store I’ll be near.
So this evening I called Apple and spoke to a helpful guy called Michael. He was extremely informative, explaining how I could mail the phone in to them and they would repair or replace it for the princely sum of £146.13.
Having no other option, I agreed to this, and everything was going swimmingly until the question of payment came up.
Incredibly, Apple will only accept payment by a major credit card for this service. I don’t have a credit card, will not take one out (I don’t need an easy way to fall into debt) and I’m not about to use someone else’s card as I was warned that in the event the phone was ‘irrepairable’ the card would be charged the full cost of a replacement handset. That’s about £440…
So I’m left in the position of having an unusable handset, no realistic way of getting an appointment at an Apple Store and can’t pay for a by-mail repair.
What kind of customer service is that? I was able to sign up for the contract and purchase the handset using a debit card (in an Apple Store!), but I can’t get it fixed using the exact same card.
The same issue has ensured that I can’t use Apple’s MobileMe service.
What other company actively stops their customers from expanding their revenue spend?
I’m disgusted.