I don't mean to be rude, but every day thousands of people around the world visit their local Genius bar. And as much as you want to think that your Genius was just awfully nice, they ARE following strict guidelines about what they can and can't do. Not exactly news.
I think the point here is how they stack up with the competition. I had a unique experience a while back as my roommate had to fix his Dell at the same time I had to fix my Apple.
He spent... well, almost a full work day (!) on the phone, arguing with one rep or another, convincing them that something had broken, before they sent a tech out (to their credit, it was fixed then).
I spent... 10 minutes. I called, told them about the problems I was having, asked for a repair-via-mail, was promptly granted it, gave them my address, and was on my way. Yeah, it took 4 days longer than his method, but I saved myself some pretty major aggravation.
