What you MISheard you mean....

Don't tar everyone with the same brush. There are Mac resellers who employ salespeople who can barely spell their own name and there are Mac resellers who are extremely professional about the service they provide. As with every profession, you can hardly expect to find the same level of ability with everyone. Your job (should you choose to accept it) is to entrust your machine (and hard earned cash) to someone that engenders your trust.

To illustrate this point with an example: When my Aluminum PowerBook (bought in the US at launch) developed white spots on its display; VR Tech replaced the screen within a week (the replacement part had to ordered from SG - They swapped the screen while I waited). And when the problem recurred, the lead technician HAND-CARRIED my powerbook down to Singapore for Apple Techs there to examine. Turned out the initial batch had a faulty circuit in the screen.

So I've got no problems with the level of Apple support in Malaysia. Just don't bring your mac over to a shop that does not know the product they sell. Would you trust any old bengkel with your Porsche?

You can't be serious... Sorry, but I'd expected a better reply from you.

Of course AppleCare will not cover the RAM upgrade: meaning if something was to go wrong with the RAM chip that the user added: then you won't expect Apple to cover that under warranty. You'd naturally expect the RAM vendor to honor the warranty (in many cases this is a "lifetime" warranty btw) for ONLY the RAM chip.

That much said; Adding RAM would NOT void your AppleCare warranty for the rest of your machine. RAM after all is defined by Apple as a "user installable" part.

Actually, other than having too much money; and too little sense; I can't think of another reason for getting a customized Mac.