I woke this morning after sleeping through Melbournes hottest November night ever to find a "Restore From iTunes" notification on my iPhone 3GS.

I go do what I'm told and attempt a restore in iTunes. "iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occured (23)." error. Drats.

After spending 30 or so minutes checking out various forums, I tried a few so called "recovery" techniques though no cigar. I decided to give an Apple store a call to see what they could do and got slotted into an afternoon "appointment".

Sitting at the store in the Apple Genius Bar, amongst fanbois and shiny expensive things, the "genius" who I had an "appointment" with looked at the phone for 30 seconds, commented on the Android phone I had in my hand and then said "One minute mate, just going up stairs".

90 seconds later, I'm given a new replacement iPhone 16GB 3GS. No questions asked. No original receipt requested. No money required. 60 seconds after that I walk out the store as another happy customer.

Compare this to a previous experience I had with a large Australian Telco. The phone I had purchased was dropping calls so I went to one of their stores to see if they could help. 15 minutes of interrogation, proof of purchase required and 14 days later I received not a new replacement but the same phone with new "insides" without been given a phone I could use whilst my original phone was out being repaired.

Love them or hate them, Apple do things right by their customers. The simplicity they produce within the products has extended through to the way they treat and support their customers. Im more than a satisfied customer and will continue to purchase and use their products for a while yet.