Although I've primarily used Macs for the past couple years, today was my first time to use Apple Care. I guess that's a good thing.

Having been the I.T. guy for a company while in seminary, I know what it's like to have to call Microsoft for support, too. My experiences with each are pretty glaringly different.

Microsoft: Hold time is typically 10 minutes to an hour.
Apple: No wait time at all.

Microsoft: The support agent sounds like he or she is in India and barely speaks English.
Apple: Sounded like I was talking to a 20-something year old guy in my hometown.

Microsoft: Resolving the issue usually takes a while.
Apple: Issue fixed in 17 minutes (length of time from dialing to hang-up)

Microsoft: Hold music is classical and soft jazz.
Apple: I was briefly on hold while my support agent got the case ID for me. The music was punk rock, like Sum 41 and Green Day.

Granted, I've called Microsoft many times and Apple only once, so the evaluation sample size may be a little imbalanced, but at least Apple is off to a good start.