Any recourse for poor "genius bar" service?

Question

We recently took my MacBook Air to a Genius Bar in NYC after the keyboard inexplicably stopped working. Were given a work order repair estimate of $280.
We were then told that they found liquid damage that would cost in the vicinity of $400 to fix. This was a suspicious conclusion as I've been fanatical about keeping it safe, but I figured it must've been my mistake.
We could ill-afford the $400 at the time, so decided to use it with an auxilliary keyboard instead. Then we discovered that we couldn't even turn it on as they had apparently switched it off at the shop; previously we'd been keeping it charged and using the sleep function, so that it would come back to life just by opening it or using the touchpad.
So we hauled it back, expecting that we would have to swallow the fee and get it repaired to even turn the thing back on again. Only this time we were told that the repair would cost $700+, and what's more that this was the original price quoted. It most certainly was not, and now I'm wondering what else they lied about.
Between this, the waste of money and effort that was MobileMe, and other growing problems with both iPhone and our laptops, I'm about to call time on my long relationship with Apple. But I'm not well pleased at being bamboozled by a spotty midtown jobsworth, to say nothing of the total loss of my expensive machine. But what to do when Apple turn a notoriously deaf ear to complaints?

Answer 1

Did you ask to speak to a manager at the store? Try another store (just asking)? You can also call Apple Customer Support and discuss the issue with them. Their phone is 800-676-2775.