IPhone 4S issues with wi-fi and iMessage & Apple support

Question

Against my better judgement and experience I bought an Apple iPhone 4S when it was released.  I should have remembered the extensive pain I experienced with Apple's so-called "support" when I had iPod/iTunes issues but I bought into the promise and the hype by Apple's marketing.  I'm still wondering why this product includes only 90 days of support if Apple is so confident in it's reliability.  So I was having increasingly frequent problems with my iPhone connecting or remaining connected to known strong and good wi-fi connections.  It would arbitrarily disconnect from my wi-fi and go to a 3G connection which of course causes me to use data on my Verizon data plan.  Usually I didn't notice the change in connection until I was waiting far too long for the requested information to show up.  As you can imagine, that issue will push me towards exceeding my data plan quckly and thus cost me more money on my Verizon bill.  Not acceptable. 
Then in the last two weeks I started having an issue with iMessage/IM in being able to reply to messages.  I could read them, I could open and close the app, but once I tapped in the field to type my reply it froze.  I could not type anything.  I could close and reopen the app, same problem again.
So I set up a call with Apple's glorious support system for which I had only a few days left on my extensive 90 day support term.  The lady that called me was friendly and fun to talk to.  No issues there.  She had me initiate a backup after checking a few things.  Because the backup was going to take about 20 minutes, she asked if she could call me back.  I was fine with that, no need to make small talk for that amount of time.  I got a call back but it was from a guy at another location. This concerned me but he said he had all the notes so I was hopeful.  He advised me that if there was some corrupt SW on my iPhone, restoring would only put the problem back on my phone.  I'm a sales guy in the IT industry, so I bought that.  He said he was going to set my phone back to "new" as if I just bought it, then would restore all my apps, settings, contacts etc back to my phone.  It was a big leap of faith for me, but I went along because they are supposed to be the experts. After spending close to an hour on the phone with this guy, who was also polite and fun to talk to, he has me start the restore process and waited on the phone with me for a while.  The process was taking quite a while, I think around 30 in total so about 20 min into the process he has me stop the restoring session and tells me I can restart it later.  He wants to check that my wi-fi is working.  It was, so he asked if there was anything else I needed.  I said just to put my phone back to the way it was with my apps, contacts, music etc.  He told me that would complete when I finished the restore.  I had to go to my company's office for the afternoon and spent much of that time resetting everything that was on my phone to how it was before.  I noticed that the iPhone had pulled every single contact from my Outlook db on my personal computer (where iTunes resides) and all the contacts that I had set up on my iPhone were gone unless they were also in my Outlook.  The really aggravating part of this issue is that I have about 800 contacts in my Outlook, many of which are people I don't want or need to have on my phone.  The contacts I had entered on my iPhone over the past almost 3 months were the people I call or call me.  All that data appears to be gone.  I have since restored twice and the same thing occurs, everything is set back to "new" status and nothing is the way it was.  I am now so angry I could crush this phone with a hammer and switch to the competition.  Neither of the very nice people who "helped" me told me I would lose any information.  In fact, both assured me my phone would be back to the same setup I had previous to their help. 
I ask you folks at Apple, what is the use of backup if it doesn't back up AND restore all the information?  We have a saying in my business, "you can back up the entire world, but how well can you restore?".  I don't know if some step was missed along the way, or I initiated a restore from an incorrect target, but I am not a happy customer.  Add to that the fact that I'm locked into a 2 year contract on this thing, and have had issues with poor support before and I'm pretty angry.  I've gone into my local Apple store to ask a question about my iPhone's capability.  It was a simple question that required only a "yes" or "no" answer and I would have been fine either way.  What I got from the pasted on smile Apple associate was a sales pitch on the product I was showing her!  Continously smiling and telling me the world is beautiful does not answer questions or resolve issues.  I was eager to buy an iPad in the near future but with the pain I seem to get everytime I buy an Apple product, that purchase is never going to happen.  You can block me here, blacklist me or whatever you like to do to keep people from reading negative comments about Apple, but I will be posting this same story elsewhere as well.  For the amount of profit you make from these devices, I expect much better service and much less aggravation.
Sincerely,
Rick S.

Answer 1

The nice thing about owning this overpriced POS is that Apple not only doesn't support it, but also doesn't want to hear about anything negative regarding it.  So I spoke to the so-called "support" people at Apple who successfully screwed up my contacts beyond repair.  I got a nice email from Apple asking me to rate the support I got.  I was actually civil and described the issue tactfully.  What do I get in return?  Nothing.  Not a damned thing!!  You're luck you've got me by the short hairs on a 2 year contract but I'm still tempted to throw this POS through the front window of the nearest Apple store!!  Not only will I be replacing this phone with a competitive product but I won't be buying anymore Apple crap.  I guess when you con 27 million people into believing your rhetoric and sales lies, you don't have to care whether some customers get screwed or not.  I'll be going back to Verizon and threatening legal action if they don't take this electronic dung heap back but I'm sure the teams of lawyers Apple and Verizon have on staff have insured that I have no rights in this matter and you're free to screw me anytime you please.  Sad. I used to love Apple as a company and your products.  Now you're just another Microsoft with more trendy looking junk.  I've had it with you.  If any of your executives are brave enough to talk to me, please contact me at your convenience.