Within the first year, glitches and in Paris...help please

Question

Hi one and all, I really hope you can help us out. We're being given **** in Paris and these guys take lessons from no one in the nastiness department (sorry if I offend anyone).
We bought my sister in law a 17inch G4 Powerbook as a joint family birthday present about five months ago. She's French from Paris and we bought it in Brussels where we live, from an Apple retailer.
She's had a host of problems, it crashes, the back lit keyboard doesn't function, the power supply keeps cutting out when plugged in (the adaptor seems to be faulty), the DVD rewrite function doesn't work and other things too.
She took it into one Mac retailer and they told her it was her fault and problem because she didn't know about Mac products and how to make them work and anyway who needed a backlit keyboard. It was an irrelevant feature so they weren't going to do anything about it. So she left the shop with it still tucked under her arm.
Okay anyone who's wincing, I hear you, perhaps neither you nor I would have stood for that, but she is a gentle, timid soul and customer service is stone age over here.
Her problems were still dogging her and instead of coming over to visit us so we could take the darn thing back to where we'd bought it she took it to another Apple retail outlet in Paris because she didn't want to be without it for too long.
Mistake. They took it off her hands, telling her that it was probably her fault and that if they found nothing wrong with it they would charge her a minimum of 100 Euros (which is well over 100$) just for having looked at it. Oh and the 17 inch G4s don't have back lit keyboards (true anyone? i have a 12 inch so I dunno - but I know I read on the spex they did because I remember thinking that was cool.)
Oh yeah and they have kept the thing for a month, won't inform her as to the status of the 'repair' and can't tell her when it'll be ready.
Soooo.... other than ranting to you guys (thanks for listening/reading!!!) what I really need to know is.... what is the Apple deal on a guarnetee in this kind of situation? Does a retail outlet have to honour the product guarentee? Is it Apple policy to charge over a 100 $ if a machine is bought back for repair, in good faith, and there turns out to be nothing wrong with it? And would someone please, please tell me how to kick these guys a**es because they are turning a lovely present into a nightmare. My sis in law hasn't been able to work for a month, they are rude aggressive and are bringing the Apple brand into disrepute.
Is there a knight in shining armour at Apple I can contact and put this situation before them to get them to step in and sort this thing out?
Suggestions please. She's a professional photographer and this is really affecting her job. And we meant it to be a happy thing. I have the name and address of the shop concerned.
Any ideas (and sorry so long!).
Abi

Answer 1

Greg hi - thanks for your response. Yes I'm sure the run of problems she's going through are unusual but I'm far from sure that the way she's being treated is. I'm certain that in continental Europe there is a real difference in customer support in comparison to what is offered in the US. I've yet to try the UK. But I had a pretty clear brush off in Belgium over a minor glitch with my 12" (keys not well attached to the board out of the box).
Yup I'll try the link and thanks for posting it. But what I really need I think, is some way to contact someone responsible for monitoring of retail stores - if such a person/department exists - in the States. Someone who'll take this seriously.I've no hope that the French Support will help us. Though I'll try of course.
Could someone chip in with an explanation of apple policy. ° Are the guarentees exactly the same for a product whereever you are?
° Is it policy to charge over 100 bucks for investigating if nothing's wrong?
° Are the key boards back lit in the 17" models? that at least would be something concrete to level against them.
The whole family was PC until I persuaded them over after buying the 12"PB and having a blast with it. Now I feel responsible.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for taking the time to read this far.
A