logic board failure after 3 years - the experience

My MacBook Pro was bought in September 2010. It has been running smoothly until January 2014. Then from 1 day to the next, the MacBook restarted itself randomly 1-2 times / day. Bringing it to the Apple store in Frankfurt, Germany revealed that the Logic Board was broken and needed to be exchanged.

The person at the Genius bar was very friendly and sympathetic. He told me that this should not happen to an Apple product, ie it should have a much longer life time. He mentioned that the logic board problem is very well known to Apple, but usually manifests within the first 2 years, which is why Apple extended its guarantee to 2 years. In my case however, the failure happened later and he would therefore need to consult with the store manager Roland.

To my surprise, I learnt that Roland was neither willing to extend the guarantee period, nor was he even willing to speak with me in person. The genius bar person was quite ashamed about this and excused his boss. He advised that I could either exchange the logic board for ~470 Euro or , recommended, buy an entirely new MacBook Pro for which he'd give me a 10% discount.

Because I needed the laptop urgently for travels to the US with several talks at academic institutions, I reacted quickly and initiated the logic board exchange.

The repair time took twice as long as originally indicated and it is my impression that the repaired laptop is somewhat slower than the original one.

I left a message at Apple feedback, so far without a reaction.