At what point do I curse out Apple over the phone?

It has been my observation that cursing only tends to inflame the other party and is detrimental in achieving a desired result. Your best option in resolving the matter is to contact the store manager and discuss your problem with him/her. A firm but polite conversation based on the facts is your best opportunity to get your problem resolved.

If you know you have a 'short fuse', learn to control it. It does not help when dealing with other people who are in a position to assist you nor yourself.

Ciao.

You could try an independent authorized Apple service provider, even at a distance,

and perhaps get fairly good to great results even by postal mail service USPS in a

padded box. A company such as wegenermedia.com in the eastern US has been in

business of repairing portable Apple computers for decades. They use new parts and

also check the unit over completely. If you don't like the estimate including parts/labor,

you can tell them to go no further. Usually they are much less than other shops and

have done quality repairs of most kinds. Enough less, that there probably would be a

margin of profit for another less qualified shop to send their jobs to wegener for repair.

So there are independents across the country or across the world who could fix almost

any issue. You could check with powerbookmedic.com to see what they have for parts

as some of these offer new, or OK used parts for much less, & offer repair services.

Some companies who do their own in-house repairs also offer inventory of models they

already have repaired; an extended guarantee may be offered at more cost. These are

not affiliated with Apple, but usually are Apple trained and use Apple replacement parts.

Because older computers usually are not repaired at an Apple Store, they'd send those

out to an authorized facility who'd restore the functions. They may still offer a flat-rate

to fix almost anything wrong with a computer that needs to be sent out that way; just be

sure to make a list of everything wrong with it, so to add value to the rate Apple quotes

for a flat-rate restorative repair (there's an official name for that service, I don't recall.)

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂