What's wrong with the iMac? and what about Apple Care?

["Monica V." <moniva@libero.it>]

Hi,

I have serious problems with the iMac, I have the first version, and I mean
to get the new one but first I need to fix this and be sure teh same
problems won't happen with the new one too.

Now, when I bought it last year it was fantastic, the speed was amazing, the
memory was huge, internet quick as lightning, you could open hundreds of
applications at teh same time etC.

Months later I started adding a printer, a scanner and Superdisk, all bought
at teh Apple vendor I trusted. Since then strange things started to occur:
freezes, crashes, the keyoboard went mad (it typed strange characters or
didn't type at all while all esle was ok - I had to replace the keyboard),
internet connection is slow and the modem often fails and disconnects (i
have an ISDN line and at first it was amazingly quick) and the memory is
always too poor.

Now, does my iMac have a poltergeist or what?

The vendor-assistance center told me basically that I can't really install
anything htat doesn't cost a thousand dollars and is sold by them, that they
can't do anythign but keep my iMac for a week at least under testing and
then i'd have to pay and i can't afford to be for a week without internet
connection since i work with it, and they can't assure anything, and
basically teh iMac is just a nice thing to look at and put on your desktop
but the less you use it the better, better keep it for the design and use a
PC.

Of course i told them to piss off, i'll never ever buy not even a diskette
from them, they suck! They charge $80just to keep teh Mac a week only to
remove a couple of extensions, something which they could have told me on
the phone, and when i get the mac back after two days and after i use teh
printer etc. again it's the same shit.

I like the mac, I think overall they're good machines. I have a Powerbook
190cs and a Performa and they're still good and more stable than the iMac.
But i'd like serious assistance. There's not a lot of into on AppleCare here
in italy - how does it work? is someone using it? do you pay extra for each
on-site assistance (when teh technician comes to your location?)

Thanks and please send a copy of your answers to my address moniva@libero.it

Monica