Truth be told, my wife Bernadette, doesn't enjoy flying. In fact she'd rather drive two days to avoid flying 2 1/2 hours.

So when my niece Kate sent us a wedding invitation to Pittsburgh we immediately got the maps out and plotted our way from Sarasota to Pittsburgh.

While I'm not the most observant person on the planet, I do pay particular attention to customer service or the lack of it.

Here are two quick tales with 180 degrees of separation.

First the rave. On the trip Bernadette's new iPhone wasn't working. Well, she could do everything except hear or be heard when she was doing the calling. Aside from this, everything else was okay with the phone.

As soon as we got to Pittsburgh we located the nearest Apple store.

We opened the door to the store and were immediately blown away and impressed by the customer service and the attention to detail provided by the Apple staff.

There were 16 employees, and each person was wearing a blue shirt.

There were three greeters. B explained what her problem was. The greeter, using an iPad, scheduled an appointment with one of his technicians.

Everyone seemed to be positive and energetic. I had this weird sensation that they actually liked their products and the store they were working in - you don't see that often.

When it was our turn, the Apple Technician asked several questions and did a couple of diagnostic tests on the iPhone.

The verdict was a malfunctioning headset jack which was interfering with hearing and being heard when using the iPhone.

The technician said he would be happy to replace the iPhone at no charge.

It was truly a memorable experience.

I remembered being at Macy's a week earlier and having to search for a sales clerk to ring up our order.

The Apple staff oozed energy. The Apple store solved our problem.

So I'm wondering, why can't every retail experience be like the Apple experience we enjoyed?

It's probably because, in most companies, management doesn't get it or they just don't care enough to offer a customer service experience that exceeds all expectations.

Now the rant. Next it was off for a light lunch because we had an early dinner reservation with friends who spend their summers in Pittsburgh.

We decided on the Cheesecake Factory.

It was a mob scene. Their business was obviously booming.

B ordered a burger and I ordered chicken wings.

When my wings were served, it didn't take too long to be disappointed.

After one bite into the first wing I could see it was bloody rare. So I took another careful bite out of the second wing with the same undercooked and bloody results.

We waved to our server, who after seeing the condition of the wings quickly apologized and said she would send the manager to our table and also ordered a replacement order of wings for me.

Okay - stuff happens. I say, when you have a problem fix it ASAP.

So the manager came to our table. He said his name is Chuck.

He was either delusional, stupid, whacked out on drugs or just the most incompetent person alive in Pittsburgh that day.

I know you're thinking I'm being too severe in judging his incompetence.

What would your reaction be if Chuck told you the wings were not undercooked. They were perfectly okay to eat, because all their wings are cooked twice.

He went on to explain that what we saw was just the harmless bone marrow in the wings.

I looked at B. She looks at me.

We couldn't believe he offered this lame excuse as a rational explanation.

How could he be so stupid to think we were so stupid to think the wings that were bloody rare were edible?

It's true when you say hindsight is 20/20.

What I should have done was get a Cheesecake Factory menu, the bill, and use my iPhone to take a picture of everything including the bloody rare chicken wings.

But I didn't and all I have now is another example of dreadful customer service.

Look, if you screw up, fess up and make things right.

How many times a week are you experiencing customer service that exceeds your expectations?

If you want to get sales up when the economy is down every service provider should be trying to exceed customer service expectations.

When you think about customer service rants and raves there is really 180 of separation.

I'm looking forward to going back to the Apple store again. I would of course consider going back to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant - if they were the only restaurant that was open.