My iPod is perfect. I don't have any problems with it. Not a 1. Some people have bad ones. Find me a product that doesn't have at least 1 bad one that someone unfortunetly gets. You can't. Apple is not always perfect. Sometimes you get a bad batch of a product (white spots on P'Books, logic boards on iBooks, static on some minis). You are only going to hear about the bad ones.
The reason you don't hear much about the bad Dell DJs are because you don't hear anything about them. No ones buys them.
That's what warranties are for. Stuff breaks. Sometimes you get an employee who can't or won't help you. You just have to talk to somebody else unfortunetly. Apple is simply the sum of it's parts, with some not-so-good employees and some production issues.