Oh the in-store experience is very different, yes. At our local mall we have both an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store. Both are staffed with courteous employees.
I'm referring to my husband's experience as a business customer dealing with their software licensing. Phone support with them has long been an ordeal. Once in awhile he gets someone great, but mostly he gets people hiding behind policies, not solutions. Both my husband and I have years of customer service experience and know that any rep can hide behind policies and brush a customer off so they don't have to be bothered, but a good one knows how to find workarounds to get their customers up and running, and that should always be the goal.
Still, a well run company will train its employees that flinging policies at customers is only a last resort when a customer is trying to game the system, not legitimately struggling with a problem. Apple has, for all the years my husband has been dealing with them as a business customer and as a private individual, been good about not shoving policies in his face and instead, trying to make things work.
Still, there are some small signs they're slipping a little in this regard. The employees still seem willing to be helpful but more and more seem to lack the resources or are ensnared in more layers of processes and procedures than before, as you've observed. I also encountered a surprisingly long wait about two years ago just trying to get a straightforward screen repair done on a dropped iPhone. Getting the appointment was its own multi-hour mess, then the repair itself turned into a two week trip to the Depot. It was still a better experience than I've heard is offered by the competition, but not up to the standard Apple once held itself to.
Working with MS as a business customer is likely a good deal different than the relationships we will have walking into one of their stores, or getting our hardware issues resolved as non-business customers. I still have my questions about their ability to serve any customer over software issues that may arise.
