I was in rural Japan, at least 5 hours from the nearest Apple Store, and had a dreaded MacBook keyboard stuck key. The first time I contacted Apple they said I

I was in rural Japan, at least 5 hours from the nearest Apple Store, and had a dreaded MacBook keyboard stuck key. The first time I contacted Apple they said I absolutely had to travel to a Genius Bar appointment, and stay overnight until the laptop was repaired. This surprised me since in the past when I lived far from a store in the US, they would send me an overnight FedEx box. I contacted them again a few weeks later and said I absolutely could not go to an Apple Store, as it would probably cost me $400-500 to do so. This time they figured out how to send a courier to pick it up from me and sent it back, repaired, within a few days. It's possible there are many support staff who just don't know how to deal with these atypical situations.