Its not different at all... As fox said, every one of them has made crap at some point in time, be it that they make video cards, motherboards, hard drives. Whether they acknowledge it is a totally different story and totally dependent on the company and has nothing to do with what type of hardware they make. I used to not care for ATI cards, the 9800Pro series as much as it was a good contender always had their fans break, overheat and fry the GPU. Because of that I would not buy an ATI card and stuck with a slightly underpowered Nvidia at that time. Now ATI's cards are the bang for the buck (provided they have been bought by AMD but still...) and i'd buy one of their cards over an Nvidia. It helps my decision because NVidia has done nothing but whine about Intel and act very immature for a multi-billion dollar company. Does this mean that I will never buy an Nvidia card every again.... no, but it will take time for me to trust or care for them or their products again.
When choosing hardware based on its companies reputation... Ask yourself these questions.
1. Are bad products a long time or recent habit of theirs?
2. Is the company likely to stiff me on a warranty in the event that their product is bad?
3. Is there a company with a better track record for only a little more or the same?
If you answered yes to one or more of these, you might want to look around for other options. No company should have a long track record of bad products and receive your cash. If its recent you might want to wait for the light at the end of the tunnel before forking over your cash. Obviously if they are going to stiff you on taking care of a crappy product you want nothing to do with them, and if there is another option for a little more, don't be afraid to drop and extra 20.00 on a quality product, you'll thank yourself later.
At that point its up to you whether there is a risk and whether you want to take it. Fortunately you've got one hell of a resource that I see much more valueable than just one persons advice or recommendation. You've got the TR forums with MANY users who have first hand experience with almost any company and can paint you a decently accurate picture.
The OCZ that your talking about BTW, originally got its bad rep from being a company that would re-brand under a new name every 2-3 years to avoid having to cover warranties on their previous companies products, bold claims just came as the cherry on top
... now that is one low thing to do as a company and requires a long time to trust them again. It still sticks in the back of my mind when I see their name. However, i'd consider buying something from them, but id be very cautious.