It's been awhile
I haven't messed with consumer-grade networking gear in a business environment in a very long time - the most common horror story we would run into were switches that crashed randomly when asked to handle switching more than a few dozen MACs. The Cisco gear was (and is) far more expensive, but on the other hand it's almost flawlessly reliable. We've had many instances where literally every problem would suddenly go away just by replacing consumer-grade stuff with proper gear. Things keep improving, but stuff like that does leave a taste in your mouth. We still generally deploy Cisco for several reasons:
1) Web interfaces on networking gear are generally slow as dirt and would still suck even if they weren't.
2) Complex, but sane-once-you-know it CLI. As opposed to, say, the insanity of HP Procurve. We solve a *lot* of problems without having to go on-site because of the thorough diagnostic capabilities in the CLI. Saving two trips on-site pays for the extra cost of the switch or router, and the odds of them not saving at least two trips are zero.
3) Thorough remote monitoring via SNMP and Nagios / Icinga.
4) Excellent security options and CLI authentication via TACACS+ / RADIUS / SSH keys.
5) The 95+% chance that if we put a Cisco switch in, it will still be happily running a decade later if the customer decides not to replace it. Again, if you save the time and labor of one replacement, you've generally covered the extra cost of the switch; that doesn't even go into what the customer's downtime costs are.
6) No matter what crazy thing you need to do to accommodate your customer's needs, there is usually a configuration option for it.
This shouldn't be construed as a blanket endorsement of Cisco - I could write pages about stupid stuff they do that that drives me insane. We still occasionally buy lower-end routers and switches (including Netgear, which remains my favorite "home" brand) and throw them into the lab to see how they stack up. So far, though, our analysis remains that for most business applications that are large enough to require professional help, going low-end only saves you money in the long run if your time isn't worth anything.