Beware iPhone operating system upgrade

Upgraded my iPhone5's operating system to iOS 7.1.1 on Sunday.  Two days later the phone became totally non-responsive.  I was able to get it going twice, but then it died (bricked is the term used by the cognoscenti) Tuesday afternoon.  I then learned that many users are having similar problems.  

My phone was past warranty by five months and the local Apple store manager clearly had been directed to not accept any responsibility for its early demise.  Hopefully my case is a relatively isolated instance, but needless to say we are NOT going to do the same upgrade for the other iPhone in our household.  

Dependability has been a key reason over the years as to why Apple has been able to charge a premium for its products.  Already under pressure from cheaper Android devices, Apple had better hope that this ends up being a small scale problem.  (P.S. Typed on a five year old MacBook Pro.)