Damaged replacement phone help?

I purchased a brand new 4s in November of 2012 and 2 months ago apple replaced it for free due to technical problems. Well, they gave me an obviously refurbished phone and when I got home I noticed the edges were all rough and scratched/scuffed up. I didn't have time to go back that day and week and just decided to deal with it. Well, I keep a super protective case on it and have not dropped the phone and I had it on my desk during class and didn't hardly touch it and all of a sudden it got a crack in the front glass, coming up from the bottom edge up to the home button.

I am not sure what to do, AT&T suggested I take it to Apple and plead my case, but I am afraid they will blame me for the crack which I did not really cause, it was fine one minute and cracked the next. I am still having tech issues which I am afraid they will void my warranty and blame me.

Is it worth taking it back to apple? I have several months left on the warranty still but I can't afford to pay $200 to fix it when they gave me a damaged one in the first place, but I know they won't believe me if I say that.

Thanks for your help!

I know that is what I am fearing. And I would have taken it back that day but I didn't have any other time to and I knew they would just blame me anyway if it wasn't the same day.

Thanks for your insight, I kind of figured that would be the case but I thought I would ask anyway. Can they void the warranty if I take it in?

ApfelKuchen said:

If the screen is cracked due to accidental damage, the warranty is void right now, whether a Genius sees it or not. It prevents you from making any other warranty claims.

But you believe the crack is a manufacturing defect, which would be covered by the warranty. The only way to get it fixed for free is to bring it to Apple's attention and make that claim.

So, don't bring it to Apple, and be 100% sure you won't get warranty service if something else goes wrong. Or bring it to Apple, and there's a chance they'll conclude your particular crack is a manufacturing defect. Upside? Problem solved. Downside? You're no worse off than you are right now.

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Really? How would I "prove" something like this to them? Thanks for the tip also! I have a friend that works at Apple that may be able to swing replacing it but that is a big if.