Hey folks, wanted to share my experience at the Apple store in Philly.
I didn't realize there was such a major scuff issue, so I didn't really inspect my phone after arrival from Verizon on Friday. Came on yesterday, noticed the furor, and checked my phone - sure enough had a nice dent in the lower right corner of the phone. Now, I have no problem with dents that I put on my equipment, but I'd prefer to be the one to break my toys - not to mention, I have no idea how that dent got there. For all I know, my phone was being used as a baby rattle last week.
So I called Applecare, and they pointed me straight back to my local Apple store. When I called the Philly Apple store, the first guy I got had no clue what was going on and started telling me about user accidental damage. I managed to stump him enough that he bumped me to either a manager or a genius, who immediately told me to come on in, checked the stock of phones for me, and was just generally helpful.
I walk in and am lucky enough to be greeted by a (different) manager. Now, here's where
you can save yourself some time: if you had a verizon or at&t order, tell them immediately and ask for a replacement from the service stock behind the genius bar. I didn't have that conversation and as a result we spent 20 minutes trying to activate a brand new in original box phone against my scratched version. Once we figured it out, though, the process was painless - got a white unmarked box with phone only inside, was assured it was brand new, inspected the phone... scratched
Of course. Got another one, this one was pristine, activated it, and walked out about 35 minutes after walking in.
The morality of doing this is not in question to me. You received a product, it had a minor defect, you talk to the company, and they're willing to replace it. Why the heck wouldn't you go forward? They'll ship my phone back, re-anodize it, and resell it, I'm sure.
Hope this helps others.
