You're not the only one to suffer this poor service. My friend is having a real time of it too.
He ordered an iPhone 5 online, it came, scuffed to bits. He called Apple Care and they sent him a replacement phone. The new one actually had a sticker across the box opening saying it had been inspected by Apple Care, and yet when he opened it, it too was scuffed in very obvious places. It was even worse than his first one.
So he calls them again they tell him to go to a store and hand both phones in and go through their replacements to find one that isn't scuffed.
The manager of the Apple Store tells my friend he will replace the phone but he isn't going to open more than one replacement box and he can either take it or leave it (this is before he even opens the replacement).
The manager opens the replacement and it is scuffed, he decides (the manager) to "put this one aside" going against what he said previously and opens a second box. The 2nd replacement phone is also scuffed! - Silver showing around the black metal band where it has been scratched.
The manager then looks at my friend and says "Well you can choose between these two". My friend, frustrated said um no thanks and returns the two phones (his original and the one apple care sent him) and gets a refund.
He is now using his iPhone 4S again and is considering a white iPhone 5. So he has gone through in total 4 iPhone 5 blacks and every one has been scuffed.
Pictures of proof: The box from Apple Care he received:
http://i.imgur.com/ZQOUb.jpg
Pictures of 2nd scuffed iPhone:
http://i.imgur.com/AR3r9.jpg &
http://i.imgur.com/VvKSO.jpg
Now personally my iPhone 5 came absolutely perfect with no marks and I'm very happy with it but everyone else I know has got a scuffed one. I mean how unlucky do you have to be to get four (!!!) scuffed out of the box iPhone 5's in a row?
The phone has only been available 6 days.. this whole situation could end up much bigger than the Nano scratching thing from years ago which resulted in a class action suit that Apple lost by the way. Their customer service as well seems complete cack after the way my friend was treated in-store, I can understand the staff are annoyed by people who keep going through replacement devices looking for a perfect phone but they should be perfect! if anyone is going to scratch them it should be the customers themselves.
