Yeah this happened to my good buddy, He had Apple Care and his 12.9 had a small dent but the battery had failed and I went with his they ran a Diagnostic and could not repair the device or replace it. Ahead of time we called ahead to find an Apple Store which DID NOT have any iPad Pro Refurbished unit. We went in and they gave him a new one.
And he was as happy as he could be. He ended up selling the new 12.9 Pro for a slight profit since he got a 20% Student discount.
And ended up buy a 9.7 Pro much better much lighter you can 1 hand it unlike the 12.9 which can not be 1 handed.