My experiences today were just plain awful.
Waited hours in line for my first iPhone launch, was pretty excited to pick up the sexy looking black iPhone. 20th in line or so, everything was pretty much smooth besides them running out of 16GB models instantly. Bought the 32GB, didn't care just wanted the phone! When the employee activated the phone and handed it to me I didn't notice anything off the bat- wasn't really expecting there to be an issue with it at all anyway. Hurried home, peeled off the stickers, plugged it into my computer to run a backup from data off my 4. Then I found this post on the front page of Reddit and was wondering what the ruckus was about. Read a few posts, feared the worst, looked at my phone and sure enough there was a pretty noticeable scuff mark at the top left. Then I inspected some more, they were on the bottom, near the antennae, on the sides, just awful, awful. My OCD was going off the charts and I didn't care how ridiculous I sounded, I paid this much for it, I want a flawless phone!
So I went back to Verizon and told the employees what was up, they had me wait like 30 minutes while they dealt with the massive amount of people coming in every minute to ask if they had any iPhone 5's left. Finally, they were ready to assist me, I pleaded my case, they spent about 10 minutes passing it around, handed it back to me and told me they couldn't do anything. Asked to see the manager and she accused me of dropping the phone and that I might have better luck returning it if I went to the Apple store. I was taken aback and she gave me a look as if I was trying to scam them out of getting a new phone after my own careless mistake or something- I did not feel like dealing with these Verizon employees and left after responding with "Don't you think there would've been more significant damage to the case had I dropped it?" they didn't care.
Called up Apple, again I pleaded my case and asked if they had been receiving any similar reports. They said no and told me I have 14 days to return it but I'd have to do it through Verizon. Go back to Verizon and told them I was told from a CR from Apple that I could return it here after they had just instructed me to go to Apple. They said that was fine but I'd have to pay some fees to return it. This was outrageous, I simply refused and left the store.
After people started posting more pictures and articles/blog posts were being made, I collected this on my phone and took it back to Verizon. I got to talk to a different employee this time and showed him everything about how I'm not the only one with this problem and that they'd likely get similar concerns from customers soon enough. The employee was in disbelief that I was returning it for just some scratch marks and made some comment about how it really wasn't that noticeable of an issue and that he'd have to talk to his manager for permission to return it. While he waited for his manager to respond, he took a look at the models on display and sure enough, there were scuff marks all along the edges on the two that were there. I didn't see the manager again but they gave him the go ahead to return my phone and I ordered a black 16GB one this time. Have to wait till Oct. 19 but oh well. Horrible day and a huge waste of time :/