I still don't know how Apple gets away with this.
What other company replaces new but defective, in-warranty retail products with anything other than new retail products?
Gets away with what? Keeping costs down so they can continue to thrive without raising prices?
What other company has millions upon millions of ultra nitpicky customers that if left unchecked, will drive their profit margins into the ground like no other customer base in history? Apple is moving more product than any company in history, and subsequently dealing with more returns than any company in history. This requires a streamlining of processes. Swapping out brand new sealed phones is not part of the process. It's simply not feasible for myriad reasons. Your notions of how your scratched phone should be handled are antiquated and quaint when dealing with an operation the size of Apple.
What other company sells their own brand of high end electronics in 400 stores worldwide with hundreds of millions of visitors, AND offers warranty replacement in-store for items sold in millions of other places?
What other company could sustain manufacturing, shipping, and storing millions of spare replacement products (when they can barely meet demand for new sales) in retail boxes with all accessories, to accommodate the people with defective products?
What part of "not refurbished" did you not understand? What makes you think a white box replacement is anything but new?
And if Apple did give everyone with a 1mm scratch a brand new sealed phone, do you think you'd get to keep your accessories from the scratched phone AND get brand new free ones? Do you think Apple has time to argue with every single returning customer who wants a new phone on the spot but didn't bring the cables or box to the Genius Bar?
What do you expect Apple to do with a million opened cardboard retail boxes and a million used lightning cables and a million used waxy earbuds? Do you think they're just gonna eat that cost and not raise prices?
And why do you need a box with a matching serial? What fears are driving that requisite? Because I can tell you from 6 years of effortlessly reselling used iPhones, that a box means squat to the right buyer, let alone the serial number on the box.
I'm sure your 1mm scratch is the worst thing that's happened to you all month, but try to look beyond the realm of your bedroom for a minute.
You and the rest of the world can most certainly have a phone that will be replaced unconditionally with a brand new retail sealed box and all accessories for an entire year; that will be $1000 please. Cash or charge?
