Well guys, just to let you guys know, besides from the fact I have a new pimpin BLACK 2.0 Macbook, they DO indeed allow returns in the store.
I called today to the store I wanted to return to. The girl didnt seem to know EXACTLY what she was talking about, because for some reason when I said "a white stock 2.0ghz macbook" she assumed it was BTO for some reason. After telling her it was the stock one, without it being opened, or customized she said I could indeed take it in for an exchange.
However this was conflicting with what the Apple salesperson on the phone had said. So I called them back, just to make sure I wasnt talking to a dumb employee at the store. At first the guy said I "have to" return it through them. I told them how it was an inconvenience, and I was not willing to go through that route and asked if he was sure on this policy. He then said, Well, "they [the applestore] are not obligated to return it. So it should be done through them. he then tried to give me an RMA number and junk, but I already had one from my first phone call. So I stopped him while he was blabbering on and asked to reconfirm what he said, that I can return to the store or exchange it. He said yes, and further elaborated that they are not obligated because the physical store and online store are two different systems, so they dont have to if they dont want to. At that point i hung up because he got annoying because it really seemed like he was persuading me to go through the RMA process and junk and exchange it through them. He also made it sound like getting my rebate would be nearly impossible from an exchange.
After all this I went to the Apple store and I talked to a manager. He didnt see a problem to this and just quickly exchanged it for me. I asked if there would be any problem with the rebate, and he said no. He even printed out extra receipts for me that showed the exchange with the new macbook with my ipod, and printer all on the receipt. No hassles at all....
I found this as a really weird experience because the online store seems as if they are competing with the physical stores for the sales. The final guy kept on twisting words and stuff just to try to persuade/lie me into exchanging and returning my items through them.
