There has beensome issues, with a very small minority of iPad owners and their smart covers. Like any product that is mass produced there is a likelihood that not every single smart cover or iPad (of 8 trillion- sarcasm) might have a defect.
I took my iPad 2 in after my screen cracked, which eventually led to parts of my screen crumbling (along the cracks). Of course, there were "some" who didn't believe that I saw my screen crack in front of my eyes (which I did) and even went as far as telling me what I did to my iPad to have the screen break (impact damage was one I remember).
You are the expert on your device... Apple does have great customer service and are reasonable... which is all we as customers want- somebody to listen to what happen and let us know how they can fix it. I was prepared to pay for it to be fixed, but they offered me a new one (yeah the old, "as a one time courtesy", that we have heard about). I have many apple products and like most, don't try to find ways to get knew ones (as it was suggested I did). I am happy to say that Apple makes great products and I have never, until the screen on the iPad, had to take anything back to them.
Let us know how it went.