I'm not sure about your local apple store, but the apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan was able to do the repair in store when the replacement keyboard in the macbook pro was also faulty. I held onto the laptop until the part came then they just did the repair in store which took most of the day. That keyboard lasted about 3 months until failing again and they had to ship it out and they didnt give me the in store repair option. So maybe they only do that if the repair is defective right out of the shop? I would ask.
But if you sent it in for repair, this obviously wont help you lol