The Genius who was assigned to my appointment asked me what was going on with my iPhone and he was able to verify for himself that the ring/silent toggle worked only sporadically and gave no tactile feedback when moved. He said he should be able to replace it and started on some data entry to begin the process. He then examined my iPhone a bit more – I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing from across the counter, but I’m guessing he was checking my firmware version and making sure my iPhone wasn’t jailbroken (which it wasn’t – I save those shenanigans for my spare first-generation iPhone). He then took out a device that looked a lot like a doctor’s otoscope and checked the moisture indicator in the headphone jack. I almost broke into a cold sweat at that point. I took very good care of that iPhone but hoped that a stray drop of water or sweat hadn’t tripped that sensor and I silently cursed myself for not checking it myself before I came in. Fortunately, he declared it eligible for warranty coverage and went to get a replacement for me in a nearby cabinet as I sighed in relief.

The replacement came out of a white box and did not come with any accessories, though I did bring in mine in case I needed to do a complete swap. I asked him if it was a refurb and by the mildly irritated look on his face – complete with a near rolling of the eyes – he got that question a lot and said, “It’s as good as new,” and prompted me to check it out as he finished documenting the exchange. My quick visual inspection did indeed show it to look like a brand new device and I really had no grounds for asking them to open up a brand new iPhone box, though I’ve read accounts that some do in similar situations. Later, looking at its serial number confirmed that it is indeed a refurbished unit (it starts with “5K”as indicated in this post over at EverythingiCafe.com) but it takes over the warranty period of my first iPhone 3GS and is covered until June of next year, so I can’t complain.

I keep a lot of personal information on my iPhone, about which I’m a bit paranoid. I take that back – I am very paranoid about it. I enable the passcode lock and the setting that will erase the iPhone completely if it’s entered incorrectly 10 times. I also have the SIM lock enabled and the iPhone tracking feature through MobileMe set to on. The Genius was about to put my iPhone in a box and I stopped him and asked him if I could wipe it first. He seemed a little surprised and said I could if I wanted to but they would be doing it anyway. I have read accounts where people have received refurbished iPhones with data still on them from the previous owner, so I didn’t have total confidence in what he said and did start the “Erase All Content and Settings” process and handed it back to him. I took my “new” iPhone and went on my merry way, buying a new anti-glare screen protector for it before I left the store.

It is quite nice to be able to silence my iPhone so easily again. Also, the sleep/wake button on my last iPhone was crooked, its left side sitting lower than the right side and my new iPhone is pretty much flawless in comparison. I ended up setting it up as a new device after the back-up I’d restored to seemed to be acting up and it’s been absolutely great since. I’ve put another Gelaskins skin on it and am going case-less, using only the screen protector and the rear skin 90% of the time. I’ll pop it into an iSkin Solo FX or the Ideal-Case Demon skin occasionally if I want some more protection temporarily. I finding that I rarely use my Incase Slider anymore even though I still really like it and will still recommend it to others.

Here’s to hoping I don’t have any problems with this iPhone!