Apple Korea replaces new iPhone4 units with refurbished ones?

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I am on my second iPhone4 right now. As I reported in the second half of this post, my first iPhone4 handset went out of control and had to be put down. A few days later, it was replaced with a new one, or so I hope.

I mean, that would suck if the brand new phone I'd bought from the AT&T Store in California were replaced with, say, a refurbished unit at the Apple Store in Ala Moana. Right? But apparently that's exactly what some are accusing Apple of doing with some of its customers in Korea.

From Macgasm:

It’s alleged that South Korean iPhone users have been given refurbished phones when their devices needed to be replaced (within the 14 day replacement window), instead of providing customers with new handsets. That’s a problem for most, and I’m not going to sugar coat it. I’d be pretty annoyed about it as well, despite Apple’s positive track record for replacement phones.

If you buy a new phone, and that new phone is broken, you should be getting another new phone, not a previously loved phone.

And that's why Apple executive Farrel Farhoudi will be talking with members of the ROK National Assembly on October 21, to explain the replacement process. Of course, Macgasm couldn't help but get a dig in at the National Assembly themselves:

Hopefully we don’t seen another South Korean Parliament brawl this time around.

How lovely that's the meme so heavily associated with South Korean nowadays. M*A*S*H, Hyundai, Samsung, Kia, K-pop, Old Boy and The Host, and now donnybrooks beneath the dome.