Got my iPhone "repaired", worse than before...

[zackkmac]

Like the title says. I sent my iPhone off last week because it was intermittently shutting off, but the day before I shipped it off I was finally able to restore it and get it to work fine. Just to make sure, I sent it off and used the temporary one AppleCare sent me.

Well, I got my original iPhone today, and the first thing I noticed was it took ~5 minutes to start. Then, it showed an error message saying "Repair Needed" and some other info on that dialog. So, I've been trying to restore it, and I keep getting error 1604, and once got error 6. I have tried different USB ports, even the ones on my aluminum keyboard, the new user account trick, restarting iTunes, everything Apple suggested. It takes me forever to finally get it in DFU mode, but when it starts to restore it shows a white screen, then finally the Apple. Once iTunes says it can't restore the iPhone, the phone decides to finally show the spinning wheel. I left it plugged in and it's still showing the Apple+wheel screen for over an hour.

Apple is heavy with calls, so while I'm waiting, any suggestions?

 

[hsleiman]

exchange it at an apple store

 

[zackkmac]

I would have gladly done that, but there isn't a nearby Apple Store. Yet. Maybe when we get our next mall, it's supposed to be much bigger than the new one we got 2 years ago.

Anyways, I was able to get ahold of a product specialist and they're replacing my iPhone with possibly a 16GB one, if it's 8GB I'll live.
I just need to send back my "loaner" phone, they'll send a free loaner phone while I send off my old one, and the rep said they'll automatically provide a completely different iPhone as a replacement, they won't try to fix it.

If for some reason I have problems with this one, is there a chance they might send a 3G replacement? I'm not too big on it [we don't even have 3G here], but it'd be nice for the trouble.

I forgot to add that my pristine original iPhone came back abused, with dents and scratches EVERYWHERE.