Significant light leakage, few light botches on sides/corners - defective?

No, the problem is that there are so many conspiracy theorists and folks whom are quick to assume things like yourself Martin_UK. There is absolutely NO proof that the brown box replacement units are not brand new. You also claim that they sell refurbished units but there will NOT be any refurbished iPad 2's for sale for months to come (as was the case with all their products and especially with the first gen iPad). If anything, the circumstantial evidence points to Apple's assembly plants actually having production runs specifically for replacement stock (they have a different series of serial numbers and of course do not come in retail packaging and accessories, there is also NO WAY that during the first few days of the US launch for the iPad 2 that they already had a good amount of brown box replacement stock waiting at their stores, how do you get something refurbished within the first few days of release? It's impossible).

Here's the thing why the replacement stock are in the brown boxes. The first major thing is that the brown box is the same box they will use to ship the faulty unit back in. The second thing is the cost of the retail packaging is drastically higher (obviously) than the brown box. Third is that there is also the cost involved in regards to the packaged accessories for retail boxes. Lastly, Apple needs to keep their retail stock separate from replacement stock or else it will create a inventory tracking issue for them. Those are basically the only reasons why the replacement units are brown boxed. It saves them A LOT of money in shipping, packaging, and accessories cost as well as keeping their retail inventory (very important) manageable.

"That and many US posters - who seem to revel in having no rights - love to drown out anyone who suggests there's an alternative to accepting whatever you're given.

Apple sell refurbished units for less than a new unit, there's no requirement for anyone in the UK (nor I suspect anywhere in the EU) to pay for a brand new iPad and end up with a cheaper refurbished one."

what do you mean "US posters...."? you've got it all figured out and we're all idiots i guess.

what is in dispute here? Apple is replacing units that have defective screens. the brown box units aren't refurbs, there aren't any refurbs yet. and Apple is taking into account how in-demand the product is. they're doing right by everyone IMO. if this was a typical item and you waited 2 months to replace it for a screen issue then yes, you may get a refurb. check your screen right off the bat, if you see any anomalies take it back and they'll replace it with a brand new unit or give you a refund.

EXACTLY dxionman, people who are assuming the brown box replacement units are refurbs are essentially complaining about nothing more than a difference in packaging. It's ridiculous.

There is no proof the refurbs are or are not in the system yet.

It MAY be true the brown box units are completly new ones, coming from a different factory plant.

However, I am not willing to take that chance. I have to agree with Martin_UK on this matter.

Unless when I go into the Apple store, when they call me they can essentially prove its a completly new product, I will not be accepting it.

I did not pay over £500 for a product that was:

A) Defected in the first place.

B) A refurbished model, - Being swapped for a product sombody else has had and they have just added new parts. (Making it cheaper for Apple to resell anyway).

they haven't had time to refurb any of these yet. if you insist i've been lied to by the Apple Store and Apple Corporate, point me to where we can start a class-action lawsuit. if you demand a new one in a retail box, Apple may oblige. you can see why they would have the new units in the plain brown boxes though. the white box, the ac adapter, the inserts, the usb cable all cost money. they've been very good about the nitpickers (i'm one of them), "well this one has a dead pixel", etc.

The problem with your (RandomPhil) assumption as well as Martin's assumption is that you have it in your mind that refurbs costs Apple less. This is not true. Refurbs are actually a LOT more labour intensive and from a economics aspects, if they spit out refurbs to use as replacements for things like the iPad 2, they are going to take a hit (this is different for things like their Macbooks and what not since those are designed to be modular and serviceable, iPad 2s are pretty much affixed in a more or less permanent fashion). If you look at the pricing structure for out of warranty repairs for the iPad 2 (which is essentially a unit swap out, and they don't care if you've damaged the headphone jack or cracked the screen, the replacement cost is pretty much going to be the same across the board), the fee is basically a flat out 1/2 price of the retail value of the unit. In other words, Apple charges you about a $50-$100 mark up of their at cost price (the price for parts and labour of a new unit). The pricing scheme alone on replacement units points to the replacement units being brand new minus retail packaging.

STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT INSIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN PACKAGING.

In some shops here there is a 30 days policy that if you buy a product that as an defect they will replace you by a new one, after the 30 day period they send it to Apple to repair or substitution.

The replacement policy clearly states that the customer will receive a new sealed product on the same condition of the previous one. Let us see what happens.

What I can guarantee is that I will never accept a replacement by a unit in a brown box. The box as to be exactly the same original box. Does it seems to demanding from my part ? No !

Every single company has to understand that lack of quality control has its costs (and please do not tell me this is not a quality control issue, since it would be very easy to setup a control system that would switch on every single device on the production line and detect light leaks).

Reaction is always more expensive than a pro-active action and I honestly don't understand why didn't Apple issued a communication to the general public stating that this is a known problem and what is being done to solve this issue (if Apple already issued this statement then disregard this paragraph).

There is absolutely NO proof that the brown box replacement units are not brand new.

If you read carefully you'll see I've made no claim about what's in the brown boxes. I did however respond to someone (wbjohnson) who believes they're refurbished and stated - factually - that UK consumers do not have to accept refurbished items.

His assertion that they're refurbished may or may not be correct but there's little point having a pop at me for someone else's assertion that brown box - refurbished.

You also claim that they sell refurbished units but there will NOT be any refurbished iPad 2's for sale for months to come

Yes, when refurbished iPad 2's become available they'll cost significantly less than a new one.

Therefore Apple place less value on these refurb items so why should any customer - if wbjohnson is correct - accept an item Apple themselves believe is less valuable than the one they paid for?

Apple needs to keep their retail stock separate from replacement stock or else it will create a inventory tracking issue for them

Every other retailer in the UK, from kettles to TVs, manages to cope with accepting the faulty item back and providing the customer with a new replacement from the standard retail stock.

I'm sure Apple can manage too. In fact they obviously did when I had them replace my MacBook last year with a brand new one.

if this was a typical item and you waited 2 months to replace it for a screen issue then yes, you may get a refurb.

No, I wouldn't for the reasons above and below:

if you demand a new one in a retail box, Apple may oblige.

In the UK they have no option but to oblige, 'may' doesn't come into it. Individual customers are of course free to accept what they want, however it doesn't change the law or my rights as a consumer.

What I can guarantee is that I will never accept a replacement by a unit in a brown box. The box as to be exactly the same original box. Does it seems to demanding from my part ? No !

That's because you have inviolable consumer rights enforced on your behalf and so you have a reasonable expectation of how your item will be replaced i.e. on a like for like basis, like for like being a brand new item with the same retail value as the one you paid for.

The pricing scheme alone on replacement units points to the replacement units being brand new minus retail packaging.

Then there's no reason for Apple not to clearly undertake, in writing if requested by the customer, that this is the case.

Your (Martin_UK) arguments again are ridiculous. You say that how come Apple can't do the same as all other UK retailers by replacing your purchase with a new retail packaged one. Let's get this straight right off the bat, the reason that the big box electronic stores or whatever store is replacing your faulty product with a retail boxed one is because they are not like Apple. Apple owns their own retail stores. They own the product from start to finish. They produce the products. It's a soup to nuts operation. It is because it is a soup to nuts operation that they even have such a thing as a brown boxed replacement. Big box retailers receive their products from distributors. The distributors receive their products from the manufacturers. THERE'S NO WAY FOR A BIG BOX RETAILER TO EVEN OFFER BROWN BOX REPLACEMENTS. There's NO VENUE for them to be able to do so. Again, they are not Apple. Apple has complete control from design, manufacture, shipping, and sales of the product. Because of this, they manage their inventory completely differently. A big box retailer does NOT have such a thing as stock used specifically for replacements. They have no need for it since their volume is drastically lower than Apple Stores. It's not necessary for a big box retailer to track such inventory so meticulously when they carry hundreds of various products from different brands and manufacturers whith maybe only 30-50 units every 2 weeks to a month. Apple gets 50 or so units in PER DAY. Big difference in volume there. Apple needs to track their inventory differently because the volume alone is completely different from a big box retailer.

Heck even with shopping with Apple online, your purchases if Apple branded, they come literally fresh from the factory. There's few companies if any that actually does this. This alone shows just how drastically different Apple operates.

Stop comparing Apple to other electronic stores. There's simply no comparison since there's basically no other consumer electronics stores that can be compared with Apple retail stores or Apple as a company. Guess what happens when you have a faulty third party product that you bought from the Apple store? They replace it with a retail boxed replacement. Why? Because in such a scenario, Apple is not in control since the third party product is not something they produce, they resort to what all other retailers do, replace with a new retail packaged product if within the return period and if not, they sometimes would be nice enough to swap it out for you even if it's been 6 months or they just request that you go through the manufacturers returns.

You have consumer rights and those rights should be vocalized BUT only when necessary. Apple has been doing right by their customers and the problem here Martin is that YOU are assuming things which are simply unfounded on top of that you are comparing Apple retails stores to what is essentially a Best Buy type store here in the states.

Also Martin, your argument that refurbs are significantly cheaper is ludicrous. They are about $50-$100 cheaper for things like the iPad. That's not significantly cheaper, that's slightly cheaper. A company which knows how to make money will not start going through the COSTLY process of refurbishing a iPad 2 to use as replacement stock because that refurbished iPad 2 is much better off for them to be sold as a refurbished unit. Apple are not idiots, cheaper to have runs for replacement stock than it is to refurbish units for replacement stock. ON TOP of that, for a product which is in SUCH HIGH DEMAND, for Apple to pull folks off of the assemby line just to deal with refurbishing units (and I promise you that there are a LOT of returns for this thing because that screen issue initially was a VERY high volume), no, that's not going to happen. The iPad 2 is not your typical device where it's easy to take apart, it's not. There's a good amount of work involved. They are already short of workers at the plants and their manufacturing for these things are already a far cry from what the needs to fullfill demand is.

Nice rant but it ignores the reality that here in the UK a number of companies including Tesco and the Dixons chain have their own brand lines on TVs, computers and other high priced items.

Like Apple these items are made by 3rd parties to a spec set out by the retailer and branded with the retailers name and shipped to the stores for onwards sale. They could also stock/order in 'brown box' replacements just like Apple.

They don't do. They, and single brand stores like Sony Centre resolve defective products by providing new retail items in retail boxes.

Apple is special and different only in your mind.

why is Apple obligated to give you a brand new unit to replace something that you've used for 3 months? they would (and have been) replacing all the iPad 2 units with brand new units because if you bought it day 1 they may not have a replacement within the 30day window.

typically though if you buy a new laptop and it has a screen defect that you don't notice for several months, why should they replace it with a brand new unit? they're not violating your rights as a consumer. they're replacing a defective used item with a working refurbished item. remember, these refurbs are like-new units. they're not giving you someone else's junk.

all that aside though, the iPad 2 is a special case and all the replacements are brand new. now you may see some of the ones returned for a single speck of dust "refurbed" and made available months down the road but the current brown boxes are new units. i don't think Apple would risk a lawsuit by telling people the brown box units are new when they weren't. and hey, if you don't want the one in the brown box, they're giving refunds! how can you say Apple isn't doing right by their customers? they're exchanging these things several times for almost any nitpick you may have and they're giving full refunds outside the 14-day window.

Guess what Martin? Us yanks also have Best Buy brands for TVs and such. However, as usual with your failure to understand how things REALLY work, Best Buy and I assure you, your Tesco and Dixon chains DO NOT MANUFACTURE THE KIT. It's basically rebranding a generic item. Apple designs, manufactures, ships, and sells from start to finish. It's not a product designed and made generically and then branded with the Apple brand like those TVs and what not that you are referring to. Apple controls their product supply chain. Any finished apple product is handled entirely by Apple. The rebranded generic TVs you allude to are basically that, generic items which are branded. It's the equivalent of buy USB keys with my company's logo and info on it. It's my USB key but let's face it, apart from having my logo on it and needing to support it (if the thing came with a warranty and what not), it's really not my product. Basically, IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM. On top of that, I assure you that the Best Buys, Tesco's, and Dixon's of the world do not receive 50+ units PER DAY PER STORE and sells out of them daily. Rant? Nope. Just a fair reaction a your ridiculous assumptions. As you have shown, you do not have any idea how things really work. You can't even comprehend the things that are right there in front of you yet you are attempting to argue points based off of wild assumptions.