Iphone failing component validation

Hello everyone,

I came to seek for advice after trying to get my phone repaired at my local apple store and them turning me down because it failed their ‘component validation’.

The story is that I had broken my phone (my fault) about 2 months ago and got a replacement from apple instead of a repair for which I paid since I had caused the damage (broken screen).

This replacement phone now failed out of nowhere being unable to boot past the apple logo, even after trying to re-install the software using iTunes.

So I made an appointment at a different Apple store because they had a convenient time slot available and went in. They had a look, accepted that it was broken but not caused by external factors such as dropping or water damage. They got me started on the process of replacing it under warranty for a new phone and said they just need to go to the back to set the new one up. After about 15 minutes they came back and told me that my broken phone failed component validation (meaning that serial numbers on the internal parts are not what they are on their system) and hence I must have tampered with it and they won’t replace or repair it after all.

Now, I have never opened my phone up or tampered with it in any way because I know that this would void my warranty. I tried to explain it to them but they were not helpful at all at this point instead just repeating that they ran their test which came up with an error and hence I must be at fault.

I am very annoyed at this point because I don’t expect Apple to give phones out as replacements which will fail their internal tests. Also I have no chance of double checking what they told me because I won’t open it myself and even if I did I wouldn’t know how to check the serial numbers.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Thank you for your help.