[jdmountford]

I have worked in Wireless for years, both in Direct and In-Direct. In the In-Directs I have experience in merchandising which includes returns to the manufacturer. More often than not the Retailer has already purchased the units they sell. When a return is made as defective, it goes through some kind of claims process sometimes through the retailer, but certainly from the manufacturer. If the Manufacturer finds that the item falls under what they deem to be defective they will issue credits for the devices to the retailer.ffice

So while ethically iffy, your situation would definitely merit looking at that as a viable alternative to the MS solution. Either way MS gets the defective devices back. My only concern would be whether MS sees dust under a screen as defective, but I would assume since they were going to replace you are fine. In reply to boxes matching serials on devices. I'll bet that your receipts don’t have serials. Almost no retailer puts the serial on his or her receipt so just so long as the box and device serial match you are fine. In other words I hope you kept your boxes. Though most big box retailers will not even look for those.