As the title says, I need help figuring out the best possible solution for my situation regarding a laptop replacement. I’ll explain everything in detail. My girlfriend bought an Apple MacBook Air 15-inch with M5 chip from a Reliance Digital store on Monday, 4th May. We unboxed it in front of the sales guy. Everything looked fine, but we didn’t remove the butter paper covering the screen. In hindsight, that was probably our mistake — we were excited and didn’t inspect the display carefully. The billing happened around 2:01 PM. We didn’t set it up that day because we both had office the next morning and were already tired. So the laptop stayed in her backpack overnight. The next day, we came home early from work around 2–2:30 PM. My girlfriend opened the MacBook and there was a perfectly straight scratch on the screen, exactly at the point where the display rests against the area between the keyboard and the trackpad when closed. At this point, I thought it wouldn’t be a huge issue because we had purchased AppleCare+ for the device. Also, how does a premium laptop get scratched within 24 hours of purchase without even being properly used? To me, this clearly looked like a manufacturing/design defect. My concern was also this: even if the screen gets replaced, the scratch would just reappear if the root cause is the laptop design or alignment itself. So I went to an authorized Apple service center expecting they might replace the laptop. Instead, they told me: They cannot replace the entire laptop. At best, they can replace the screen. Even that depends on how Apple instructs them to proceed. The service center staff also mentioned that they’ve seen similar cases before, and Apple usually categorizes this kind of issue as “cosmetic damage,” which AppleCare supposedly does not cover. I then asked them who I should contact, and they gave me Apple Support’s number. I called Apple Support and explained the whole issue. Surprisingly, the support representative himself acknowledged that even after a screen replacement, the scratch could potentially come back — which is why he felt a full replacement would make more sense. However, he also said that because the laptop was purchased from a reseller and not directly from an Apple Store, replacement approval would depend on the reseller’s return/replacement policies. So I contacted the Reliance Digital store manager. The manager said they could not approve a replacement without a DOA (Dead on Arrival) sheet. But this obviously wasn’t a DOA case — the laptop was functional, the issue was the screen damage appearing almost immediately. I informed the Apple Support representative about this, and he asked to get all three of us on a conference call. The Reliance Digital manager was extremely rude throughout the call. He barely listened to me or even to the Apple Support representative. Eventually, we dropped him from the call. After that, the Apple Support representative asked to speak directly with the service center manager. I’m not sure what exactly they discussed, but afterward the service center manager seemed more cooperative. The Apple Support representative then told me: Replacement responsibility lies with the reseller. I should take the service/job sheet from the service center and submit it to Reliance Digital. I collected the sheet, but immediately noticed a problem. I clearly told the service center staff — twice — that the wording on the sheet was incorrect. The sheet described the issue as “cosmetic scratches,” whereas I explicitly stated that this was damage resulting from a manufacturing/design defect. They still insisted that the sheet would work. I submitted it to Reliance Digital anyway. The store attached the sheet along with the DOA approval request mail. Now Reliance’s response team has denied the replacement because the service sheet mentions “scratches,” and scratches are not covered under their DOA policy. So currently: Apple says replacement is the reseller’s responsibility. Reliance says the issue doesn’t qualify under DOA. The service center documented the issue in a way that weakened my case. The Apple Support representative I was coordinating with is on leave until EOD 7th May, and I plan to contact him again as soon as possible. At this point, I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with something similar. This is my first Apple device, and honestly this entire experience has been incredibly disappointing. I paid over ₹1 lakh for the laptop and more than ₹20k for AppleCare+, yet both Apple and Reliance seem to be pushing responsibility onto each other instead of resolving the issue. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: formatting for better readability