2012 imac crashes at startup

Question

First attempt to turn on resulted in prolonged loading, grey screen with Apple logo and spinning spokes, for about 5 minutes. Forced a shut down by holding in the power button
Each attempt to start after that resulted in it turning itself off.
Tried zapping PRAM, didn't work, still shut down just seconds after starting up. I would get the grey screen with Apple logo and spinning spokes, not beachball. Would also briefly see a status bar, like when updating firmware, but then would shut off.
I was able to get it up and running in restore mode, holding command+R at startup. Ran Disk Utilities verify, said I needed to repair disk. Ran repair from system utilities, told me it couldn't be repaired, must format. I formatted and reinstalled 10.8.2 and restored from time capsule backup. Working fine ever since.
Has anyone experienced this with their 2012 iMac 21.5" Core i7 3.1GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive?
Had the computer since December 10. Migrated 2 user accounts from Time Capsule backups, previously running 10.8.2 on late 2008 15" MacBook Pro and a mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro.
Had just returned from Apple store for one-on-one on December 24. Had packed it up in original box, ever so gently. Transported it to and from store, 4 miles away. Worked fine at store, problem happened after unboxing and attempting to turn it back on for the first time.
Needless to say I'm concerned that it will happen again, hoping that it was a one time thing. Never had this happen with a Mac before.

Answer 1

Contact Apple's Express Lane. Do note that if you have AppleCare's protection plan you should be eligible for onsite repair since yours is a desktop machine (depends on where you're located, the previous applies in the USA, not sure about other locales). It might also be applicable for new machines. I wouldn't assume it's a one-off thing.