Genius says my numbers don't match and the phone has been tampered with. Can anybody help?

Question

I have an iPhone4S 64Gb, which I bought from the Apple Store in Covent Garden in December 2011. Recently it developed a problem where it won't shut down (it restarts itself) and the battery life has deteriorated significantly. Having read about this in this Forum, this seems to be a known issue, and a replacement is needed.
Sure enough, the Genius Bar at Covent Garden took one look at it and wanted to replace it. But then there was a problem. Apparently, one of the serial numbers on the phone (the chassis) does not match the ones on sim tray and software. The Genius (Barry) and his manager (Adam) both said that this could only be a result of tampering or non-Apple servicing. They say the chassis part comes from a batch which originated in Bulgaria.
What??!!
My phone has not been touched by anybody but me since I bought it in December. There's no way I would let a non-authorised dealer touch it - I know full well that it would void the warranty, wouldn't trust it, and anyway I've always had a really good Genius Bar experience. More importantly, it's been fine - no need.
So, what then? Their hypothesis is that somebody has tampered with my phone without my knowledge. As is probably true for many iPhone users, my phone is not far behind my wedding tackle in the extent to which I am attached to it, indeed it spends a lot more time in my hand and line of sight. The idea that somebody could have had access to my phone for long enough to have opened it up and resealed it, having changed parts, without my knowing, is completely absurd. I just don't believe it.
And why would they? If you're going to steal a phone, then steal it. Barry's theory is that some people steal legitimate serial numbers in order to qualify for Apple servicing. Really? Wouldn't they still have a phone with mismatched serial numbers that Apple then wouldn't touch? It seems utterly far-fetched.
In short, I have no idea how Apple managed to supply me with what appears to be a dodgy handset. Supply chain failure, admin failure, I don't know. I know that it hasn't been 'serviced' by anybody, but I can tell that Barry and Adam don't believe me. They believe that the fact of mismatched serial numbers are incontrovertible evidence of tampering. (I'm minded to point out that they opened up the phone out of my sight, hence becoming the only people with the opportunity - and expertise - to do exactly what they're alleging has been done).
The issue is now with Corporate Customer Servcies. I'm not hugely optimistic.
Has anybody out there experienced anything similar? Can anybody offer any theories (preferably without straying into corporate conspiracy fantasies) as to how the numbers may have become mismatched?
Grateful for any help.

Answer 1

I'm still in "recovery mode" after a huge fight with our local Applestore.
About 6 weeks ago, my wife's 13 month old iPhone 4S developed the "won't turn off" fault and was replaced, out of warranty, for a fee of £139 and with a 90 day warranty.
About two weeks after that we realised that there was a sound problem when trying to use Facetime (the person on the other end couldn't hear us) but as we have ipads in the household, we didn't immediately persue it and assumed it was down to some setting problem.
Two weeks ago my wife was shooting some video with the phone, something we hadn't done before and on playback there was no sound.  We realised then that the phone probably had hardware issues and arranged to take it back to the store for repair or replacement.
I wasn't anticipating any problem when they said that it was a hardware issue and assumed that a replacement would be supplied.
They looked inside an found that a dozen screws were missing and all the EM shielding that's normally screwed in place was also missing.  On this basis, they refused to repair or replace.  Things got a little tense after that.
I KNOW that we didn't remove any parts.  I find it impossible to believe that even if a third party had obtained access to my wife's phone, that they would have opened the phone, removed the screws and EM screens (including the one that has the QR code serial number), put it back together and then returned it to its original position.
As I repeated ad nauseum to the manager of the store, the only possible other option was that the phone was supplied in that condition.  After an hour and a half of arguing, sometimes quite loudly and refusing to leave the store until they replaced the handset, they caved in.
I don't believe that Apple quality control is 100% accurate.  In fact I'm sure that no manufacturer's QC is.  How our handset slipped through the net I don't know but it did.
I don't know whether this story will help you in any way but I hope you get your problem resolved