Hardware issues on iPhone that would qualify for a free replacement under the warranty, however I recently accidentally damaged the digitizer and now need to pay £177 to get it repaired just for them to send me a replacement phone anyway!

Question

Okay here is my problem: I bought an iPhone 5c about two months ago, and recently knocked it in my pocket and damaged the digitiser – although not the glass, but it is currently unusable. However before that it started really playing up.
Primarily, it stopped being able to tell the time – which does not sound like a big issue, but is in fact a real pain as it throws out all my real-time apps, as well as making all my messages come through completely out of sync with each other. The time just seems to have slowed down, no matter if it is on ‘Set Time Automatically’ or ‘Set Time Manually’ – in half an hour it normally only forwards two or three minutes. Then the Bluetooth would not work, and then the same with the wifi – they just sat there with the turning on icon staying on and not changing. The next thing that happened was that my messages that I’d sent to people would occasionally send to other contacts over imessage completely randomly without me doing anything!
I know these are hardware issues and covered by Apple’s warranty, and they would replace my iPhone if those were the only problems, but as the digitiser is cracked I have to pay £177 pounds before they will even look at it to replace the glass, and that is just so I can send it off again afterwards for them just to give me a fresh phone anyway!
It is also not an option to do a self repair or go to a phone doctor as both of these will use non-apple parts, and void my warranty.
I really am stuck as I don’t have that kind of money for a repair at the moment, and still feel like it would be a complete waste of time for a phone that is currently not working anyway that they would just replace. Is there anything I can do?

Answer 1

"Is there anything I can do?"
Yes, you can exchange the handset for a refurbished out-of-warranty product for £216.44 (includes shipping + VAT).  Treat your objects like women - with love, and respect.