Problem with my Apple Care Service

Question

Hoping a "veteran" up here might help me through a big problem.
DVD drive is out in my G5 iMac. Tries to spin up, but eventually ejects all disks.
Did all the diagnostics, system is up to date. no disc issues, tried logging in with test account, etc. I have Apple Care.
Called them yesterday, got very helpful CSA, who, after discussing the troubleshooting I performed, said there woiuld be no problem, just call your local Apple Store to make sure they had drive in stock, and they could probably swap it out for you within an hour or so. Since this is a critical work station at my business, this was a music to my ears.
It was another world entirely when I called the Thousand Oaks, CA Apple Store.
There was no way they would swap the drive unless their techs performed all their diagnostics (which would probably include wiping the drive) and require that I leave the unit for their prerequisite time of at least a week.
I'm in a huge quandry - a simple problem now threatens me with serious, irreplaceble down time- especially when I do get the unit back with a new drive, I'll have to add another day of reinstalling all our apps.
Making it worse will be setting up another replacement machine, and havving to use network to move all files off machine. We're talking days of work for a simple problem. I could swap the drive, myself in less than a half hour. Buying a new drive out of pocket and installing it myself seems my only viable option.
Any thoughts?
TIA

Answer 1

Called Apple Care back, explained the situation. She transferred me to a Product Specialist who pretty much explained that it was Apple's guidelines that the stores had to follow. They needed to test the unit first, and then replace. It was up to the store as to how they handled it timewise. I asked if he could send me out a drive, and I could do it myself. He said that Apple considered the optical drive to be a major component, and not something like a keyboard, so couldn't do.
He gave me numbers of other shops I could try who might be able to do it faster.
BTW- he said Apple couldn't issue a repair order for this, to avoid having to not go through the testing.
I then called another shop (not Apple Store), who said that Apple required him to test the unit, then order the part, which would arrive the next day. Apple tells him to tell the customer to expect 84 hour turnaround (although I know he was prepared to do it faster). He also gave me the number of another Apple store that I could try that might have it in stock. Helpful guy.
Then, the Product Specialist called me back, apoligized that he hadn't looked at the entirety of my situation, and because of Apple Care, they would send a technician out to my business to fix the unit!