A reader over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has asked the site what the quality of his iPhone would be after just being to the Genius Bar to replace his under-warranty iPhone for a hardware issue. Speaking from a former Apple technician’s point of view, “If you are merely a consumer, prepare to be disappointed,” the author replied.

According to Josh Carr writing at TUAW, “The vast majority of parts that Apple ships to repair centers are what they consider ‘re-manufactured.’ As a Genius, I was coached to explain that process when we were asked where the parts came from.”

“Customers would always respond with, ‘Wait, so you're giving me a refurbished iPhone?’ I was told to say no, and to follow it by saying, ‘re-manufactured parts or products are different than refurbished. Someone may have used your device before you if it's a refurbished product... but in the re-manufacturing process, Apple uses known-good parts and builds new units out of them.’ So, they added a fake, nonsensical name to pretend that their parts or products weren't refurbished,” the post shockingly reveals.

The former Apple Genius explains that, “The iPhone that you just received looks new on the outside because it has new glass, a new case, new battery... but the rest of the device is fair game for refurbished parts.” Naturally, this doesn’t mean that every device going in for maintenance will receive old parts – the report simply outlines that it’s fairly possible it will.

Although a single such story doesn’t confirm the facts, it’s quite alarming to learn that Apple is downright lying to its customers. As the author himself points out, it should be frustrating (to say the least) to learn that you got a two-year-old replacement part labeled as new when visiting Apple for a hardware issue, not to mention have the product break on you again for that very reason.