Refurbished or Reflashed?

So, disaster strikes and you are forced to go to a Sprint store for a replacement EVO. You head in with your, what was perfect device, and they take your information and order a new one for you. Unfortunately, you are not going to get a new phone, but rather a "refurbished" model.

A refurbished phone is one that someone else had issues with, returned and got a new one or another refurb. The units that are returned are supposed to be registered, repaired and then reset to head out in to the world again. This is a pretty simple concept and usually works well. With the EVO, however, this doesn't appear to be the case.

After the horrible drop of 2011, I received my refurbished EVO and was so happy to have my phone working again. I did notice a few issues right off the bat, but they were very small and really weren't noticeable until I was side by side with another EVO.

The first issue was the minor light leak at the bottom of the screen. No big deal, but annoying. The second issue was a poor fit from the battery cover. Again, no big deal, but how did that slip past a refurbishment check? Third, and what is the deal breaker, is the earpiece is shot, and I mean terrible static and crackle. Back to the store, but not before doing a bit of research...

Reaching out in some Android Forums, I was able to track down the original owner of this phone! He said he had returned it because if the ear piece crackle and the battery cover. So, now with emails sent to HTC we await their response to see if their refurbishment department missed one or if they just plain don't fix them.