just out of interest, if you get the phone from AT&T is it not their responsibility to fix it, after all the phone was provided by them. If I bought a new car for example and there was a fault with it, you wouldn't go directly to Ford, or if you had a new TV, directly to Samsung. you would take it to the shop you got it from and let them sort it out. is that not the case in the U.S.? when I had problems in the UK, I called my provider and it was fixed by them.
I think you will find your statement quite contradictory lol
, any retailer has to and will honour a repair, return or replacement for the product you have bought from them (depending on several key factors - your behaviour towards them, nature of the fault, time remaining on the warranty - usually upto a year, and the presence of a receipt).
To the op, if you are patient, coherent and compliant you will get what you want in the end, however what you have said is really a non issue.
Having worked in customer service for awhile, it appears that you want everything done pronto without any sort of assistance or compliance from your end. - This makes it more difficult to resolve your issue.
Sending in a phone for repair is standard practice, what you should have said is that you have highly confidential information on the phone and would appreciate if they could assist you in transferring that information to another device whilst yours is repaired. You may have got a different (perhaps a more favourable) response from the CR as opposed to someone calling you back in the time frame stated.
Never the less since, the issue is being looked at by AT&T I guess the thread is now closed?