is there any chance that someone could act dumb enough and get the apple store to replace the iphone without doing checks on it other than their basic take it to the computer and hook it up. I am actually gonna try it tomorrow and see what happens. Hopefully but not giving my hopes up, they will replace it. But we shall see.

Just an idea:

Connect a car battery across a few pins of the dock connector. After 60 amps flow into it, I don't think it'll be turning on anymore...

Clearly a hardware fault!