I now have a loaner iPhone from Apple — an 8GB model with “AppleCare Service” embossed on the back. So far, I’d say Apple’s performance has been decent, but far from exceptional.

This morning, I did a little more online research and learned that some folks have had good luck calling 800-myiphone. So I made the call — from my landline, of course.

My call was answered in the order in which is was received, and quite promptly, by a guy named Stephen. I explained that my iPhone had developed a “dead zone” on the touch-screen. Stephen asked what I meant. So much for the speedy propagation of trouble reports. After I explained and encouraged him to search Apple’s own online forums for descriptions, he asked whether I’d tried restoring the device. I said that I had — twice — then asked whether he could send me a replacement, or whether I’d be better off going to a NYC Apple Store. He said I’d get my new phone faster if I went to a store, then he booked me the next available Genius Bar appointment at the Soho store: 5:40 pm. (This was at around 1 pm.)

I arrived at the store at 5:30 and when I checked in, I was told that they were running about 10 minutes behind. Turned out to be more like half an hour. When I was called to the bar, I immediately said, “I have a dead zone,” then demonstrated. The Genius — I didn’t get his name — nodded and said, “We’ll send this one out for repair and I’ll get you a loaner.”

In other words, he’d seen this before. I asked a few questions: How many of these had he seen? Was it a common problem? But he was predictably cagey.

I didn’t resist when he said he’d have to charge me $30 for the loaner. Perhaps I should have, but I want to see how this process plays out without playing the “I’m a technology reporter” card. Should the repaired phone prove unsatisfactory, you can bet that I’ll demand the loaner fee back, and refuse to pay again.

Setting up the loaner was trivially easy: He popped the SIM chip out of my phone and popped it into the loaner. Within 30 seconds, I could make calls. When I got home, I connected it to the MacBook Pro, and iTunes instantly asked whether this was a new (additional) phone, or whether it should be backed up from my existing archive. I chose the latter, and the phone was synced within a minute. That seemed remarkably fast, given how long it took to sync my original phone when I first got it, so now I’m wondering whether the original unit had some kind of USB issue, as well.