YES!!! Skip it~
My first time seeing a blue patent stam (painted blue chain) was at the Chicago MJ Boutique and I fell in love with it (I love everything blue!). I asked the SA how the chain would wear and she said "shouldnt be any problem". As soon as it came out of her mouth we both saw it: about 3 or so inches of chain links on one side of the chain had deep scratches, exposing the silver link underneath. She was very quick to remove the bag from the shelf and said she was going to return the bag to the warehouse.
I have since seen the black and blue patent bags with painted chain straps at Neimans and Saks and I have not seen one that had a perfect chain; and those were still on the shelves for sale!
I, too, love the patent bags, but stick with the bordeaux or beige (which has silver HW on the larger bags: stam, karlie) or gold on the XL Single.
There is also gold HW on some of the black patent large singles.