If it's carried normally, I don't see how Coach can say this is not a defect. For myself, I had a embossed Swagger 37 that cracked in the corner of the edgepaint after one use; when I brought it back to the store, the SA exchanged me one with no problems. And the second one didn't have the same issue. I'm really hoping this is a one-off thing, otherwise it's very upsetting for such an expensive purchase!