[Nexus One General] irishrally:
It seems quite a few people have had questions about getting a replacement phone due to a dust issue on an original rooted phone. Here is my experience:

I called HTC and began the replacement process, but did not mention my phone was rooted. Three days later I received another Nexus One with no battery and no battery cover. My observations on the differences between the old phone and the new phone can be found here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=655966

I removed the battery cover and battery from my original phone and shipped it to HTC in Texas with the packaging and shipping label they supplied.

Approximately 5 days later (today), I received an email from HTC saying "We have completed our diagnostic tests. To review the results and confirm this quotation please visit our service site." I went to the site and there was an option to pay a $196 service fee or to pay $28 for the return shipment of my original phone (without any servicing).

I called up HTC to find out more information. The service representative pulled up my file and immediately asked me if my phone had been rooted. I had little choice at this point so I said my phone had indeed been rooted. The representative told me my options are to:

a) Pay the $196 to replace the motherboard in the phone (does this mean Goolge/HTC also do not know how to relock the bootloader?), keep the replacement phone they sent, and not receive back my original phone. This is the worst case scenario where I pay $196 to get a brand new replacement N1 with no dust issue.

b) Pay the $28 shipping charge to return my old phone, and return the replacement phone. This would bring me back to square one, with having my original rooted phone with the same dust issue.

c) Pay the $28 shipping charge to return my old phone with the same dust issue. Now I would own two full priced N1s, one that is brand new, and a second that still has a dust issue.

Most importantly, and my only hope really for coming out on top, the representative mentioned that I should call back tomorrow before 5PM EST and speak to a supervisor that has the ability to declare that rooting the phone has no impact on the dust manufacturing issue, and I could keep the replacement phone at no charge. The representative said that there is a 50/50 chance the supervisor would do this.

If the supervisor will not honor the warranty and let me keep the replacement phone for no charge, I will just return the replacement phone, get my old phone back, disassemble the phone, clean the dust out and reseal the phone with RTV or something similar.

I will call them up again tomorrow and report back what happens.

It has been difficult to resist rooting the replacement phone.

UPDATE: Through the help of a google employee, I was pointed towards this form: http://google.com/support/android/bin/request.py?contact_type=refund

If you start a ticket with this form, the Google sales team will work to help resolve voided warranty issues from an unlocked bootloader when exchanging or servicing the N1 due to a manufacturing defect.

I called HTC today and they said I was no longer going to be charged $196 because of my unlocked bootloader, and my warranty would be honored. The representative on the phone seemed to have no idea why the ticket status had changed.

I am very pleased with the outcome, and give many thanks to the Google employees that go out of their way to support their loyal customers. It is nice to know that the passion we have for Android is acknowledged and supported by the Google team.

Time to root the new N1.