Gretchen Guldbrandsen's dashboard

I bought my MacBook in the States from Apple.com in December 2008. I have been extremely careful of my mac and have treated it gently. Just today, May 11, I was softly wiping the surface with my microfiber cloth and just above the two lights, on the right hand side, a chip about and inch and a half long came off!! I can see inside! I was so angry and shocked, especially since I spent so much money for it and it is my first Mac.
I live in Germany and so I called the local store that sells Macs and they said to bring it in and they will need to keep it for 10-14 days! They told my to bring in my original receipt, which I don't have, but I told them isn't the serial number enough, and they said a reluctant yes.
Let's see what happens. I am so glad I found this forum because it it good to know I did not do anything wrong and it is clearly a design flaw. I am frustrated, though, because I use my Mac EVERY DAY and now I have to give it up for two weeks.
What happens if this occurs again after my one year warranty is expired? I think something like this should be covered without a warranty.

Someone else wrote that it is so sharp where you rest your wrists while typing. I totally agree. It hurts to type!
If I had known about these drawbacks, I would have spend the 300$ more to get the aluminum instead. Whey does this "high quality" company make cheap, plastic, sharp cases for their laptops at all?
All in all, very disappointing.
I'll report back after I go to the shop in Duesseldorf.