Frustrating experience with AirPods Pro 3 replacement - any advice?

Hardware
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I bought two pairs of AirPods Pro 3 a few weeks ago, each with case engraving to distinguish mine from my wife’s. My case started overheating and wouldn’t charge, so I went to the Genius Bar. They confirmed it needed replacement but had no stock, and told me to call Apple since I wanted to retain the engraving on the replacement.

After chatting with support (who redirected me to phone), I set up the replacement. However, the confirmation email showed my wife’s serial number instead of mine. (They pulled it from my original order without confirming.) I had to call back immediately to cancel and correct it, which took another 30 minutes.

When I asked about engraving the replacement, the second phone rep said it was impossible with express replacement. I explained I’d gladly wait for standard replacement to get the engraving, but they insisted it couldn’t be done at all—period.

This is frustrating because two previous Apple reps (Genius Bar + first phone support) both said engraving was possible. The product is only a couple weeks old and defective.

The engraving itself isn’t critical, but I’m surprised Apple can’t replace a defective engraved product with an engraved replacement. What I see as a straightforward customer service issue (replacing a broken product with what I originally paid for) isn’t resolvable in a satisfactory way, which is unusual for Apple.

Does anyone know a way to escalate this or speak with someone at a higher level? Has anyone dealt with something similar?

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Not the kind of customer service I’d expect from Apple for sure. I think I heard once on MPU that Tim Cook responds to emails although I don’t see how that is possible. I bought my wife and I different color case covers to solve the mixup problem.

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Apple stopped replacing “engraved” products a few years ago.

This is due to fact that the “engraved” product comes from the factory. Apple doesn’t have a way to do this from the warehouses that ship replacement products.

You want it replaced??? No problem.

You want it “engraved”??? Problem can be solved by ordering it again New.

Does this suck? Yes it does, but from a Logistical standpoint it saves Apple money.
Here in the US there are a few service centers/warehouses that your replacement product will be shipped from. Shipping one item from China, India or Vietnam is too expensive. Buying, setting up and training staff for engraving replacement products is not cost effective.

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Thanks for explaining that, @MacGuyMI . That makes sense—I get it.