how old was it? what happened

If it was a referb it would have come in a white box instead of a normal phone box and would have a little round sticker under the battery to indicate it was a referb. Was this the case?

if you got the phone in the period of time that vzw had run out of stock on, and got some of the new stock. then the new stock has windows5 on them. is stock that samsung had put wm5 on. as for one person who posted that they put a sticker on back under battery for refurbs. i havent seen a phone yet that says refurb on any sticker. but you can always check lifetime on phones to see if refurbs. as for your i730 being a refurb, call up vzw and see about getting some credit for receiving a refurb phone when you were paying for a new phone.

was this a phone you just purchased full retail or with an upgrade? Was this a phone that was replaced through the warranty? Was it past 30 days of the purchase at a direct store/online/customer service? If it was past the 30 days and was a warranty replacement it is a refurb phone that you recieve not a new one so in this case you were not screwed. If it was new go back to where you bought it and speak to the people there.