Any UK'ers here sent back early production lens flare 24-105's?

Mine's one of those under the 1000 production code mark and so apparently has the lens flare fault. Because I've been overseas since the start of the year I've not had chance to send mine in to be 'fixed'. I've yet to encounter the flare problem and I'm in 2 minds whether to send it in? I don't intend on ever selling the lens so it's not a question of improving the resale value should I sell it but if I'm honest I suppose I'm a little concerned that because it's proven to be such a good lens, sharpness, colour etc that if I send it off it might come back not as good

So have any of you guys sent theirs back without/with problems?

Mine was replaced.... although I had no flare issues. I was concerned about resale problems should I sell it in the future.

I had the same worries as you, but the new one is fine.

the serial numbers of the batch is UT1000 and less right? so anything that starts with a UU is ok?