We had a similar experience to Steve, but we weren't called to customer service, we just discovered a damaged bag when retrieving it from the conveyor belt.
We'd flown with BA to Denver and cheapo cheapo suitcase (bought from Auchan in Clais for circa €6 Euros IIRC) had the wheels and supporting legs ripped off and the handle smashed.
Reported it to the BA helpdesk, no questions asked about it's initial cost or condition, they simply produced a brand new suitcase of the same size (or larger) and comparable (or better) quality there and then. We ended up with an Antler case that was slightly larger than the one we had originally!
