Well, got another new phone today! Staff at Apple Store agreed the vibration was dodgy.
What an episode I had in the store mind you. Guy brought out a replacement phone, vibration was good, he inserted my sim, then handed me the phone...
I tried the silent button to hear the vibration again, and the button was faulty!! It had to be turned on and off with a fingernail it was so poorly finished.
So, off to the back store he went and returned with another shiny new phone. This one seems to be perfect, although i'll reserve judgement on that until I have it fully loaded with software and have been using it for a couple of days.
Currently installing the 2.1 software. For some reason this phone didn't allow me to restore a backup without installing 2.1 first. Hope that's not a bad omen already!
What a week thus far - 3 phones since Friday past, 5 in total so far!!