iPhone 3GS Repair and Wait Time

The volume buttons on my iphone 3gs stopped working so I want online Wednesday and started a repair. I have no apple stores in my town expect for one across the state. So I had to do the they send me a box and I ship it back method. So i got the box Thursday and sent it off. I wrote down the tracking number so I could check it. The broken iPhone got there Friday at 11:00 in the morning. But when I checked the online repair status it was still on sent on box on step 1. Finally 5 hours later it said diagnosis pending then five minutes later it jumped to step 3 product replacement pending. Does that mean they are going to give me a refurbished iPhone? And today (Saturday) it still says product replacement pending. I was hoping I would get it back today. But it looks like that is not going to happen. So my other question is does applecare ship out repair or refurbished phones on Saturday? So if they do would I get it Monday? Or am I going to have to wait for them to ship it out monday and then get it tuesday?
1.83ghz intel coreduo macbook with upgraded wireless card with n and gb hardrive and 2gb of ram with latest leopard Mac OS X (10.6.6) upgraded wireless card with n and 320gb hardrive and 2gb of ram