One of the problems in this sort of claim is outsourcing with processing often getting pushed off to a third party company.
From Helol's post it sounds like BA's policy is still to replace (rather than refund) damaged bags. This works if the damage occurs on the return to UK and/or if you can wait to action it once the trip is completed.
We had a bag damaged on an outward flight to the extent that we had to purchase a new bag whilst we were away. This was okayed by the BA rep at Logan. When we got home, and despite explaining what we had done, we got the standard BA response which was to call Antler for a replacement bag. To be fair, they eventually refunded the purchase cost (albeit at a different exchange rate) but it took some effort to break out of their normal process.