So I took my bike in the shop I bought it at for a fit reassessment b/c I was still having trouble with my knees (since I got clipless pedals). I explained that my original fit was dead on but I was concerned that my seat height may need adjustment with the new pedals and being a noob I wanted a professional opinion. The guy that evaluated me clearly felt that my seat was in the right spot, but wanted to help me with my knees so he raised the seat slightly to see if it would improve things. It didn't, and it felt too high, like I was reaching for the pedals, so I lowered it, but I lowered it too low and then spent the rest of my ride readjusting it. At one point I didn't have the clamp loose enough and I scratched the post enough to take the finish off. I read on here that surface scratches on carbon can be fixed with clear nail polish (as long as they are truly surface scratches), so I did that and it looked good as new. I readjusted it to the right height and hand tightened the clamp as hard as I could (I figured as a not-so-strong girl using a micro tool, there was no way I could over-tighten on my own).

Today I went out for my first long ride since I did all the seat adjustments. I now have a bit of low back pain on the right side, and I thought it was b/c the seat was still a hair too high, but when I went to adjust it I noticed that the clamp was loose, and the seat was a full centimeter lower than I had set it! It seems that I wasn't strong enough to tighten my seat clamp to the proper tension So the post is now really, really scratched - the finish is removed from about one centimeter of the post on the left side and back. I again used the clear nail polish, but you can definitely see where the scratch is. So my question is - do I need to replace it b/c the integrity may be compromised? Or it that just being alarmist?