Turn off the water to the toilet and flush it. Then put some comet/bartenders friend or the like on sponge or rag and lightly scrub the offending marks. Porcelain is pretty hard so it probably isn't surface scratched but the metal of a toilet snake will leave surface marks on it.

Ditto azbound....likely surface-only and will come off easily with bartender's friend. Don't use comet...too abrasive, IMHO. Hardware stores also have small abrasive sheets designed for the purpose.

Thanks to both of you! If that's all it is, I'll be thrilled. I have barkeepers friend & comet, but will only use the barkeeper, in hopes this works. I used to have a porcelain sink in the kitchen & I loved it because it was so easy to take care of. I should have known this would work the same way. I will give you a follow up after I try it & let you know the results.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for coming back. Few people do.

I would like to learn results of whatever you do.

It could just be rust from the steel auger. Every time I use my auger I have to put around 1/4 cup of Super Iron Out powder in the bowl and let it soak. Don't close the toilet seat. The odor is strong. If barkeeper friend doesn't work, give this a try.

Here is a link that might be useful: Super Iron Out powder

Thanks breakeroff. I finally got to emptying the water out of the tank & taking the barkeepers friend to it today. It didn't seem to get it all, so I went for the Comet. It pretty much took care of the scratches, for the most part, but I can still see a little of it. However, if you don't know it's there, you'd never see them. I'll keep Super Iron Out powder in mind in case something like this happens again & good ole Comet doesn't do the job!

As usual, fellow GW'ers come to my rescue. So glad to be a part of this community! Thank you again everyone!

I had the same problem recently. Toilet stopped up, called plumber, they had to use that metal auger and left the toilet bowl with an amazing amount of metal scratches -- it looks awful. What would you recommend for major scratches?

Keep the lid closed. :-)

Use Pumice Cleaning Stone with Handle Toilet Bowl Cleaner (Amazon). My plumber used this to remove all the scratches from snaking device.

Thanks, it worked. First pumice, then baking soda, finally powdered cleanser rubbed in with a cloth. (Toilet bowl drained first.)

I didnt see it mentioned, but the plumber (or whomever is unclogging the toilet) should be uding a closet auger, not a regular snake. The closet auger has a protective sleeve that is supposed to prevent the auger/snake pirtion from scratching the toilet.

Closet auger on YouTube