Warranty repair vs. Non-Warranty repair

***UPDATED: Called Casio and was told the repair fee stands. I was NOT a happy camper. How do I know that if I pay this fee which is about $30 less than the cost of a new camera that it will actually work? Do I pay it to have it fixed? Do I pay $10 and just have them ship it back to me? Do I say forget Casio because they stink and find myself a new camera (although I adored my cute little pink one)? What will John freak out less about...the repair cost or the cost of buying a new one? Hmmmm.... I have 20 days to decide what to do.***

Well, I sent my camera to Casio to get it repaired. I paid $24.88 to have it boxed and shipped. I was told by the nice lady at Casio that if I could get a copy of the receipt and send it with the camera that it would be under warranty (I told her I got it as a gift around Christmas). Anyway, I got the receipt, sent a copy along with a letter stating the problem with the camera (which is what the nice lady also told me to do). They got the camera on the 15th. I got a letter on Monday stating that it would cost me...with tax and return shipping...$96 to repair...WHAT?!?!?!?!

There was also another letter in with it stating that I may want to consider an upgrade to a "refurbished" camera that may have some "cosmetic flaws"...where's the upgrade in THAT? The "upgraded, refurbished (more than likely scratched up and beat up) cameras would cost about the same as my 5 month old camera that I got BRAND NEW out of the box! Ummm, excuse me?
I, of course, was not able to get in touch with Casio on Monday but I was able to speak with someone on Tuesday. When I told her I didn't understand why there would be a repair charge if it was under warranty she said, "oh yes, it looks like the lens was crooked". Ummm, yeah, I told that to the first lady I spoke with when I called originally, when she told me it "would be under warranty". I was then told that in my case they would "evaluate" the camera to see if it would be a "Warranty repair" or a "Non-Warranty repair". Well, in my opinion, if I explained to the first lady what happened and she said it would be under warranty, what's the problem?

I asked the second lady if I would get another letter or an email letting me know and she said I should call back on Thursday...I'm waiting for them to open up and I'm getting on the phone.

What happened to the camera? I was shooting a short video and when I switched to "camera" mode to take still pictures, the screen told me to "Please Wait" while it saved the video. Then the screen went blank. I figured maybe I had accidentally pressed the power button instead so when I tried to turn it back on I got a message saying "Lens Error". When I looked at the lens it loooked crooked and wouldn't go back in, like it got stuck when trying to close.

I REALLY miss my camera! Max's birthday is coming up and it doesn't look like I'll have it back or at least working by then. Back to borrowing my dad's camera I guess...grrrrrrr!