Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this camera after being sold on the durability aspect--"tough yet stylish," "Certified shockproof, dustproof, waterproof" etc knowing that it carried a year warrenty and cost $260 convinced me it was a high quality point and shoot product. It worked just fine (thought the .modd files were annoying), nothing spectacular. A few months after I had the camera, I attempted to take the battery out to charge it and the small blue piece popped off. I contacted Sony regarding the repair and they directed me to send it in (had to pay for shipping) which I did as instructed. A few days later I received an email stating that the camera sustained physical damage not covered by the warrenty and that it would not be economical to replace it. I spoke with them explaining that it was simply during routine use of removal of the battery (I never challenged any of the durability claims) and they said they would not cover it. I asked what sort of thing the warrenty covered and they said, "if something is wrong with the camera we will fix it." .... ????.... I asked to speak with someone in customer relations who was no further help and became agitated and eventually appeald to the National Relations center and spoke with Frank (apparently the head of national relations) who stated that even though he admitted he would be upset if the same thing happened to him, they were still refusing to repair my camera or send me one that worked (they did offer to send me a comparable one for $200...???) stating that the physical damage voided the warrenty. I was accused of abusing or forcefully trying to remove it (I'm not even sure how one "forcefully" removes a battery, you pretty much just slide the blue piece open and it pops out...unless the blue piece snaps off when you try...) So I'm out $260 for trying to remove the battery. The camera itself works just fine, but Sony's Customer Relations is extremely poor and unprofessional. They obviously care very little about their reputation (and warrenty is completely meaningless) and I will not purchase products from them in the future.