Nikon Inc, Melville $99.50 repair bill sent to me for warrantyed camera!! Mellville, New York

Ashton Kutcher has great fun on vacation and at parties on yachts with his NIkon cameras.  It was the reason that I decided to purchase a Nikon Coolpix S4100 camera at a suburban Walmart store on 7/23/11.  The price was $162.55 which included tax and an additional $10 for a 1yr replacement plan. Almost two weeks after my purchase, my Coolpix camera would not read the memory card.  I took it back to the Walmart store where I purchased it just before the 14 day return expired and purchased the same brand of camera on 8/06/11.  On Nov 2nd, I plugged in my camera to charge the battery and the camera would not respond.  I tried charging it via the wall outlet and my computer and still no charge.  Thinking that maybe the battery was bad I purchased a new one.  When that battery was exhausted, I again plugged in the camera to a wall outlet and my computer, no response. 

On 11/11/11, I first called the number on the extended warranty I purchased from Walmart.  The representative there informed me that this warranty does not kick in until after the 1yr manufacturer warranty from Nikon has expired.  So, I contacted Nikon and was told that I needed to return the camera at my expense.  I asked why should I bear the expense of sending the camera to your company for repair when it was still under manufactures warranty and I've had little more than three months use.  I asked to speak to a manager and was put in touch with a man by the name of Arshad who echoed the same thing as the first representative.  When I insisted that I should not bear the expense of returning this defective camera, he said that he would see what he could do and call me back.  He never did call back.

I filed an online complaint with Nikon and instead of addressing my concerns, I was repeatedly told to follow the very specific steps to charge the camera.  When I told them I had done this several times and the camera still didn't work, they insisted that if I wanted it repaired that I would have to send it in at my expense.

To make a long story short, I mailed the camera to Nikon on 11/29.  Today, Dec. 20, 2011, I received a letter from them with an acknowledgement of repair and a repair charge of get this...$99.50!!!  They are requesting my consent to repair the camera because the USB Port was damaged and this repair is not covered under warranty!!  What??!!  I have had two defective Nikon camera's in the span of five months and in addition to the $162 price I paid for the camera, they have the audacity to want to charge me an additional $100 to repair a camera that should still be under warranty!  I am stunned!!  My original letter requested a refund because after two defective cameras I thought I'd cut my losses.  Not only did they not honor my request for a refund, I was sent a bill for repair!  I'm tempted to Tweet Ashton to let him know that I bought this camera because of his fun commercials, but I certainly have not enjoyed my experience with NIKON.  Their customer service sucks!  I will never purchase another of their products!