I thought about opening up the phone and pulling the bit out myself but the phone is only three months old and I didn't want to risk voiding the warranty, in case something happens later.

My first stop was Dick Smith - their adaptor broke in my phone rendering it mostly useless so I reckon they should fix it. Good news is the store manager at the local DSE shop agreed with me and was prepared to fix it. Bad news is their repair facility is in QLD and the turnaround time is 6 weeks. Yikes. For that I was ready to pay a local repair shop to fix it.

So - next stop was the Telstra Shop I purchased the phone from. They were prepared to send the phone in as a warranty repair but they couldn't say for sure it would be fixed under warranty (I agreed and didn't expect a warranty repair) - their turn around time was 5-10 days and they suggested that if I could get out to Regent's Park, there is a Telstra Mobile Service office there that is an authorized iMate repair facility - they might be able to fix it while I wait.

A couple of unanswered phone calls and emails to TMS had me worried, so this morning I headed out there to try them in person. The guy at the counter was polite, friendly and put the phone in as a warranty repair. He warned me that it's the technician's call if it's covered under warranty or not - and I might have to pay 49.95 for the repair. Oh, and it will be ready is 2 hours. TWO HOURS. Crap, I would have paid 100 bucks for that! So I went for a coffee and came back in about an hour and was going to fire up the laptop and get some work done while waiting and was flagged back to the counter. Phone was ready. Fixed under warranty.

Way to go Telstra. I'm impressed.