Problem with ATT and Apple on warranty

I got my 3G on April 16th. The phone gave me errors on May 21st. After many tech support calls to Apple and trips to ATT store, they decide that it is a faulty phone. The phone completly died yesterday and Apple rep over the phone told me to visit ATT store. The ATT store wouldn't help me and sited the 30 day policy. Fine, but Apple is telling me that I have to potientially pay $200 to have a new 3G, and that probably I'll really get a referb'd one. And if they decide that I didn't drop it in water (I didn't) then I still will only get a referb'd one. And be out of service with my cell phone for several days. Would anyone else have a problem with this or is it just me? Esp. since the 3g is only worth $99 now and I paid $200 to get a new one just a little more than 30 days before it went bad.
TIA

 

They said the error msg given generally means it was water dammaged. But sometimes, as in my case, it wasn't. Twice when I went into the ATT store they checked and said it wasn't water dammaged.
They did suggest that I might want to drive 3.5 hours one way to an Apple store to have them look at the phone. Nice.

 

I'll pass on the 7 hour road trip. I'm self employed and I am really missing out already with a dead phone.
I think my best option is to drop my contract and start over somewhere tonight.
Anyone want a 3g? I'll swap it out next time I'm in Dallas and can get to the Apple store. But in the meantime, I need a working cell phone!

 

Thanks everyone for their helpful responses! The ATT store people twice looked for the color change and didn't see it. The Apple tech support said that after I wiped it and reinsalled everything, since the audio worked for a min afterward, there probably wasn't any water dammage. It was just a faulty hardware issue. The sound doesn't play on anything. At least it didn't before it went dead totally yesterday.
I just have a big problem with being out a phone for several days and not getting a new phone in it's place (only a little upset about the 3gs, but I would be happy with a new, working 3g.). If I wanted a referb'd one, I would have paid less than that to begin with. Then instead of a year warranty, I'd only be left with a 90 day. Given that this new phone was faulty, I wouldn't trust the referb'd one at all.

 

Thanks, that makes me feel a little better. But when both companies bad mouth the other to me and say the other could fix the problem to my satisfaction if they wanted to...It doesn't leave me feeling very confident that I want to do business with them in the future.