Well its a least good to see JVC (UK) has acknowledged that the problem was indeed caused by the dreaded CCD sensor fault. I have only sen this free repair notice on their USA, UK and Canadian websites, although the problem is world wide, so I suppose its a bit unfortunate for people outside of these countries not being able to easily access this free repair, because possibly no agents exist in their country, as all they should really have to pay is the postage costs, and definitely "not" any repair charge. The agents that JVC directs people with the problem to, will obviously "bill" JVC for the cost, and I can only assume that the place you were forced to go to did not have that agreement with JVC, or alternatively JVC did not have them on their list of approved repairers.