HT-RC180 No Audio problem

Well it's official, count my HT-RC180 as having the infamous no audio problem. It started about a month and a half ago and slowly got to the point of not working at all and of course only 3 months out of warranty. I left a callback # and emailed them from the support page this morning, I haven't heard anything so far. This appears to be normal based on other postings, so I'll give it a couple of days for them to get to my email. The question I have though is:
Has anyone with a recently out of warranty Receiver had any luck getting it covered under any unpublished special warranty?

Considering this is a very common problem I would hope that this is the case, I either have to drive 10 hours each way to a service center or ship it and if it will be big dollars to ship and fix, I'll just cut my losses and right off the $900.00 and move to a different product. Oddly enough this replaced a 10 year old Kenwood that is still in use out in my shop.

Hi grump010,

Please contact our parts and service department via email or phone and provide the following information to them:
Keep in mind that it may take up to 5 business days for an email response. Parts and service phone number is 201-785-2600 option #4

Thank you,

Name, address, phone number
Email address (If you have one)
Brief description of the problem
serial number of the unit
along with proof of purchase
faxed to us at 201-934-7823
Or email them at:
parts@us.onkyo.com

Thanks for the response, requested information sent.

Daryl