Samsung Mobile phone <1yr old but 'out of warranty'

Delarge

I have a Samsung U900 Soul Mobile phone, bought as part of a contract from Orange in June 2008. 3-4 months ago it starting malfunctioning various buttons started to work sporadically and then after perhaps 2-3 weeks the touch sensitive keypad stopped working completely. As I had a spare phone I swapped over to the spare and only recently got round to contacting Orange about a warranty repair. I was told by Orange that after 6 months warranty claims are dealt with directly with Samsung.

I contacted Samsung, was told to send off the phone which I did and got it back from Samsung this morning with a letter saying that the phone has been returned
'Non repaired due to liquid contamination' later on in the letter they define the term 'out of warranty' as being damage outside of their warranty.

I have not dropped the phone into liquid, spilt anything on it or been aware of any quantity of water coming into contact with the phone.

where do I go from here?

stugib

Search the Mobiles forum. 'Water damage' is the phone companies' stock answer to get out of doing free repairs.