Hello All,
I called Sony US, and I now have a work order for the repair, although I'll know for sure they take it under warranty after their confirmation.
This was all possible because I have friends in Minneapolis, since the person I was speaking to was keen early on in the conversation to refer me to Sony International ! I had to stop him in mid-sentence and remind him that, as I had said, I had friends in Minneapolis, that I was OK to send the Reader across the Atlantic and that they would only have to send it back to Minneapolis. A mention of the fact that other people had their Reader fixed that way (citing MobileRead and this very thread as a proof for good measure
) finished convincing my interlocutor that he could help me !
As a rule : Cite Mobileread if you want to avoid being bounced back between several Sony Customer Services around the globe.