Customer Support Inadequate

I purchased the Panasonic KX- TS3282 2-line corded phone about 5 months ago.  It has been an adequate phone for my needs.  Today the digital display went blank, and when I called Customer Support, two different reps walked me through a troubleshooting process, including changing the batteries.  During the process, I noticed a gray cord lying on the floor, and as I am not the best technically (I thought it was something for my computer), I asked if that could be part of my phone.  The rep said 'no' that the phone didn't have such a cord. 

Finally I was told that the phone needed to be replaced and that I would have to send it back, and wait until they had received the old phone before they would ship a new phone to me.  If I wanted 3-day service, I would have to pay $20. I asked if they could go ahead and ship the phone to me, even charging my credit card, if necessary, and then refund when they received the damaged phone. 

They would not authorize this as they said my phone was ineligible for this service, which mean that I would be without my phone at least 2 weeks unless I was willing to pay the $20 fee to expedite the process.

Once off the phone with the reps, I plugged in the gray cord- that was the problem.  The phone was fine!

In addition, I then called Headsets.com where I purchased the phone, and learned that they stand behind all their phones and headsets with a 2-year warranty.  They would have shipped me a new phone without having to first receive the old phone!