Sad Day for Me

I just dropped my 3 month 14 day old (for me) GE A835 8 MP, 3X Optical Zoom Digital camera in a UPS Drop Box to be shipped to the claims department of Sears. I have been having problems with it for over a month. I would put in brand new batteries and it would A) tell me that battery power was exhausted or B) not even turn on. Last weekend I was in charge of taking pictures for my nieces birthday party and it was a pain in the behind. I had to hold down the power button, hold up the battery compartment (to get a connection between battery and camera) and push the button to take a picture (all 3 with one hand) I had major hand cramps and many times my fingers would loosen up on either the power button or battery compartment and the dang thing would just turn off. I had called the claims dept on friday but did not like that I would have to A) get a shipping label and send camera back and get a gift card back 3+ weeks after they got the camera (1 month of no camera during busiest picture taking time) or B) go buy another camera and wait 3+ weeks to get reimbursed again after they got the camera back. I could not get permission to just go get another camera first so I called the claims dept back today and got stuck with a male who could not figure out what I meant when I asked him questions. All I wanted to know was how they determined the camera did not work and how many times they tried because sometimes out of nowhere the camera would work for as long as the batteries (which it sucked dry pretty quickly) lasted but as soon as I replaced em had nothing but trouble again. He took this to mean 'how do they determine if it is a defective camera or it was consumer maltreatment of product' I finally just told him I was tired and busy so did not have the time to spell it out for him and to just file the claim to which he said 'Oh you want to file a claim?' Well DUH! Then asked did I buy the product protection plan(PPP)...again DUH! why else why would I call the Product Protection Claims Dept if I did not buy it in the first place? It was 15 minutes of utter CSR horror. I wish I had been able to talk to the person I had gotten on Friday, at least she was female and understood what I said. (not that I have anything against guys mind you) ANYWAY I have been looking on Sears website since I can't get a check from them to buy my camera at another store I have to get a gift card, and all the cameras I want are not available to be shipped to the store..they have to be paid for online and shipped to me, not too bad if I did not have to pay extra for the PPP and I am looking at getting a Nikon (I hope) which is a bit more and all I get back is camera cost as well as tax. I do not want to pay S&H and I HATE to use my CC online, just not a comfortable thing for me with all the hackers out there. I am hoping when I FINALLY get my GC from them that they will have this camera in stock at the store or this camera, I just do not want to do GE again if I can get away with it and I am really not a Kodak fan.