Repairing broken SlimBay CD-RW/DVD on almost new T42

[metaman]

There is a crack in the plastic in my CD-RW/DVD where it's at its narrowest, just outside the middle-front of where the CD fits. I have been careful with it as it did seem extremely fragile compared to any previous ThinkPads I owned (390X, and T23 which is barely thicker than the T42) and now is cracked at its weak point. I called customer service and was told there is no coverage for physical breakage. Is that so? My view is that it is a design flaw - perhaps the plastic needed to be reinforced with carbon fibre just like the bottom of the computer if it needs to be so thin - and so I expect it to be replaced at no cost under warranty. Any suggestions for how to achieve this reasonable goal are welcome!

Thanks,
David