If you are in the US and live in a State that has strong consumer protection (i.e. "lemon") laws (e.g., California) you may be able to get satifaction by registering a formal complaint. You can usually find out how to get in touch with your state's consumer protection agency on the Internet. You may be able to submit your complaint online with minimal hassle. A brief letter from your state agency indicating something like "if an investigation finds that you are not in compliance with state regulations, you may be precluded from selling in this state" will likely have the desired effect.

You should also contact the dealer who sold you the device. If it's a legitimate company, at the very least it should refund the sales tax. It can just deduct the amount from its sales tax bill as it would for any refund, so it won't cost them anything. If it is a a really good company, it should refund the repair fee to you, and then go after Philips or Philips' distributor for reimbursement.

I've seen hundreds of complaints like yours posted on Remote Central. Seems like almost everyone tries to get satisfaction from Philips (or other mfgr), when they ought to be dealing with the outfit that sold the device.