Nikon D7000 mirror stuck, the dreaded "ERR" code!

The death of a happy Canon-to-Nikon convert... I just bought my brand spanking new Nikon D7000 back in November of 2010, about 4 months ago. Up until now, I have been a happy canon-to-nikon convert. That was, until yesterday... I was taking some photos of my kids outside riding their scooters, and then all of a sudden the viewfinder went black and I couldn't see anything through the lens. I looked at the LCD on the top of the camera and it was blinking a code of "ERR." I didn't really know what this meant, so I played around with the camera for a few minutes to see if I could get it to work. I tried turning on and off the power -- that didn't work. I tried removing the battery, waiting for a few seconds, and then reinserting it -- that didn't work. Then, somewhat by accident, I just happened to press the shutter release button again and I heard something click inside the camera. I looked through the viewfinder and voila! I could see through the lens again! Woo hooo, I thought this one time glitch was behind me and I was good to go. Unfortunately, I realized as I tried to take another photo a few seconds later, I was horribly wrong. Every single image I tried to take would cause this lockup. A the time, I didn't know what it was; but as you can see from this video, I figured out that it was the mirror getting stuck in the "flipped up" position. Now for the bad(der) news.... I went inside and looked at my manual and it very clearly stated in the troubleshooting section that if you see this "ERR" error code, you will need to send in your camera to Nikon for service. Initially, I thought to myself "No big deal, I'll call up Mpex and they will probably just give me a new one since it isn't even 6 months old." That was a bad assumption.... I called up Mpex and they told me that I will have to deal directly with Nikon since the camera is still under warranty. So I called Nikon service and the guy told me that I will need to send it in for repair, and that I probably won't have it back for FOUR WEEKS!! Needless to say, I am highly upset at this type of "support" from Nikon. Not only do I have to spend my own money to ship it, but I will be w/o any DSLR for a whole month. As of right now, this formerly happy Canon-to-Nikon convert has somewhat lost his faith in the company he thought was so great. I will be shipping the camera out tomorrow, and hope to get it back soon. 4/15/11 status update ========================== I have now been waiting over 4 weeks for my D7000 to be repaired. It has been on "parts hold" status from Nikon repair since 3/16/11. I called last week Friday (4/8) and was assured that the part would arrive during this week (4/11-15) and it would get shipped out quickly. But as of today, it is STILL on parts hold. I tried calling last night (4/14) and was told by that service person that they had no idea when the part was coming in or when the repair would be completed. This is by far the worst customer support repair experience I have EVER had. 4/17/11 status update ========================== I just attempted to call corporate, to push it farther up the chain, and I was forwarded to the manager of the repair group. Unfortunately, she is in a meeting, so I had to leave her a voice mail. I am waiting now to see what her response will be and if she will even bother to call me back. I have dealt with repairs from other companies, and they simply send you out a brand new product & have you send back the broken one in box from the new one. Both of those companies that I dealt with covered the shipping costs. Nikon made me pay for the shipping myself, which is flat out ridiculous for a brand new $1200 camera body that failed after 4 months. I am starting to get the feeling that they could care less about the quality of their customer service 5/15/11 Status update ========================== I finally got my camera back a week or so ago. It seems to be working fine now, but I am a bit paranoid. The Nikon customer service for the repair was HORRENDOUS, so just hope you never have to send yours in. After waiting for 5+ weeks, & making multiple phone calls to Nikon, even leaving message for manager of service, they finally got it fixed and sent out. I never did hear from them what exact problem was, just something w/the mirror.