Another Venue Pro 8 not charging

I used the chat option to obtain assistance from Dell regarding my Dell Venue 8 Pro which is less than 2 years old.  Via chat I was told I had to call for support.  Today I called and was told that I would have to pay a $19 diagnostic fee then the minor part replacement would be $159 and Major part replacement would be $269.  So I've read the other posts about the Venue Pro 8 not charging and I've seen the micro A vs Micro b vs Micro AB analysis. The consensus online is that there is obviously an issue with the charging ports on these tablets.

Other than A) paying Dell too much to have it fixed or B) throwing it out the window and buying, say the HP Stream 7 for $100, do I have any other options?  It seems absolutely ridiculous to spend more money to fix the Venue 8 Pro than a brand new tablet would cost but I don't like to simply subscribe to the "buy it-trash it-replace it" culture.

I had been very happy with the product until now and instead of staying with Dell I will spend the money not on repairing the Dell product but on a competitors product. This was all around disappointing & reflects poorly on dell, both in the product and the support provided. It doesn't seem, from reading the other posts, that Dell give two hoots about fixing the issue or replacing the devices that are already out in consumers hands and not working.

TIA