Dell Venue Pro 8 USB charging port damaged due to plugging cable in backwards

After having my Pro 8 for about 8 months I plugged the Dell supplied micro USB cable backwards into the charging port damaging the terminals. Would have been nice to know this was possible. Now I understand I should have been a little careful when plugging the cable in but what really kills me is after 57 minutes trying to find out where to get it fixed after being transferred from one end of India to the other, hung up on, I was finally  told it would coast $269.00 to repair it, I could buy a new one for that. Worst customer service ever. Will be disposing of my Dell brick and give in to the Apple draw where I know I can get excellent customer service right at my local Apple store. To bad, this was the best little tab I've owned and would have paid a reasonable price to fix a problem Dell is well aware of and doing nothing to help it's customers with.