thompson freeview recorder not working?

I have my 250 gig thompson hard drive recorder since october 2008 first one was broken when we opened the box all the buttons on the front were pushed in, got a new one ok.The next one wiped all the recorded programs off, called help line they went thought the reformmating of the hard drive worked ok for couple of months did same thing called again said reformat again and if it happens again take it back to argos. now it will not switch on and we have a light flashing on and off.tryed un plugging but still the same, how do i stand after having the recorder for 6 month or so ?