arrrgh please help - flash

I was bought a digital camera (concord 4060 AF) for christmas last year and ever since about 6 months ago the flash hasn't seemed to work. I have no idea what happened, i haven't altered any settings and ive tried restoring factory settings but it just does still not work. When i turn the flash off, for some reason the photos are brighter otherwise, with the flash on or on automatic, the photos are really dark and you can hardly see anything. Does anybody have any idea at all whats happened or how i can resolve the problem? or does anyone know a website or anything that would help me? I tried emailing concord support but they only replied with more ways of contacting them none of which are appropriate for me to use. thanks for any help :confused:

Jess-
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I think your camera is done for - at least if you want to use flash. The reason the photos are brighter when you turn the flash off is that the exposure is being calculated without the addition of light from the flash. On the other hand, when the camera calculates for exposure with flash, it's going to be dark because the flash will supply the light. But when the flash doesn't fire, there definitely won't be enough light.

If you've tried resetting the camera and all the different settings, I think the flash is dead. You could send the camera back to Concord to have them repair it, but I doubt it's worth the money. Either continue to use it and just be aware that you have no flash. Or buy a new camera.

Sorry about the broken camera.