OH my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!! The exact same thing happened to us! we sent it in to be repaired and it cost us about $130. Okay the program thing.
I'm learning programming right now because our team is also lacking a programmer.
tell me what type of drive you want (ie, tank, single joystick) and what pwms your drive motors/lift/wrist or arm is. and I could try and write something for you.
and in answer to the link for you to try learning, I started
here.