Shelly,
Sadly, you're likely to find that just getting someone out to look at it will require a substantial investment. When our 4 year old washer bit the dust last year we were quoted $800 to fix it and the guy knew exactly what it was over the phone. Granted, it was much more of a catastrophic failure than yours but modern stuff isn't designed to be fixed, sadly. Unfortunately the replacement has not been great and has a nasty habit of leaving lint on my wife's black pants and shirts. I haven't found a solution to that one yet but in the interest of marital harmony I don't see this current unit lasting all that long either...