help! 2002 civic struts shot @ only 39,000 mi

[a_morphous]

i just brought my 2002 civic in for a recall fix (headlamp switch) and it turns out that i'm leaking hydrualic fluid and i need to replace my struts.. i'm a good driver, i don't put a lot of tear on my car.. i've only got 39,000 miles on it. i'm very upset about this. they say they'll pay for parts, not labor. this seems to be way too early in the life of this vehicle for a problem like this.. is this happening to other people??
i want them to cover labor.. but they won't budge. what do i do?
they've mentioned that this has happened to a couple other people.. which indicates to me that its a design problem.

[BullShifter]

There is a service bullentin on the struts for those cars. If the car was properly maintained at the dealership then they would have noticed the problem during the factory warranty and you wouldn't be paying a thing. Warranty is only good for 3yr/36K so your SOL. Now if it was recall then mileage or vehicle age doesn't make any difference.

Im surprised they are covering the parts, when I worked for Honda we would do a 50/50 split on parts & labor when things like that came up. Call American Honda and bitch, that's about all you can do. The dealer is not Honda, they are a dealer that sells & services Honda's. All TSB's & recalls - http://alldata.com/TSB/24/022436AH.html