Yup - one of the reasons I went for the K-30 was because it's advertised as being able to be used *IN* the rain. Having said that though, I will still be very weary of using and operating my ~$700 piece of equipment in the rain.
After reading this thread though, I have an urge to want to test it while I still may be able to get it replaced via Amazon. I've had to do that for something before - and they sent the new item while I still had the old, and only required me to return the old item within ~30 days of receiving the replacement. ... It was a memory-foam mattress pad for ~$120 though, so I'm not sure if they'd do that for ~$700 item.
Another thing I would suggest is getting the extended warranty for $25 from Adorama... If it's been within 30 days of the original purchase date - and it isn't required that you had to buy the camera from them.
When buying my K-30, a requester popped up asking if I wanted to purchase a ~$200-300 warranty.. While it would have covered accidental damage, I couldn't see paying 1/3-1/4 the price of the camera for a warranty. I was considering getting the warranty directly from Pentax for $90 (IIRC), but then I Googled it and found the $25 warranty!
And it's the
exact same one as the one from Pentax: an additional 2 years + the original 1-year, for a total of 3 years.
For $25 - it was a **NO BRAINER** to get that!!