My iphone 3gs, has ceased all sounds help

Question

About 2 weeks ago my iphone decided to stop playing all sounds, i discovered this when i set my alarm for the morning and noticed when i locked the screen it didnt click. Since then any sounds used via the external speakers fail to play. I have no hiss to even make me think there is sound playing. All Apps, Alarms, tones, phone calls, text msgs, Speaker phone fail to play any sound at all. But if i plug in my headset then the sounds can be clearly heard.
Before you advise me to check the mute button, i have i check the mute button all the time its in the sound position and guess what "no sound".
Its almost like my phone has taken on a hearing impairment.
I have tried all the online suggestions, from inserting headphone jacks in and out 20 times to sucking on the jack. Master resets, and seeing the apple people who low behold took couple of minutes to play with the phone without opening it up and saying its a hardware issue.
Come on guys this is isnt stupidville and the consumer market wasnt born yesterday.
So who's got some answers out their for me?
Is it fixable? What causes the phone to do this?
If i had an explaination as to why it occured so it can be shared amongst others then that would let me leave with my hearing impaired iphone. But being moranic enough to switching the mute button on, come on "hello, McFly"
So Apple support, there must be an answer somewhere a large corporation that thrives on being its best, running the market with handheld devices.
thanks

Answer 1

I'm not sure to whom you think you're addressing.....
We're users on this forum, just like you.  We're not Apple support.
As far as your problem is concerned, have you done the steps recommended in the user guide:  restart?  reset?  restore?
If you've done that and you still have the problem, bring the phone into Apple for evaluation.  If there's a problem with the phone, it will be replaced.