Ace is still in business....
http://www.acehobby.com/
Several years back (@94 or 95 I think) Ace was bought by Thunder Tiger, the Taiwanese engine, ARF and heli manufacturer. This was done to establish themselves better in the US, and probably for tax and tariff reasons as well. TT makes some very nice products, especially their Raptor heli, and their motors are pretty decent too. (The pylon guys in the Northeast run the PRO-40 on their birds exclusively). They recently moved to California. As with any move, there will be many bumps in the road, and it's not easy to find quality customer service people. TT has also been updating and improving a lot of the of the ACE products, and re-introducing many of their discontinued kits like the Simple series birds.
I have one of their Simple Ultimates, and that little thing flies great. I agree that the instructions are a bit cryptic, but I've been in RC since 84 at the age of 14, so it's not like I have never built a plane before. I built their Whizard in 85, and learned to fly on that and a CG Eaglet 50.
My recommendations for your problem: get on the phone and don't give up 'til you get to a human. Some companies don't take email as a serious form of problem resolution. They may feel that if something was truly wrong, that you would call and pester them. Maybe see if your LHS is an ACE dealer, maybe they can get through to them for you.