I know, just frustrated (and broke!) and venting.
The first guy I talked to at Hobbico wasn't all that friendly, and tried to blame the problem on the changes from the FXi to the AX, and was trying to convince me to dremel out the portion of the plane contacting the muffler, even though it would essentially end up going through the plane behind the firewall, and didn't want to hear about any of the other problems, including all kinds of missing hardware. Then the way he said to disassemble the plane and repack it sounded like such a chore.

I called back to talk to someone different.

They were surprised at how many issues I've had, and said that it was extremely uncommon. They said to take out of the plane whatever I wanted to keep, and just get it in a box and send it in, not worrying about how its packed or disassembled. In a kind manner told me they would take care of the problem and send me a replacement, and told me of what some of the common problems are (none of which I experienced.) It's amazing what the difference between 2 customer service reps can make.

I was psyched to get the prop spinning this weekend, but it will happen eventually.