*big update*
Ok, as I mentioned last night I sent an email to Chuck (and a few others) from Sweetwater. He responded in less then 5 minutes and about 10 minutes later I got a call from 'Justin', their director of customer service. Super nice guy, not in a cheesey corporate customer service voice 'nice'... He genuinely was a down to earth cool guy.
To sum it up:
They are sending me boxes to ship the kit back and they already sent me a prepaid shipping label for the return. They took the information I gave, the pictures I provided, and our ongoing conversation here and are putting together a report for Pearl. While they understand QC issues can slip through the cracks they are not pleased at the multitude of issues with one kit as well as Pearl's dismissive handling. They also acknowledged areas for improvement in their internal handling (making me call back, repeated lengthy holds, etc). We discussed which kit I would like to get in it's place, that kit is unfortunately on back order until April. So, I'm sending the pearl roadshow back, getting a refund for it, was put on the wait-list for the other kit, and will buy that once it comes in.
In the meantime... I'm going to get over my 'mood' about the cocktail jam and beat it like it owes me money lol.