sorry to hear about your problem, but happy to hear that Merlin's customer service is as good in reality as I have heard. Now I only wish their "partner" company, Real Design, would get off their humps and get the campy Hyper Fly wheels I ordered to replace my Protons. Apparently I ordered right at the beginning of a design/name change to "Hypersphere" and what ever production changes they have made has created a delay in delivery...for 3 months now . If it wasn't for the fact I loved the test ride wheels so much I would have swapped my order to a set of AC 420's.