Sorry you had a bad experience, that's nothing like mine - quite the opposite!
I think it's just random, you are very direct, like me, I like that very much, but I also think it gets us in trouble when actually we mean no harm ;)
-- Kel_
Maybe. But at the same time, when I contacted Sweetwater to change the order, my sales engineer actually knew who I was talking about when I mentioned the incident...named him right off the bat without me mentioning it, and when I switched the order to the Argon8, his comment was "well...I can understand why you wouldn't want to put up with them". Another colleague who I've worked with for about 20+ years was totally perplexed by the mess, since he always dealt with Glen Darcey himself and not whoever this rep was/is.
It was a really weird encounter, and like I mentioned, it triggered a great deal of distrust in me, to the point of not wanting their synth anywhere near my studio. Modal's people, on the other hand, were the diametrical opposite...I had questions, they cordially answered them, and even gave me a heads-up on the MPE and a few other implementations in the V.2 firmware. But ultimately, I'm pleased with the Argon8...ESPECIALLY after the V.2 update. Modulatable waveshaping on wavetables? Wild! So it's not necessarily a loss here...having the onboard poly aftertouch and the ribbon would've been nice, true, but like I've mentioned, I can get my poly aftertouch and ribbon controller nut popped on a regular basis with my trusty CS-80. And if something goes wrong with the Argon8, I don't have to cringe at the thought of contacting customer service and getting some pissy jackass...because Modal don't play that. Consequently, Glen might want to do a little personnel research on his reps, because if Sweetwater's had issues...well, that is the LAST damn company a synth manufacturer would ever want to piss off!