I get and respect your point in all that, but at the end of the day it works both ways there and let's not pretend that rep went on any limbs with what they had to say. In fact they really didn't offer much of anything other then what probably amounts to technical deniability, and apparently a new blind faith way of going about your warranty claims (I mean seriously, if a place won't even return your emails to begin with are you really just going to risk taking even more of a potential loss with shipping on top of that? What an absolutely terrible system). A show of "balls" imo would have been directly addressing Jbone's question about the refurbished boxes too...which they didn't do (not that they had to, but still)
Sitting here dismissing everything negative off as "conspiracy theory" in the face of a lot of actual/conflicting evidence suggesting otherwise isn't exactly helping credibility here either btw/imo. Even if Jbone is kinda being a dick at times while going about it, ridiculing him for not taking a "I love their products and they said so which is good enough for me" stance here is equally as silly. Not everybody clicking into this thread is going to be looking to join a DR. G club, and if Hohmtech is having serious issues with their customer support lately (which certainly seems to be the case) that not only questions their own credibility but it is also relevant info that needs to be out there for that other group of people to see. Even if it's going to hurt some rep feelings, or the chance at gaining something for yourself along the way.
Not that I'd worry about that latter btw. I mean they did make it a point to state, multiple times, that they essentially don't have any real interest in taking on an active role here